Chapter 7
SEVEN
Ridge
“ W hat do you want?”
That was the way Rhett answered my call. His voice snappy, loud, and extremely angry as it came through the speakers of my car.
I quickly checked the time as I slowed down for the red light. It was seven thirty in the morning, but most of the executive team didn’t roll into the office until past eight or closer to nine. Rhett was an early riser, so I knew he was awake. Most nights, he barely slept at all, and from the sound of his tone, I guessed it had been one of those evenings.
“I’ve been texting you since you left the strip club on Friday night,” I said. “Since you didn’t write me back, I wanted to make sure you were still alive.”
“It’s only Monday.”
“Which is too long to go without hearing from you. Are you doing all right?”
I was met with silence. A sound that didn’t surprise me.
Rhett wasn’t going to tell me how he was feeling. He wasn’t going to talk about the things—or in this case, the thing—bothering him. He was just going to go quiet on me, like he’d done since the joint bachelor and bachelorette party. At least he’d answered my call. At this time last year, he’d disappeared for a week and gone completely radio silent despite Dad being sick as hell.
“How about I ask this instead: do you need anything?” I inquired.
“I need a lot of fucking things.”
I let out a deep exhale. “Rhett?—”
“Unless you’re a magician, then don’t fucking ask.”
Sometimes, when it came to my older brother, it wasn’t like walking on glass. It was like walking on the tips of knives.
“How about we meet up for a drink later?—”
“Are you on your way to the office?”
I turned at the Stop sign and began to slow as I made my way down Jana’s street. “I’m headed to Jana’s.”
“To pick up Daisy? What, are you bringing her into the office?”
“We’re bringing her to school together.”
He huffed. “Aren’t you just the perfect parents?” He paused the sarcasm. “It’s too bad she has school. I wouldn’t mind ditching work and spending the day with my girl.”
Daisy was the light in my brother’s life. For as much of an asshole he was, he turned into a softy around her. And when Daisy looked at him, she didn’t see the darkness or his constant state of rage. All she saw was a man she admired and loved.
“I get her back this weekend. Why don’t you swing by on Saturday morning and take her out for the day?”
“How about I bring her back on Sunday morning? You cool with that?”
The only reason he’d ask for a sleepover was if he really needed her.
Some people got emotional support dogs. Rhett escaped by hanging out with my kid, taking her to Disney or the movies or for Putt-Putt—a place where he could be a kid, bringing him back to a time when his life had been much easier.
“I’m cool with that.”
“I’ll see you when you get to the office,” he said and hung up.
Once I got through Jana’s gate, I parked in the driveway and used my code to get in through the garage. We had an unwritten rule that when we came to each other’s house for anything related to Daisy and the other person was waiting and expecting our arrival, we let ourselves in. Any exceptions to that unwritten rule, we rang the doorbell.
I made my way inside, through the laundry room and living room, hearing the girls in the kitchen. When there was a second of lull in the chatter, I said, “Where’s my baby?”
I was just passing the couch, so neither of them could see me yet.
But I heard, “Daddy,” along with the pattering of bare feet on the hardwood floor.
Daisy’s greeting hadn’t changed since she had been big enough and capable of running into my arms. One day, I knew I wouldn’t get that kind of entrance, and my heart wasn’t ready for it.
This morning, what came darting at me was a blur of pink and curls—an outfit and hairstyle I was sure had been changed multiple times before settling on this one since both were so important to my daughter.
“There she is. Don’t you look beautiful?” I lifted her into the air, holding her against my chest, hugging her little body against mine. “I missed you, baby.”
“Missed you, Daddy.” She giggled. “Daddy, the scruffies. Owie.”
My lips left her cheek, giving her skin a break from my beard. “Did you have a good weekend with Mommy?” I carried her into the kitchen, where Jana was sipping from a large cup of coffee.
“Yes!” Daisy sang. “We played with puppies!”
I eyed Jana, who knew taking our daughter to play with dogs would result in one thing. “You did, did you?”
