Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
EVE
I stir and open my eyes. I must have fallen asleep on the couch after Ryland went down for her nap. I sit up and blink at the boxes sitting in the living room with me. Ryder must have brought them in while I was sleeping. I glance at Ryland’s bed, and it’s empty. Seeing a note sitting on the coffee table, I pick it up.
Thought you could use these. I took Ryland down to the beach when she woke up. Take your time unpacking. I made room for you in my closet.
I stare at Ryder’s handwriting, puzzled. Unpack? Walking over to the boxes, a laugh escapes when I see Eve’s shit written across the top of the boxes in Miles’s handwriting. He was clearly pissed at me when he wrote it, not that I blame him. I open the box and gasp when I see all of my clothes. I dig through them all, my heart pounding in my chest, before sitting back on the floor. He kept everything. All of my things are here, down to my hair ties and blow dryer.
Does that mean he kept everything else? I wipe the tears that silently fall down my face. He held on to every last piece of us just like I did. Hope weaves its way inside a little bit more as I get busy unpacking and washing clothing items that need it.
I hang the last of my clothes next to Ryder’s when I hear the front door open. I smile at Ryland when I come out. She’s wearing a cute sun hat and has her strawberry sunglasses on. She holds out her hands to me, and I take her from Ryder.
“Did you have fun at the beach with Daddy?” I’ve been making sure to use that name a lot around her. I want Ryland to know this is who I’ve been talking about to her. She hasn’t said da-da yet or any version of daddy, so I’m hoping the more I say it, the more she will pick up on it.
“I do,” she grins at me. I love the way she says, I do , instead of yes. I know one day she will grow out of it, and I’ll miss it.
“Let’s get your sandy butt in the bathtub.” I look at Ryder and see him studying me. He still has his black boardshorts on from earlier. His chest is bare and golden from the sun, making my body fully aware that he’s in the room. My eyes skim over the tattoo near his heart before meeting his eyes.
“Thank you,” I say softly. “You don’t know how much it means to me that you kept my things. I thought you had gotten rid of everything.”
“I wanted to,” he admits. “After a year, I couldn’t stand to be surrounded by all the painful memories, so I put everything in storage until I was ready to get rid of it.” He walks to the fridge and pours a glass of water. “I need to call my parents and Savi tonight.” He obviously wants to change the subject. “They need to know about Ryland, and I’m sure they are going to want to talk to you. I thought we could do it after Ryland goes to bed then tomorrow we can FaceTime them so they can meet her. I didn’t want her part of the initial conversation.”
“I don’t either. It’s going to be hard enough on them as it is. They will need some time to process it all before they see Ryland for the first time.” I frown as I start to worry about what they will think of me. I brush back Ryland’s soft curls and try and focus on something else.
“They will understand once you tell them why you did it,” he says, reading my thoughts.
“I hurt their son and kept their granddaughter from them. If the roles were reversed, I wouldn’t like me either.”
“You also protected their children from your dad. Hell, you probably protected them as well. He could have easily gone after them too, destroying all my parents built.” His jaw hardens, and his eyes start to burn with fire.
I nod, but the pit in my stomach doesn’t go away. A part of me will always wonder if I did the right thing.
“I should give her a bath now. It’s almost her dinner time.” I walk to the bathroom, and he stops me.
“Is it okay if I give her the bath tonight? I feel like I’ve missed so much already, and I want her to know she can depend on me to take care of her, too.” I see the sadness briefly in his eyes before he shoves it away. I swallow the lump in my throat and nod my head.
“Of course. She’s your daughter too. You don’t have to ask for permission to do things for her. I know you missed a lot, and I can’t imagine how badly that hurts. I want you to spend as much time with her as you need.” I break away from his intense eyes before the guilt I feel suffocates me. “Daddy’s giving you a bath tonight, Rybug. I’ll get dinner started for us.” He holds his hands out, and she goes straight to him.
“Let’s get those bubbles going in the bath.” He grabs the rubber ducky from the pool bag and hands it to her.
“You’re a natural. Ryland is lucky to have you as a dad.”
“You obviously don’t remember the first time I held Max. I was so afraid I was going to drop him.”
“I remember everything about that day. I knew in that moment that you were going to be a great dad someday.”
“I thought the same thing about you,” he says quietly. “I used to love watching you with Max and always sat there picturing you with our kids. I think Ryland is lucky to have us both.” He walks away, leaving me standing there as he heads to the bathroom.
I lean against the kitchen island and hear the bathwater start. I’m lost in the past with my thoughts when I hear my phone ding.
Agent Davis
I wanted to give you an update on your dad. They are pushing up the sentencing because of the high-profile people he was working with. They want this over and done with as quickly as possible. Your dad is facing a maximum of thirty years. Because he’s a flight risk, he’s being held without bond.
I grip the phone tightly and stare at the text. Thirty years? I expected it to be a lot, but I wasn’t prepared for the maximum.
Eve
What about my mother?
Agent Davis
She’s denying that she knew anything about it, and without her name tied to anything, there’s not much we can do. He’s backing up her story.
I have no doubt she knew her husband was doing something illegal, but it was easy for her to look the other way when their bank accounts were growing.
Eve
Thanks for the update.
Agent Davis
No problem. I’ll let you know when it’s over. We appreciate your help on this. We were able to put away some people that we’ve had our eye on for a while. I really hope you get what you are looking for in Florida. You deserve to be happy again. Take care of that little girl.
Eve
I will. Thanks.
