Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Alder
After Laila had shown me around her small daycare center and introduced me to all the teachers who were still there that late, we went home. Daisy had transferred her car seat. Laila rode with me and chattered the whole way.
“I’m going to change before we eat.” I jogged up the stairs and got into jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. When I was back downstairs, I turned into the dining room and stopped.
The table was set. Daisy sat across from Laila and on the end closest to them was a third setting.
Daisy smiled at me. “Figured it was past time you moved closer to us.”
Laila patted next to the empty plate.
My heart could’ve exploded. “I’d love to be closer to my girls.”
Tonight turned into the perfect night. Two weeks of misery—never again. I ate with the girls I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
After dinner, Laila watched a show with us, then got ready for bed. Daisy joined her to read a book. I waited on the couch.
“Alder?” Daisy called from Laila’s room. “Can you come in?”
I wasn’t getting out of reading, and that didn’t upset me. I smiled at the door. “She can’t do the troll’s voice, can she?” I asked Laila.
She grinned and shook her head.
“Hon,” Daisy said to her daughter, “I wanted to talk to you about me and Alder.”
Oh. She was doing this. I perched on the edge of the bed. I wasn’t sure exactly what she was discussing with Laila, but I was fine with whatever she wanted to tell her.
Daisy brushed a lock of pale hair off Laila’s face. “You remember when I told you that Alder and I would start dating?” Laila nodded, and Daisy smiled. “I’m in love with him.”
Laila looked from me to Daisy. “Okay.”
“I also want to make sure you know that I was married to him before. He’s not just a friend, he’s my ex-husband. Now, he’s my husband again, and I want it to stay that way.”
“You guys were married?” Wonder filled Laila’s voice.
Daisy nodded. “I can show you pictures. It wasn’t for very long, but Alder’s always been important to me.”
“Is he going to be my daddy?” Laila asked, clutching the edge of her blanket.
“I’m going to be your stepdaddy,” I said, hoping it was okay I was jumping in, but Daisy gave me an encouraging nod. “I’m going to be your mom’s partner, and in a way, I’m going to be a partner with your dad too. He’ll always be your daddy.”
Laila pursed her lips. “Okay. Will I get a stepmommy?”
“Maybe,” Daisy said. “And I hope she’ll be a good partner for your dad. But you’ll be seeing me and Alder act like a husband and wife.” She leaned forward. “He might kiss me once in a while.”
“Every day,” I said, and Laila giggled.
“And he’ll be sleeping in the same bed as me,” Daisy finished.
It would be inappropriate to cheer, but fuck yes. I didn’t want to hide my relationship with Daisy from anyone.
“Okay.” Laila yawned. “Make sure he makes the bed.”
Daisy giggled. “He’s pretty good about that.”
We left a sleepy Laila behind. When Daisy shut the door, I pulled her to me. “You didn’t have to do that,” I murmured.
“I wanted to. We’ve slept apart for way too long.”
Desire shuddered through my body. “I know she’s not fully asleep yet, but you need to go into that room and strip down. I’ll shut the lights off and be right in.”
I made sure the doors were locked and then found Daisy sitting on her bed, still dressed.
I leaned against the doorframe. “Want to just watch a show, and then I’ll go upstairs?”
“No.” She scooted back and crossed her legs. A stack of envelopes was next to her. “I wanted to show you these. Before we go any further.” Her gaze slid away. She chewed on the inside of her cheek and ran her fingers over the hem of her shirt. She’d told me the story, but she was ashamed.
I flopped onto the bed next to her.
“These are the latest statements for each card.” She handed me the first envelope.
I took the statement out and opened it. The total amount was substantial. She could’ve put a nice down payment on any of the houses she’d looked at today.
She slid another over. I opened that one.
My anger flared white hot. “How the hell did he get such high limits?”
“From what I could tell, he lied about our income and then strung it along with regular payments until they kept increasing the line of credit.” Her sigh exited heavily. “I had excellent credit, at the time anyway. I’m getting slaughtered by interest, but I can’t think of a way out other than to pay them. I’ve tried to fight him.”
I pulled out my phone and pulled up my email. “What’s his name?”
“I’ve tried?—”
“My lawyer hasn’t.”
Her eyes flew wide. “You have a lawyer?”
“One thing all that fucking off did when I was younger was give me the skills to network. I’ll pay the legal fees and we’ll make this asshole suffer. We might very well lose, but so will he. He’ll lose a lot of damn money paying for his own lawyer.”
“Alder, we can’t…” Her breath hitched and hope filled her face. “I’ve lost so much of my income to these payments.”
I opened the third, fourth, and fifth credit card statements, all with jaw-dropping amounts. That jackass was going to pay. I set all the statements side by side. “I’ll deal with those tomorrow.”
“You’re not?—”
I put my finger over her lips. “No more interest. No more debt. It’s our money.”
“It’s not,” she said against my finger.
My gaze dropped to her mouth, and I traced her lips with my fingertip. “I had years of bachelorhood to earn an obscene amount of money. Then I got a job making even more money. I did it for us. When I got you back, I wanted to make sure we were set.”
“Alder,” she whispered, her eyes growing watery.
I rolled her to her back and spread myself over her. The paper crunched underneath us. I pressed kisses along her jaw. “To prove my point, I’m going to fuck you on these statements.” I tunneled a hand under her shirt and marked a path down her neck with my lips. “Then tomorrow, while they still smell like us, I’m going to call my lawyer. You don’t ever have to worry about these again.”
“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” she said in a needy voice as she arched into me.
“We’ll keep having sex on them until then. Once for each card. Deal?”
She stuffed her hands through my hair and spread her legs wider to cradle me. “Deal.”