“Golden ones, Daddy. With big paws. Paws the size of my hand. And I got licks—on the face! They were wet and slimy, and I loooved them!”
Jana was laughing.
We’d talked about getting a dog, but not until Daisy was old enough to be fully responsible for the animal. With Jana’s job constantly taking her out of town, I would end up caring for the pup a majority of the time. Even though I wanted a dog and Daisy did, too, I didn’t need to care for anything aside from my little one.
“Playing with fire, I see,” I said to Jana.
Jana took another sip and crossed her arms, showing off her full sleeve of daisy tattoos. “Daisy, why don’t you tell your father why we were playing with the puppies?”
Daisy’s hand went to my beard, combing through my whiskers. “I volunteered, Daddy, ’cause the doggies needed me. I scooped poop! And one of the doggies peed on my leg. She didn’t mean to, and she was very sorry, but she chewed on my fingers, so I don’t think she was really sorry.” She let out a long, loud giggle.
“One of my clients just opened a rescue center and needed a few extra hands,” Jana explained. “I thought it would be a good opportunity for Daisy to learn about giving back.”
I gave Jana a nod, showing my approval. “That was really nice of you to help with the dogs, baby.” I kissed the side of her hair. “How many puppies were there?”
“Six! They were so cute and little, and their tails looked like those hot dogs you sometimes make me with barbeque sauce.”
I smiled. “So, Mom put you to work. I like it.”
Daisy leaned into my ear and whispered, “Mommy told me no doggies when it was time to go home. ’Cause I wanted to bring them all home, Daddy. And I cried forever and ever.”
I rubbed my hand across her back. “Sounds like Mommy laid down the law.” I winked at Jana, appreciating that she’d done the heavy lifting on this one.
“Meanie.” Daisy pouted.
“Maybe in a couple of years, mean Mommy will change her mind.”
Jana scrunched her face, a look that defined her new nickname. “Mommy would have happily adopted the Saint Bernard that was available. Maybe I should rethink that plan and?—”
“You’re funny.”
“Aren’t I?” Jana chuckled and set down her mug. “Daisy, we need to get ready to leave. Are your teeth brushed?”
“ Ughhh ,” my daughter moaned. “The bubblegum is gonna taste yucky with the syrup.”
“I don’t care. You have to go brush them,” Jana said. “And is your backpack ready to go?”
“Yep!”
“And have you brought your dish to the sink?”
She wiggled for me to put her down, and once her feet hit the floor, she grabbed her breakfast plate from the table and brought it over to the sink, running for the stairs.
“Don’t run,” Jana told her. She shook her head and began washing Daisy’s dish. “How was the bachelor and bachelorette party?”
“Eventful as hell.”
I leaned my arms onto the island across from her, thinking of the star attraction.
Addy.
A woman who had been haunting my every thought since she’d left my house a few evenings ago.
Shit, I needed more of her—at the very least, a repeat of everything that had gone down between us. But I hadn’t heard from her, and it was eating away at me.
Why the hell hadn’t she reached out?
Was it work? Had she really been that busy the last few days? Or was it something else?
Because when she’d left my house, I had been positive she’d text me the next morning.
That afternoon.
Or, fuck, that evening.
But silence was all I got.
And I wasn’t happy.
I wasn’t going to mention any of this to Jana since there was really nothing to talk about, even though I could tell her without an issue.
Jana and I had been broken up for three years, but we’d remained good friends and discussed the people we dated. We agreed that if a relationship became serious, on either side, they could be introduced to Daisy. Until anyone reached that point, our daughter wasn’t to meet them. Within that span, Jana had only introduced one man to our daughter—a relationship that had recently ended. And with Jana being the last woman I’d been serious with, Daisy hadn’t met anyone I dated.
“Rhett was in a mood,” I continued.
“When is he not?” She gave me a look of concern before something seemed to click through her eyes. “Oh shit—the date. It was last week, wasn’t it?”
I nodded. “You always remember.”
“Rowan and Rhett will be my family until the day I die. Nothing will ever change that.”
