Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
Ridge
I rushed inside my closet, tossing on a T-shirt, reaching for the pile of sweatpants, where there was a pair of gray ones on top, and stepped into them, pulling them up to my waist. Now that I was dressed, I went back into the bedroom, and Addison was standing by the bed, putting on the clothes she’d stripped off before the hot tub, moving as quickly as I had. With Jana upstairs, putting Daisy to bed, Addison and I had a few minutes to talk until I had to address Jana and deal with the fallout of what had just happened.
“Come here,” I said as I approached, holding out my arms.
“I can’t.” She had just zipped and buttoned her pants and was clutching her stomach. “I feel like I can’t even breathe right now.” She twisted her wet hair on top of her head and tied it off with an elastic from her wrist.
What I noticed, what drove my hands to her face, was the tears. The second she released her hair, the first one dripped.
I caught it and said, “Addison, I got this. Don’t worry.”
“It’s too late to fix this.”
“Fuck that,” I whispered, stepping closer to her. “It’s never too late.”
“Your daughter just saw us naked. With me in your arms. The thoughts that are going through her head right now?—”
“Here’s the thing about my girl.” I aligned our bodies. “Once she’s asleep, which I can tell she had been by the way she was talking, things become extremely fuzzy and not easy for her to recall. She’ll remember seeing you, most likely, but I doubt she’ll remember that you were naked.”
With the way we had been positioned, Daisy could only see Addison’s back. Her bare ass, her legs wrapped around me—those were details I wasn’t even sure my daughter had taken in. Since I’d never turned Addison around, Daisy wouldn’t have seen the front of her or any of me, aside from my legs and arms.
And that was if she was even paying attention.
“What about Jana?” Her hands went over her face. “Oh my God, I can’t even imagine what she thinks about me right now.”
Jana was an entirely different story.
Things had happened so fast that I didn’t ask her a single question. I had no idea why she’d brought Daisy to my house, why she’d let herself in, or why the fuck she hadn’t called first. We had boundaries established, and she’d crossed mine.
But as the last few minutes ran through my head, two things were certain. Jana had been shocked as hell at what she walked into—I could tell that by the way she’d said my name. The tone and shrillness of her voice. And her expression had told me she wasn’t pleased by what she saw.
I carefully pulled Addison’s hands away. “I’m going to talk to her now. She needs to understand this—us—and I need to understand why this happened and why I hadn’t known they were coming over.”
When she nodded, each dip of her head sent another tear down her cheek.
I wiped them away and pulled her against my chest, pressing my lips into the top of her head. “I promise it’s going to be fine.”
She didn’t respond. She just wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. “I’m going to order a rideshare and go home.”
“No—”
“Ridge, I cannot be here when you talk to Jana.”
The last thing I wanted was for her to go home in the emotional state that she was in, lie in her bed, and fucking stew over this. She was going to blame herself. She was going to lock herself inside her head. She was going to come up with conclusions that she didn’t need to make.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I wouldn’t let that happen.
I would resolve things with Jana, and then I would heal Addison—that was the only outcome.
I pulled back to hold her face. “Then, wait for me in here. I’ll talk to her in the living room, and I’ll come back once I’m done.”
She looked at me as though she didn’t know me. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why?”
It took her several seconds before she responded, “Because what if she doesn’t approve?”
I was right; she was already so far inside her head that she was hitting bottom.
“I don’t give a shit what she approves of or not. She’s not my mother, Addison. She can’t dictate who I see or who I date or who I bring into my life.”
“But she can.” She bit her lip. “She’s Daisy’s mom. The weight that she holds”—she took a breath—“is epic, Ridge. Think about it. Really, really think about it.”
I understood what she was saying and where those fears could come from.
But even though Jana was her mother, I was her father. I had an equal stake in this. Daisy spent the majority of her time with me, and Jana knew that if I was going to bring a woman around my daughter—and she would soon know that was my plan—then that woman had to have a significant meaning in my life.
By the end of tonight, Jana would know exactly what Addison meant to me and the future I wanted to have with her.
