45
A iva watched Yasmine skip a few feet in front of her and Knox, holding Mia’s hand. They were trick-or-treating before they headed to the carnival. Other parents had the same idea as they passed with their kids. A couple gave them strange looks like some people who’d opened doors for them. She didn’t blame them. They were dressed as characters from Encanto . Knox was dressed as Agustín, which Yasmine helped him choose.
It was clear that they were all together, but Aiva didn’t think they should be so puzzled. There were only two options. Two of them were co-parenting, or they were in a poly relationship. The latter was probably what people looking at them strangely thought. Either way, they wouldn’t be explaining it.
They stopped by a few more houses before heading back to where Knox parked the car. It was almost seven o’clock, and they wanted Yasmine to have at least a couple of hours at the park. She had a later bedtime for the night, but they all knew she’d be tired and dead on her feet by the time her usual bedtime rolled around.
The first order of business when they made it to the park was to get food from one of the trucks in attendance. As they ate, Yasmine pointed out some stalls and carts she wanted to visit. There were several festive games. Some of which she’d played a couple of days before at the festival after school.
Several games were far from sanitary. Aiva was sure none of the parents would let their children play those games, but she saw several adults in line bobbing for apples.
“We can play the bean bag toss game first,” Yasmine stated while they finished eating. “Daddy, you can win us all prizes.”
“You enjoy putting this pressure on me, don’t you, kiddo?” Knox teased.
“I have faith in you,” Yasmine reassured, pulling a laugh from the three of them.
They waited their turn to play the bean bag toss, and Knox paid for the four of them to play. Yasmine was right to have so much faith in her dad. He got all four bags in, winning a large prize. Aiva and Mia each got two in, while Yasmine got one of hers.
Knox let Yasmine pick out the stuffed animal she wanted while the rest of them got complimentary trinkets for playing. Yasmine asked him to keep playing until he won stuffed animals for both Aiva and Mia. He won a second time, chose a rabbit wearing a football jersey that Aiva thought was adorable, and handed it to her with a kiss. After winning a third time, he allowed Mia to choose what she wanted. She chose one that matched Yasmine’s, and they moved on.
Several more games were played, with them winning little trinkets, candy, and other prizes. They stopped at a Dippin’ Dots cart, where Yasmine got rainbow flavored, and Aiva opted for spookies-n-cream. Knox and Mia passed, but that didn’t stop him from teasing Aiva and having a few bites of hers.
When Yasmine finished her ice cream, she went to play in the bounce house with other kids, and the three of them sat where they could monitor her. There was no conversation between them, and while the silence was a little awkward, it wasn’t unbearable and could have been worse.
Mia mostly ignored them and scrolled through her phone as they waited for Yasmine to tire herself out. Aiva knew it would take time before she was comfortable seeing the two of them together. While she hadn’t lied to the other woman about not rubbing their relationship in her face, she wouldn’t refrain from anything they normally did while out in public and with Yasmine.
“I’m going to get a slush,” Mia said after twenty minutes. Aiva watched her go momentarily before returning her attention to the bounce house.
“Yas is going to sleep well tonight,” Knox stated.
Aiva nodded. “She’s going to play herself out. After a hot bath, she’ll be in dreamland.”
“Which means she’ll likely sleep through the night,” he whispered huskily against her ear.
“Is that so?” she asked, brow playfully raised. She knew what he was getting at.
“And you’ve gotten better at being quiet,” he teased. Aiva elbowed him lightly as she laughed but didn’t respond otherwise.
Mia returned a few minutes later with four different colored slushes in a carrier.
“The pink one is for Yas, but you can have whichever other one,” she informed, holding the carrier out to them.
Aiva took the purple one with a thank you, while Knox grabbed the red one. Mia walked over to the bounce house and called Yasmine out briefly to drink some of her slush. It was a good idea, considering she was sure it would melt by the time the little girl finished playing.
She was proven right when Yasmine ran over twenty minutes later to drink the now-melted drink.
“Did you have fun?” Knox asked.
“I did! I played different games with a bunch of the kids.” She yawned before taking another drink.
“I think it’s time to go,” Knox said, looking at his watch.
Aiva glanced at it and found it was a few minutes after nine-thirty. She wasn’t surprised she was tired. It was past her bedtime. They gathered their things, went to the car, and drove to Knox’s condo.
