24. Pike
There’s a noticeable sense of peace that settles over the house over the next couple of days. Caden’s even getting up to join us for breakfast, and when Aspen comments on his early rising, he mentions that he’s got appointments in the morning.
“Appointments that you’re making?” I ask dubiously.
He rolls his eyes at me and jams a bagel between his lips, the sesame seeds falling into his beard and making Lily giggle.
“I’m a doctor, remember?” he says. “I’m used to working thirty-six straight hours without taking a break.”
“Yes, yes, you’re a doctor,” I quip. “Although sometimes I think you’re the one who’s forgotten.”
Flint joins us in the kitchen, fully dressed in a suit, his messenger bag in hand. All eyes turn to him suspiciously.
“That’s your flying outfit,” Aspen says.
He shrugs. “Now that things have settled down a bit, I’m going to check in. You’ll be okay for the day, won’t you?”
“We’ll manage, won’t we, Lilbug?” Caden replies, making a weird face at her.
“You’ll be back tonight?” Aspen asks worriedly.
Flint looks at her. “That’s the plan, unless Allister has fully bankrupted the company since I’ve last been there—which, honestly, I wouldn’t put past him.”
“Why don’t you two just sell the damn business and be done with it?” Caden asks, rising from the breakfast table and brushing off his shirt.
“Why don’t you go back to a discipline of medicine that you actually like?” Flint retorts, and Caden snorts.
“Touché.”
Aspen sighs, but before she can comment on either of their stagnant practices, Flint ambles over to kiss her cheek. “Don’t worry about it. Work is fine. For all my complaining, I’ve learned to like it more since Dad died, honestly.”
“Wow,” I mutter. “That’s a thing to say.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Flint groans. “I’m just saying it’s easier to work around there without him breathing down my neck.”
“Still, it’s not your dream,” Aspen insists.
“And if I recall, being a nanny isn’t yours, either,” Flint challenges. “Why don’t you go back to school and finish your teaching degree?”
“Well, this turned into career day rather abruptly,” I comment, rising from the table to take my bowl of cereal to the sink. Zoe takes it from my hands and snickers as the others chortle, too.
“Can we have a movie night tonight?” Lily asks.
“That is the best idea I’ve heard all year!” Caden says dramatically. “I think we should watch old World War II movies.”
“No, Papa Caden!” Lily titters.
“NO?!” Caden feigns offense. “Then what?”
“The marshmallow movie.”
I swallow a groan but fake enthusiasm with the rest of the adults. At least she’s off the fairy and unicorn kick she was on.
“It’s a date,” Caden kisses the girl’s cheek and then Aspen’s. He pauses as he walks past me. “You want one, too?” I scowl at him, and he chuckles, heading out the door. “Have a good day, everyone!”
“I’ve gotta go, too. Zoe, can Ryan drive me to the airport today? I have to deal with some emails on the way in.”
“He’s around as always, Flint,” the housekeeper agrees, texting her husband to join them.
“What do you have planned for today?” I ask Aspen.
“We’re going to the park,” Aspen announces. “And maybe to the library.”
“Do you want to come, Papa Pike?”
I raise an eyebrow with interest, but I shake my head. “I wish I could, but I’ve fallen behind in some of my work, honeybee. Raincheck, okay?”
I catch Aspen staring at me oddly as Ryan arrives to take Flint to the airport.
“Bye, family,” he calls jovially, and we wave him off.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask Aspen.
“Oh! I just—I didn’t realize that you had deadlines,” she admits, looking sheepish.
I snicker aloud. “It’s okay. Most people don’t. They think that artists and writers just pop out pieces when the mood strikes, but that’s no way to make a living—particularly if you have an agent on your ass.”
“Papa Pike!”
“Butt! I meant butt,” I correct myself.
Lily points and giggles. “You said butt.”
“There’s something new to learn every day with you guys,” Aspen says, taking Lily’s plate.
“That’s the idea,” I tell her tenderly. “I want every day to be a learning experience with us.”
She smiles at me and helps Lily to the ground. “All right, honey. Let’s get a move on, so we have time to do everything today.”
“Okay,” Lily agrees. “Bye, Papa Pike. I love you.”
My heart fills every time she says it, and today is no different. But when Aspen leans forward to kiss my forehead, I suddenly feel dizzy.
“Bye, Papa Pike,” she teases lightly.
They’re gone, leaving only me and Zoe alone in the kitchen.
“I like her,” Zoe announces, unsolicited.
“That’s good,” I say absently.
“She’s a good fit here.”
My head swivels toward her, and I peer at her speculatively, but I say nothing, and she pretends I’m not watching her.
What does that mean? Better than before?
I tell myself I’m reading too much into her words, just like I overthink everything else. There’s finally a calm in this house, and I won’t disrupt it. Zoe is right; Aspen is the glue that holds us all together.
“I’m going to work,” I inform Zoe. “Please don’t disturb me unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
“Noted, Pike.”
I head through the hallway, but as I turn to take the east stairs up, a movement catches my eye through the frosted glass of the front doors. Before I can pivot to look, the doorbell rings. My brow furrows.
“Zoe? Are we expecting a package?”
“Oh, I’ve got it, Pike. It’s a delivery.” Her voice gets nearer, but I’m already at the door.
“It’s fine, Zoe, I’m already here.”
I open the door and take a step back, my neck stiffening to see Matthew, Raya’s partner, standing in front of me.
“Zoe, call the sheriff!” I call out.