Only then could Jana make her decision.
“Listen to me”—I lowered my face so there were only inches separating us—“I hear you. I know where you’re coming from. But I need you to hear me and know where I’m coming from.” I pressed my thumbs into her cheeks. “I don’t want you to leave. I’m asking you to stay, and I don’t ask for much.”
“You can’t say that to me.”
“I just did.” I held her hands, and with the tightness I used to clutch them, that was how strongly I stared into her eyes. “I’m confident this is all going to work out, Addison. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have asked you to spend the night.” I waited several seconds before I nodded toward the bed. “Wait for me. I’ll be back soon.” When she didn’t move or respond, I added, “Please.”
She slowly pulled her hands from mine and went over to the bed, lifting the comforter and sinking beneath it. I walked over and held her cheek, kissing the top of her head, leaving my lips there to breathe her in. My eyes closed the moment I got the smallest hint of her scent.
I left her in the bedroom, shutting the door behind me, and since I didn’t see Jana anywhere in the kitchen or living room, I headed straight for the wet bar. I poured vodka onto ice, forgoing the olive juice—it was filler that I didn’t need tonight—and I carried the glass over to the couch and took a seat.
Within a few minutes, Jana was descending the stairs. She came over to the mouth of the sectional, her arms crossed over her chest, an expression on her face that was half exhaustion, half frustration. “She’s asleep.”
I nodded. “Do you want a drink?”
Her arms dropped, and she glanced up at the ceiling, her hands holding the top of her head by her hairline. “I don’t know what the hell I want right now. All I know is that what I saw … I definitely didn’t want that.”
When she finally looked at me, I pointed at a spot toward the middle of the couch. “Sit.”
“Ridge”—she clenched her hands as her arms dropped at her sides—“I’m so angry with you right now, I could scream.”
“That makes two of us.” I pointed again. “Sit.”
As soon as her ass hit the cushion, she said, “I’m guessing Addison was going to be the topic we discussed at dinner tomorrow night.”
“You guessed right.” I took my first drink. “Jana, why did you come here tonight?”
She leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees. “My client called and changed my departure to five tomorrow morning.”
“So, you brought Daisy to my house …”
“Obviously.”
I huffed. “And did you call to tell me?”
“I called you about ten times. You never answered or responded to my texts, so I just assumed you were sleeping.”
“We got back from dinner, and I didn’t check my phone, and then we went in the hot tub?—”
“I know what happened from there.”
“But you came to my house, Jana, without knowing if I was home, and you let yourself in. When it comes to Daisy, we allow leeway, we walk into each other’s homes when we know the other person is coming over, but what happened here is not the same situation. This is different.”
Her back straightened, and she held the edge of the couch. “I know you’re not turning this around like I’m the one in the wrong here.”
“But I’m not in the wrong either. I was in my home. I was with a woman. You can’t find fault in that.”
Her top lip flared. “I can when your daughter sees it.”
“She wouldn’t have seen it if you hadn’t crossed a boundary and brought her in without my knowledge.” I took another sip.
“Ridge, I couldn’t get in touch with you, and I need to fly out at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. What else was I supposed to do?”
“You’re her mother, Jana. You figure it out. The same way I figure it out when you’re traveling and I’m here alone, making decisions for our daughter. I call my mother. I call your mother. I call a sibling. What I wouldn’t do is take her to where you are—wherever you are—and expect you to take care of her without letting you know I was coming.”
Her mouth opened and closed and then quickly opened again. “I’m doing everything in my power not to scream at you right now.”
“You can be upset all you want that Addison is who I was with, but you can’t deny that the way you handled this was wrong.”
“You’re her father, Ridge. If I can’t bring her to you, then what the fuck?—”
“I didn’t say you can’t bring her to me. I said you need to speak with me first.” I switched the glass to my other hand and wiped the condensation on the leg of my sweatpants. “What if I was away for the night on a work trip? What if I was still out to dinner? What if I was having a ten-person orgy in my living room? What would you have done then?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“That’s something you should have thought of. You know you can always count on me, but don’t assume anything before you walk through my front door.” Even though my words had been direct during this entire conversation, I kept my tone even. If anything, it dipped on the softer side.