“Mommy, can you stay for bath time?” Yasmine asked when they pulled into the parking lot.
“Sure.”
Once inside, Mia took Yasmine to her room to give her a bath, and Aiva helped Knox sort through the candy she’d gotten. They took out anything that was coconut flavored and dark chocolate since the six-year-old didn’t like it. They also ensured none of the candy was tampered with. You could never be too careful with people nowadays.
They were sitting on the couch twenty-five minutes later, Aiva’s legs across his lap, when Yasmine walked in, freshly bathed, with Mia behind her. It was easy to tell how tired she was. Aiva removed her legs as the little girl came over to hug her dad goodnight.
“Night, Daddy,” she said with a little yawn.
“Goodnight, kiddo,” he responded, kissing her forehead.
“Aiva,” she started, climbing into her lap. “I want to call you Nomo. Can I?”
Aiva tilted her head. “Will you tell me what it means first?”
“Nother mother.”
Aiva’s stomach dipped, and the emotion that coursed through her was indescribable. There was a flurry in her stomach, a rushing in her ears, and a shimmering of something along her skin. There was so much going on within her, and she barely made out Knox asking where Yasmine had heard that.
“Tonight in the bounce house. One of the kids called their mom that. When I asked them why, he said it was because she was his stepmom, his nother mother.” She turned her attention back to Aiva. “So, can I?”
Aiva hesitated. Not because she was against it, but because she didn’t want to overstep. They’d barely gotten over the hump where Mia thought she was being replaced. Hell, she wasn’t even sure the other woman was completely over it, and the last thing she wanted to do was make her question it again.
“To pieces, right?” Mia asked in the brief silence.
“Sure, honey,” Aiva responded to Yasmine at the other woman’s words. “You can call me that as long as it’s okay with your dad.” They didn’t need to ask Mia because she’d given her permission.
“Absolutely,” Knox responded before the child could ask.
“Okay! Goodnight, Nomo.”
“Goodnight, sweetie.” Aiva hugged her tight. “I love you.”
“Love you too,” Yasmine responded before getting down and bounding down the hall.
“I’ll tuck her in,” Mia said, following her out.
A millisecond of silence and then, “Baby?” Knox asked.
“I’m not crying,” Aiva responded with a sniffle.
He chuckled but pulled her onto his lap and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “But you can if you want.”
“You’re sure you’re okay with—”
“I’m positive, baby,” he cut her off, cupping the side of her face.
“She’s all tucked in,” Mia informed, coming back a few minutes later. “I’m going to get going.”
“I’ll walk you down,” Knox responded, and Aiva moved off his lap. As the two exited the condo, she went into his en suite, started the shower, and waited for him to return.
T he journey to Mia’s car felt like it took far longer than it did. The silence between them was tense, and he wouldn’t pretend he didn’t know why. However, he hadn’t expected it to be this much. He knew the conversation she’d had with Aiva, and he’d taken her speaking up as giving her blessing to Yasmine’s question.
However, he knew her well enough to know that she may have only given it as some sort of test to see if Aiva would turn it down or he would object to it. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d done the opposite of something she wanted.
“Are you okay?” Knox asked as they stood by her vehicle. Contrary to anything she might have led herself to believe, it was never his intention to hurt her purposefully.
“I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“If I was going to have an issue with it, I would have chosen something different to say and voiced my objection then.” She paused. “It feels like everything is happening in the blink of an eye. Like two days ago we were married, yesterday you told me you were in love with someone else, and today I’m hit with the realization that there is another woman in my daughter’s life who she views as worthy to consider another mom, to give that title to.” She sighed. “And I know that’s a good thing. I know every woman in my situation would want their child’s father to be with a woman who cares for their child the way Aiva does Yas.”
Knox knew she was right. As sad as it was, there were far more arrangements that were the opposite of their situation. Mia didn’t have to worry about Yasmine being mistreated by the person he was dating, and since he’d spoken to her a couple of months ago, their co-parenting relationship seemed to be better.
“It’s going to take me a bit to…accept it all. You’ve moved on, and I’m still stagnant in the same place I was when you walked out that door almost two years ago. I’m still in the beginning stages of accepting that, but I know I’ll eventually move on, too.” She opened the car door. “Have a good night, Knox.”
“You too, Mia.”