“You know I appreciate that.” Because the better Jana and I were, the better our daughter was. “Rhett’s going to take Daisy on Saturday, and she’s going to spend the night with him.”
She sighed. “I’m relieved to hear that. He needs her, Ridge.”
“I know.”
“I’m reaaady !” Daisy shouted from the top of the steps, followed by thump after thump as she jumped down each of the stairs, breathless by the time she reached the bottom. “Let’s go to school.”
“Do I need to smell your breath, or do you promise you brushed your teeth?”
Daisy gave a big smile, showing her missing front tooth that she’d lost last week. The tooth fairy had made a very expensive stop at my house. “Promise, Mommy.”
“And you haven’t forgotten anything in your room?” I asked. “Everything is in your backpack?”
“Yep! And I brought my colored pencils because if we get to color something like the golden puppies and I don’t have the right color, I want to have the right color for the doggies, and I have every color.”
Jana put Daisy’s lunch box into the backpack, and after zipping it closed, she lifted the top, measuring the weight of it. “Daisy, are you sure this won’t be too heavy for you to carry?”
“Nope. I’m so strong.” She made a muscle. “Just like Daddy. Haw!”
“That’s my girl,” I said.
Jana leaned down in Daisy’s face, fixing her ponytail since it had gotten messy from all the stair jumping. “Just so you know, Mommy is very strong too. I gave birth to you. Do you know how much strength that takes?”
“More strength than I have,” I said to Daisy. “Because I can tell you right now, I wouldn’t have survived what Mommy did.” Especially without an epidural, which had blown my mind, but she’d gone into labor so fast that she didn’t have time to get one.
I checked the time and said to Jana, “We have to go.”
Jana hung Daisy’s bag over her shoulder. “Do you mind bringing me back here so we can drive together?”
“Of course not.” I nodded toward the front of the house. “Come on.”
Daisy took off to the backseat of my Range Rover—what I normally drove when I was with my daughter, given that it was safer than the Bugatti—and Jana followed. I locked up the house before slipping into the driver’s seat, making sure Daisy was fully secure before I even started the engine.
“Daddy, I wanna hear Taylor. Play my favorite song, pleeease .”
I scrolled through the playlists on my dashboard until I found Daisy’s favorite song, and “You’re on Your Own, Kid” instantly came through my speakers.
“I can’t believe you’re playing this for her too,” Jana said, keeping her voice down. Not that Daisy was even listening. She was singing too loud to hear us. “I thought I was the only one who had caved.”
“It’s Rowan’s fault she even knows who Taylor is. She took her shopping with Rayner, and Daisy heard this song in the car and the part of the lyrics where Taylor sings about Daisy May, and there was no turning back. She thinks Taylor wrote the song for her.”
“Oh my God, of course she does.” Jana laughed. “Has Daisy asked you to take her to Taylor’s concert?”
I chuckled, weaving down the narrow, tree-lined streets. “No less than twice a day.”
“Ridge, I don’t know how I feel about it. The tickets are outrageously expensive, and I know that’s not a deal-breaker for you—because, knowing you, you’d probably get her backstage passes—but I just don’t want her to be spoiled rotten.”
“You mean more spoiled than she already is?”
“Exactly.” She paused. “She comes from a family who can give her the moon and stars, but I want her to know the value of that sky and what it takes to earn it and the meaning of hard work.”
“She’s six,” I said gently.
“There still has to be a balance.”
“I don’t disagree.”
“What if we make her work for the tickets? We can assign her a few jobs around our houses. Use a notebook to keep track of all the hours she puts in and have her chip away at the goal. The concert isn’t for a while. That’ll give her plenty of time to earn the money.”
I slowed at the light, the song changing so there was a bit of quietness in the SUV before Daisy started belting out the lyrics of the new song.
“I’m sure I can have the housekeeper assign a few of her tasks to Daisy.”
Jana rolled her eyes, laughing. “Such a bougie answer.”
“I’m bougie.” I chuckled. “Says the woman who lives in a three-million-dollar house and employs the same housekeeper as me.” My smile told her I was just teasing.