“We’re drifting from the point of all this?—”
“There are many points to this. The way you handled tonight was one. The woman I was with is two. Let’s talk about her.”
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, and she chewed her thumbnail, her gaze intensifying as she stared at me. “Addison Lark.” Her chest rose as she filled it. “Out of all people, you picked our daughter’s teacher?—”
“I’m going to stop you right there.”
“Please don’t.” Her hand fell onto her lap. “I have boatloads to say on this topic.”
“You can say all you want once you understand how things happened with her and what brought us to this moment.”
She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “I’m not sure I want to even hear those details?—”
“You need to hear them. They’re important.”
She held my gaze for a handful of seconds and then leaned back into the couch, slipped out of her shoes, and crossed her legs in front of her. “Don’t make me regret this decision.”
I unraveled the story, starting when Addison and I had met at the strip club during Brady and Lily’s joint party and how things had gone down that night between us. Hell, I knew Addison’s stripping wasn’t my information to tell. Addison should really be the one saying this to Jana. But I also knew that Jana had a relationship with my friends and family, and if she mentioned something to them about my girlfriend, there was a chance she could find out anyway.
She was going to hear it from me before that happened.
Once I explained this, along with Addison’s motivation to strip and why she no longer worked there, I went on to tell her how I was shocked as hell to find out she was Daisy’s teacher—something I’d learned when I followed our daughter to her classroom on the first day of school. I told her that I was the one who had pursued a relationship, how Addison had fought against it for many reasons, and how I’d fallen for her first.
Jana said nothing as I spoke.
She didn’t even move.
Only when I finished did I take a drink, holding the vodka in my mouth, assessing what I was about to face.
She held her knees and said with just enough force, “You should have told me.”
There they were—the words I’d anticipated hearing.
I slowly shook my head. “Why?”
“Because she’s our daughter’s teacher … and a former stripper.”
“Don’t tell me the stripper part bothers you. She was a woman trying to earn money to do something nice for her family since all they’d ever done was sacrifice for her and she wanted to give back. She also wanted to get some of her student loans for her undergraduate and master’s degrees paid down. Given that you gave your own parents a gift, Jana, I’d be shocked to hear you have a problem with what Addison did.” I deepened my stare, recalling the moment during our relationship that was so similar to Addison’s situation. I adjusted my position and continued, “Do you remember how hard you worked for that down payment for their house? You wouldn’t take money from me, you wanted to earn it on your own. So, you took job after job to give them that. But you have that option with your job; you can take on all the gigs you want. Addison is on a teacher’s salary, she can’t make more than she’s already making, so she found a second job.” I dragged my fingers through my wet hair. “It’s not what she wanted, but earning that kind of money quickly—we both know there aren’t many options to do that.”
She sighed. “It still wouldn’t have been my choice, but you’re right, Ridge, I didn’t mean to sound judgy, and I can look past that. Her role as Daisy’s teacher, however, affects everything?—”
“What does it affect? You’ve said multiple times to me how well Daisy is doing in school. How she’s advancing and how much improvement you’re seeing. How her reading and comprehension are getting so much stronger.”
“Will I be able to say the same if you two break up?”
“That’s not happening.”
“And if it does?”
“We’ll cross that bridge, if it does, which it won’t.”
A promise I really couldn’t make, but one I felt in my heart.
In all these years, my heart had never lied. It had never sent me in a direction it shouldn’t—not with Jana, and it wouldn’t with Addison either.
“What about when Daisy isn’t at school?” she said. “Don’t you think it’ll be confusing to her when her teacher is spending quality time with her at her dad’s house? And how is Addison going to play both roles? Dad’s cool girlfriend while disciplining her in the classroom? And do you think our daughter is going to understand the difference between those roles and respect them?”