He watched her drive out of the parking lot before going back upstairs. Aiva wasn’t in the living room, so he assumed she went into his bedroom. He turned the lights off as he went, then entered his bedroom and let the sound of the shower lead him into the en suite. Knox undressed, stepping into the glass shower behind her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him.
“Was she okay?”
“Yeah.” He kissed her shoulder. It never ceased to amaze him the way she took other’s feelings into consideration. Even now, when he knew she was having some deep emotions of her own.
Knox had known that his daughter looked at Aiva as another parental figure. It was easy to tell in their interactions, and it was hard not to when they spent so much time together. Whether it was the three of them doing things families normally did together. Or only the two of them having a girl’s day or having lunch together.
It did surprise him she’d brought it up. It wasn’t like he didn’t know they would have the conversation eventually, but he hadn’t known it would be his daughter asking for permission. He’d always pictured it as a slip from Yasmine saying it and them talking about it afterward.
His daughter was very self-aware for a child, and maybe she’d picked up on the dynamic between the three of them. Yasmine was also an empathetic child, and she probably didn’t want Mia to feel bad or Aiva to be caught off guard. Either way, he couldn’t have asked for the situation to play out any better.
Knox knew the moment he realized he loved Aiva where he wanted their relationship to go. His daughter’s wholehearted acceptance of her as part of their life, their family only solidified that for him. He’d known before that the bond they’d built was special, but the irrefutable confirmation he’d received was icing on the cake.
It also helped that it seemed his ex-wife wouldn’t be against them. While that hadn’t mattered to him from the beginning, it made things a lot easier. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with Aiva. She was his other half, his better half, and he wanted to be everything she needed.
He wouldn’t fool himself into thinking that he was the perfect husband in his first marriage because his focus had been on his career most of the time and having a good time when he wasn’t. Knox knew if he’d been with any other woman, they probably wouldn’t have tolerated it.
Things would be different this time around because he’d grown and learned from his past. He also knew his connection with Aiva; his feelings for her were unrivaled.
He’d told Mia that he wouldn’t change what they had because it gave them Yasmine, but he realized she was also brought into his life for another reason. It was to make him the man that he’d become, the one that was worthy of the woman who stood before him. Perhaps their ultimate goals in life were to prepare the other for their forever. While it’d been headache-inducing at times, she’d done that for him, and it was another thing he could thank her for.
K nox gave Aiva soft kisses, swallowing every little moan, every whimper as he thrust slowly in and out of her. After they’d gotten out of the shower, he made sure the door was locked before diving between her legs. She was warm around him, drenching his dick, and he’d long ago become addicted. She always felt so good around him, so willing to accept every inch of him.
Her walls squeezed around him, and he moaned against her lips, rolling his hips on his next thrust. “Are you going to cum for me, baby?” Aiva nodded, and Knox nipped her lower lip. Another roll of his hips on a slow thrust. “Use your words, gorgeous.”
“Yes,” she moaned. “I—” she cut off on a gasp, eyes closing at the next thrust.
“Look at me, baby,” he demanded. “Let me see those pretty eyes while you fall apart for me, while you coat my dick in cum.”
His words were all it took for her to clamp down on his dick, her teeth holding her bottom lip hostage as she tried not to loudly voice her release, and her eyes blown wide with pleasure as she looked into his. Her beautiful face contorted in pleasure. Natural black coils spread across the pillow like a halo. The sight tipped him over the edge, and he was cumming.
“Fuck,” he moaned, leaning down to kiss her again as each spurt left him. “I love you,” he spoke against her lips.
“I love you.”
“Move in with me,” Knox found himself saying. It’d been on the tip of his tongue to ask her something else, but he knew it wasn’t something he should do while he was cumming in her. It wasn’t the way he wanted to do it. So, he settled on the second thing he wanted.
Aiva studied his face when he sat up, and he assumed she was trying to see if he’d only asked in the moment. He hadn’t.
“Okay,” she agreed after a beat. He caressed her cheek before slowly pulling out and going into the en suite.
After cleaning them both up and they both got dressed, he unlocked the door and turned off the light, then climbed into bed beside her. He pulled her to his chest, holding her close. He didn’t care where they stayed. Whether it was his place, hers, or they got a new one, they could work out the logistics later. All he cared about was that he’d soon have both loves of his life under the same roof with him.
He hadn’t expected to find such happiness after his divorce, but he’d always be grateful to whatever entity caused him to choose her firm over the next.