“No need,” he says, thrusting an envelope at me. “Just give that to Mr. Hoity-Toity when you see him.”
He spins around and takes off down the cul-de-sac, leaving me standing with my heart pounding.
“Pike?!”
“Cancel the sheriff,” I rasp.
“Was that Raya’s boyfriend?” Zoe asks, worry flooding her voice. I close the door and lock it, but my eyes are on the envelope in front of me.
It’s addressed to Mr. Flint Sterling at our address, but the return is from a law firm I’ve never heard of in Peachtree City.
“What is that, Pike?” Zoe whispers. I shake my head, unable to answer as that familiar knot of dread forms in my gut. “Should I put that in Flint’s office?”
“No.” I open it, not caring what Flint will say. This clearly has nothing to do with his business, the service being delivered by Matthew. It could only pertain to Lily.
I read, my eyes growing wider with each unbelievable word.
They can’t do this! They can’t stop the adoption from going through!
And yet in black and white, I’m reading the injunction, pending a hearing to protest the adoption of Lily Ann Marie Parker to Flint Sterling.
“No. NO. NO!” I shout, crumpling the page in my hand.
“Pike!” I push past Zoe and storm up the stairs, rage consuming me.
How much longer is this going to drag on? How many more greedy extended family members are going to lay claim to Alexandra and Ryker’s money when it all belongs to their only daughter?
I slam into the attic bedroom, my feet pounding up the steps, and I look at the canvas I’ve been agonizing over for the past four weeks.
We’re going to lose her!
My hands reach up and slam down the easel, my painting crashing to the ground.
No matter how hard we fight, she’s going to disappear.
Another canvas smashes to the ground, my emotions welling too high and too strong to stop the tidal wave of destruction forming inside me. What was all this for if there was no one to pass it on to? We do it all for Lily.
“Pike!”
I don’t hear Aspen at first, my frenzy overtaking me, the paints spilling into a bleeding pool of black together. I smash another brush, but as I swing my arm upward, Aspen grabs me. “Stop it!”
I whirl around, the distress in her eyes snapping me out of my fugue.
“What are you doing?! What’s wrong, baby?”
“They’re going to take her,” I say dully.
“What are you talking about?” she demands, looking around at the destruction in awe. “Take who? Are you dreaming?”
I dig through the mess to find the summons. Now stained with splattered paint, I hand it to her, devastation flooding my soul.
“No!” Aspen gasps. “They can’t do that!”
More and more, I’m coming back into myself, and I stare at her. “How are you even back here?”
“We were just up the road, and Lily realized she forgot her plushie,” Aspen replies. “It’s a damn good thing, too. Look at this place.”
“What does it matter now, anyway?” I mutter. “It’s all for nothing.”
“Don’t do that,” she tells me, guiding me toward my bed and sitting me down to cup my face. “We will fight this together. Don’t spin out, you hear me? We need you. I need you.” She crouches at my knees and peers up at me imploringly. “I need you.”
Slowly, my nerves calm, and I swallow the stone in my windpipe. “I need you, too,” I admit as she rises up to kiss me softly.
Anxiously, I return her kiss, her hold on my face tightening as she draws me toward her.
“I’ve got you,” she murmurs. “Always.”
Her mouth moves along my chin to find my neck, hands working to pull off my t-shirt, now covered in sprays of red, black, and orange.
She lays me back on the bed, my neck craned at the wall as she pulls off my pants, head cocked to meet my eyes.
“Aspen—”
“Shh, don’t speak,” she tells me. “Lily is with Zoe. Just let me make you feel better.”
My jeans come off next, boxers entangled, and she has me in her mouth, sucking me down along the depth of her throat. I groan loudly as her fingers caress my balls, my hands falling into her mound of dark hair.
“You’re amazing, you know that?” I growl, her movements becoming quicker, wetter. The suction of her mouth is making me crazy, and I moan again, my hips rising to allow her free hand to cup my ass.
In and out she takes me all the way, her hot, damp mouth driving me right to the edge and back as I struggle to control myself. But it’s impossible. Her fingers tease my sac, and her tongue works over my shaft. I’m there, exactly where she wants me.
“I’m going to come down your throat,” I warn her.
She doesn’t stop, and now, neither can I.
Grunting, I cling to her, my cock stiffening as I release. Aspen takes me all, lapping every drop of me off my hardness before lifting her beautiful face off me.
“Do you feel better?” she whispers, crawling onto the bed with me.
“How can I not?” I mutter, draping my arm around her.
“Good.” She kisses my cheek sweetly. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure this out. My guess is that Raya doesn’t really have a leg to stand on.”
“But she’s related to Lily!” I insist, all fired up again.
“Related or not, she can’t provide the life for her you guys can,” Aspen says sensibly. “She didn’t have a relationship with Lily’s parents. Ryker and Alex named you as guardians. Her only claim to Lily is that she’s a distant relative.”
I turn my head to study Aspen and wonder how she became so wise and calm.
“I love you.”
The words shock me, like they’ve flown out of my mouth from nowhere. But they don’t put Aspen off, and she smiles at me.
“I love you too, Pike.” She kisses my cheek again and stands. “I need to go relieve Zoe. Lily is going to come looking for us otherwise.”
I bob my head in agreement.
“You should come with us,” she says, and there’s no room for argument. “It will clear your head. Pushing Lily on the swings will do some good, I think.”
The idea of spending the day with the girls is suddenly much more appealing than being around the mess I made.
“Give me ten minutes.”
“I’ll give you fifteen,” she replies.