“Jana—”
“This is a lot, Ridge. It was a lot to walk in on. It was a lot to have Daisy see.” She tilted her neck and looked up at the ceiling again. “It’s a lot to process since, up until tonight, I was satisfied with the way she’s been teaching my kid.” She looked at me again. “And, now, I don’t know what the hell to think.”
“Given Addison’s relationship to our family, I understand what that must have been like for you. Certainly a shock, I’m sure. And it wasn’t the proudest moment I’ve had in front of my daughter, but it also wasn’t the first time something like that has happened.” I watched the recognition come across her face, remembering when a similar situation had gone down when we moved Daisy into a toddler bed and she decided to visit our room in the middle of the night. “The bottom line is, I’m human. We’re both human. Human things happen, and they did this evening. And I think Daisy was too sleepy to really understand what she was looking at.”
She pulled one of the pillows against her chest. “That doesn’t change the fact that she’s Daisy’s teacher.”
“She’s a professional, Jana, who’s as focused on our daughter as she is on me. Daisy’s best interests are all that matter to Addison.” I softened my voice even more as I said, “You need to trust that Addison will figure out how to balance these roles and?—”
“You want me to trust someone I don’t know? Who isn’t even related to our child? Because she’s your girlfriend? Come on, Ridge. I can’t even believe you have the nerve to say that to me.”
Mama Bear was still out, but I knew how to handle this side of her.
“Do you trust me, Jana?”
She silently shook her head. “Why are you going there?”
“Answer me.”
“Of course I trust you.”
“Then, you need to trust that I would never put someone in Daisy’s life who didn’t want the best for her.” I stretched my arm across the back of the couch. “The same way you wouldn’t introduce Daisy to one of your boyfriends if you didn’t think he would make the best decisions for our daughter. You know, the last relationship you were in, I don’t recall us needing a conversation like the one we’re having now. Because I trusted you. I trusted your decision-making, and therefore, I trusted him.” Before she could chime in, I added, “Don’t tell me this situation is so unlike your last boyfriend. They’re different people, sure, but ultimately, you were dating someone, and now, I’m dating someone, it’s all the same.”
She rubbed both hands over her forehead and across the top of her head. “Fuck.”
“We knew when we broke up it wasn’t always going to be the easiest, but we’ve done an impressive job working together for the sake of our little girl. This is a bump, but we’ll get through it.” I slid to the end of the cushion and placed my vodka on the table. “But I need us on the same page about this. Because if we’re not, it’s going to create a mess that neither of us, nor our daughter, needs.” I folded my hands together. “I’m happy, Jana. I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time.”
“I know.” She lifted my glass of vodka off the table and downed it in one sip, setting the empty back. “I’ve had my suspicions that someone was in your life. I guess I just know you so well that I could sense it.” She tucked the other side of her hair behind her ear. “I never pointed it out. I just kept it to myself, knowing that when the time was right, you’d tell me.”
I chuckled. “Hey, I planned to.”
“And that does make me happy—although I don’t know what that dinner would have looked like. Tonight was a bomb, Ridge. You put a few drinks in me and add that news in, and who knows what would have come out?”
I smiled. “There were many things about our relationship that didn’t work, but what we’ve done so well is put those things aside for our girl. We talk it out when it gets rough. We lean on each other when we have to. We listen to both sides, even when we don’t want to. Tomorrow night would have looked just like tonight—two adults with strong opinions because we love our daughter so much and we would do anything to protect her.”
Emotion flashed through her eyes. “You’re right.”
When her arm stretched out toward me, I set my hand on her wrist. “I wouldn’t allow Addison to spend any personal time with Daisy until you knew the truth about us.” I squeezed her and pulled my hand back. “I’m asking you now to be okay with it.”
“Are you giving me a choice?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“And if I’m not okay with it? What then, Ridge?”
I sighed. “I’ll cross that bridge when it happens,” I repeated for the second time. I looked at the glass between us. “Do you need another drink while you’re thinking about it?”
“I need to drive home, so no.” She unfolded her legs and moved the pillow back to where it had been. And the words that finally came out of her mouth were, “I trust your decision-making.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”