“A house you insisted on buying for us because you wanted your daughter to have the best in both homes. I would have been perfectly happy in the two-bedroom condo I’d bought before we got together.”
“My daughter and you ,” I said. “Jana, you’re the mother of my baby. I want the both of you to have the best. That’s nonnegotiable. And I’m not saying the condo wasn’t nice—it was—but it’s not like the house you two live in.”
“You’re such a good guy, Ridge.” As she inhaled, she briefly closed her eyes. “But you’re going to be the reason our daughter gets everything with the snap of pink-painted fingers. Let’s not have her turn out to be that kind of woman, okay? As soon as our munchkin is old enough to legally work—which is somewhere between twelve and fourteen years old, I think—she’s going to be employed at your office. And when she’s out of school for the summer, she can come on the road and assist me.”
“I was twelve when I started working for my dad, so I’m not against that plan.”
“Good.”
“But let’s get through this year before we start considering her teenage years. I want to enjoy every second of this stage while we’re in it.” I turned at the light. “When she’s twelve or thirteen, she’s probably going to hate us.” I looked at Daisy through my rearview mirror. Her arms were in the air, her ponytail bopping, her pink nails flashing in the sunlight. “And the thought of that makes me one pissed-off dad.”
“Ugh. No kidding. There won’t be enough wine in this world to get me through that phase or her high school years. The thought alone makes me fucking shiver.”
“A-fucking-men.”
She turned down the music and looked over her shoulder as I began to slow toward the entrance of the school.
“Mommy, I was listening to Taylor!”
“We’re almost there, so I want to talk to you for a second.”
“ Okaaay .”
“Are you ready for today?” Jana asked her.
“Yep! I love Miss Lark! She has the prettiest curly hair I’ve ever seen in my whole life, Mommy. I can’t wait to see her again today. She’s going to be the best teacher ever.”
“I heard the meet-the-teacher night went quite well,” I said to Jana.
Jana had had a booking last night that tied her up for several hours—something I’d known about—so I planned on taking Daisy to the school so she could meet her teacher and get comfortable in the classroom. But a last-minute meeting with the Westons popped up that I couldn’t miss, so my mom took Daisy instead.
Jana had been disappointed that at least one of us couldn’t be present for Daisy, but according to my mom, there had been many grandparents at the event, so we weren’t the only parents who couldn’t be there.
Jana shook her head and then pointed at my chest and then her own. “Parent of the Year awards—that’s what we’re winning, by the way.”
“It all worked out.” I laughed. “But, yes, I agree. We’ve been recipients before, and I’m sure we will be again.”
Jana turned toward Daisy. “You know, first grade is a huge deal. It’s not like kindergarten. You’re a very big girl now, and big girls have to listen to their teachers, so whatever Miss Lark says, you must do.”
“With no talking back,” I added.
“And you have to pay attention and you can’t speak out of turn,” Jana continued. “If Miss Lark wants you to raise your hand to talk, that’s what you have to do. Got it?”
“Yep!”
“Daddy and I are going to walk you in, and then I’ll be back this afternoon to pick you up.”
I pulled into a parking spot and shut the engine off.
Jana and I had discussed escorting Daisy into school versus dropping her off from the car line. For her first day, that felt like the right move. I wanted to scope out the situation and make sure she got in safely, my heart needing to watch her walk toward her classroom—and I was sure Jana’s did too. After today, the car line would be more than appropriate.
“Are you ready for this?” Jana asked me as I unhooked my seat belt.
“Fuck no.”
“Daddy! You can’t say that word! You owe me money!”
I smiled at her from the rearview mirror. “I can’t believe we have a first grader.”
Jana banged the back of her head against the seat. “I can’t fucking either.”
“Mommy!”
Jana laughed and whispered to me, “At this rate, she’ll have the concert tickets paid off within her first week of school.”
“No shit.”
She smiled at me. “Let’s go.”
I got out, opening the door for Daisy, and grabbed her backpack as she climbed outside. I held the straps open for her, waiting until she slipped her arms through before I set the bag on her back. Once it was balanced, she took off across the parking lot, Jana and me behind her, following her down the sidewalk toward the entrance of the school.
“I’m proud of you for being so excited about today.” I caught up to her pace and put my hand on her head, tilting it until her eyes met mine. “You’re going to do great, and I know you’re going to get excellent grades—just like your mom did when I met her in college.”
“Uncle ’Ett told me I have to get all A’s because he got B’s, and I haaave to beat him.”
She’d been calling my brother that from the moment she started speaking and still did even though she could now say his name.
“You don’t have to compete with Rhett, baby.” I gave her a little squeeze. “I just want you to do the best you can.”
“That’s an A, Daddy. ’Cause I’m smart, like Mommy.”
I laughed. “You sure are.”
We approached the entrance, surrounded by a small crowd of kids and parents, and I held the door for Jana and Daisy, joining them inside. Jana led us to an area where there was enough room for the three of us to stand without bumping elbows with other families.
“I love you,” Jana said to Daisy, crouching so they were at eye level. “Have the best time today, okay? And I’ll see you in a little while.”
“Okay, Mommy.”
I wanted nothing more than to pick my little girl up in my arms and swing her around.
But I wouldn’t do that here.
I needed to treat her like she was a big girl.
So, I lowered to the floor and looked up at her. “I love you so much. I’ll talk to you as soon as Mommy picks you up, and I want to hear how amazing your first day was.”
“Love you, Daddy.”
I kissed her cheek, and she took off down the hall, where a sea of kids was headed. Her ashy-brown ponytail that sat on top of her head was the only way I could distinguish her from the others.
“Why does this feel like the hardest thing we’ve ever done?” Jana asked.
I slowly looked at her. “Because we just watched our heart disappear.” My hand went to the back of her neck. “The alternative is homeschooling, and neither of us is equipped to tackle that.”
“She needs this.” Her voice was only slightly above a whisper.
“She does,” I agreed.
“But I want to hold her and never let her go.”
“I know.” I massaged over her hair, feeling how tight the muscle was beneath my fingers. “The day will fly by. She’ll be back in your arms before you know it.”
She nodded. “Right.”
I had my own tightness, but it was in my chest.
I reached into my pocket, grabbed the fob for the SUV, and handed it to her. “I’m going to use the restroom. I’ll meet you at the car.”
“Really?” Her brows rose. “Or are you going to her classroom to make sure she got there and didn’t get lost?”
That was exactly what I planned to do, but I didn’t have a visitor badge—something that was required if parents roamed too far into the hallways. Since I didn’t have time to get a badge, I hoped the policies were a little more lenient on day one.
Because, fuck, I just needed to know our girl was all right.
“I had too much coffee—that’s all.” I nodded toward the door. “Go. I’ll see you in a second.”
Before she could argue, I started walking in the direction of where Daisy had been headed, knowing there was a restroom not far away—a detail I remembered from when we’d toured the school. But when I reached it, I kept going, turning the corner to where all the first-grade classrooms were located.
Some of the teachers were outside the doors, greeting the kids as they entered. Others were already in the classroom, positioned at the front, speaking to the students who had taken a seat.
Daisy’s room was the last door on the right, her teacher absent from the entryway, so I moved in front of it, peeking into her classroom. Daisy was seated in the second row, the straps of her backpack hanging across the top of her chair, sitting tall while she held a pencil that had a pink puff instead of an eraser.
My baby.
She couldn’t look any cuter or tinier in a room that felt far too large and mature for her.
How is she six already? And in first grade?
Damn.
I was relieved that she’d found her classroom, that she was in her chair and already paying attention.
Jana would be thrilled when I told her—and I would.
As I started to turn around to head back to the entrance, my gaze shifted to the front of the class, where it connected with the eyes of the woman standing in front of the whiteboard.
The woman who was my daughter’s teacher.
Miss Lark.
I took in her eyes.
Her hair.
Those lips.
And as the realization came over me, my fucking jaw dropped.