“What’s wrong?” I look up and see Ryder standing there. Ryland has a yellow hooded towel on, and her wet curls are down around her face. I give her a small smile before looking back down at my phone. He sets Ryland down and gets her dressed quickly, giving her the basket with her toys in it so we can talk. Walking over to me, his eyes search mine. “I can tell you’re upset. What is it?”
“Agent Davis just texted me,” I sigh. “They are pushing for the maximum sentence of thirty years in prison. I guess the evidence I gave them is rock-solid and ties him to some very powerful people they’ve been looking for.”
His jaw is set, and his eyes go hard. “Good,” he says through clenched teeth. He looks at Ryland before he looks back at me. “I hope he rots in there. It sucks to have everything you love ripped from you, and he’s got thirty years to get a taste of what I felt for the past three.”
I look down at my hands and wring them together. I know I shouldn’t feel guilty, but I do. I put my own father away. Who does that?
“Don’t.” He steps closer to me, invading my space. “Don’t you dare feel fucking guilty,” he says in a low voice, knowing exactly what I’m feeling. “He did this to himself. It was his choices that put him in a jail cell for the rest of his life, not yours.”
“He’s still my father, Ryder. I’m the reason the punishment is so harsh. Without my evidence, it would have been a lot less. Thirty years is a long time. He will probably die in there,” I whisper.”
“Just because he fucked your mother and accidentally got her pregnant does not make him a father. Neither one of them has ever loved you like you deserved. They both got off on controlling you like you were just another object they owned.”
I know what he’s saying is true, but hearing it aloud cuts me deeply to the core. Never feeling love from your own parents is something I wouldn’t wish on anybody. I tried so hard to be the perfect daughter, always doing what I was told and getting good grades, thinking I could earn their love. It wasn’t until I met Ryder that I realized that’s not how love works. He loved me unconditionally and made sure I felt it every single day we were together, just like I have loved Ryland from the moment I found out I was pregnant.
“You’re right,” I say quietly. “You’ve been more of a dad to Ryland these past three days and have shown her more love than my father has my entire life. I won’t let him make me feel guilty for wanting to get back to you.”
I see the war raging in his eyes as anger from my dad resurfaces. In the beginning, Ryder tried to win over my father, wanting his approval, but he quickly learned it was no use. All my father loved was power and money, and if you didn’t fit into those two categories, you weren’t worth his time. I don’t even think he loved my mother, but she came from wealth, and their families benefited when they got married. They both got what they wanted until I accidentally came along and put a snag in their plans.
“I don’t want you to ever give him any more power.” He backs me up until I hit the counter. “He couldn’t see that you were his most valuable treasure. He should have done everything in his power to protect and love you from the moment you were born. He doesn’t deserve your guilt, and he damn sure doesn’t deserve your love anymore. His existence in our lives ends now. He won’t ever get the chance to hurt us or my family again. He made his bed, and now he can rot in it.” His chest heaves against mine as his greys blaze.
I nod my head, and he grips the counter tightly, caging me in.
“Say it,” he demands.
I hold his gaze and find my strength through Ryder. He’s always been my safe place and now isn’t any different. He wants me to own my worth.
“I’m done with him. He never deserved my love,” I say, blinking back the tears. “I won’t let him hurt me or my family anymore.” I feel the tears fall down my cheeks, but not from guilt or sadness that I lost a father. It’s because of the love I see right now staring back at me. He’s letting me see it fully for the first time since I came back. “I…I won’t ever let him come between us again. He won’t ever take what’s mine away from me again.”
I see his nostrils flare at the word mine, and his gaze turns heated . He loves it when I call him mine just as much as I love being called his. We don’t exist without each other, and the last three years proved that even more.
“I would like to see him try to take what’s mine again.” His voice is low and full of threat. My hand comes up, and I rest it on his heart. I feel it beating rapidly under my palm.
I look up at him again, and he glances down at my lips briefly before sliding back up to my eyes. I want so badly to be his again, but until he puts his walls down, I’m stuck on the other side, just waiting for a way to get in.
“We should start on dinner so we can get Ryland to sleep,” he says roughly, backing up and avoiding my gaze. “We still have to talk to my parents and Savi later.” He walks over to the cabinet and starts pulling out ingredients. He stopped by the store earlier so we could have dinner here tonight with just the three of us. I know he’s trying to spend as much alone time with Ryland as he can right now.
I sigh, knowing I’m not going to get anything more out of him. I wipe the remaining tears away and get started on dinner with him. I open the bottle of red he got for us and pour us each a glass. I have a feeling with this phone call, we are going to need it.
“Ryder, it’s too much,” I say on the other end of the phone as I stare at the SUV that was just delivered. I had to sign for it because my name was on the title next to his.
“You need a vehicle, and we can’t put Ryland in the Porsche I have, so I got one.” He says it like it’s no big deal that he just bought a brand-new car.
“I can’t afford the payments on something like this. I was thinking more like a used Toyota or minivan.”
“First, you don’t have to worry about the payments. It’s already taken care of. Second, I’m not driving a damn minivan around. You might as well put me in cargo shorts to my knees and a tucked-in shirt with a belt, white socks, and tennis shoes.”
I giggle at the dad image he just painted that’s so not Ryder.
“And third, I don’t trust used vehicles unless I’m the one who put it together. I want to know you both are safe when you are driving, and I know Porsches like the back of my hand, so if anything goes wrong, I can fix it. I even got it in black so we can match.”
Sliding into the vehicle, I inhale the new scent of leather and admire its beauty. I reach up and push the button on the sunroof, and most of the roof disappears. The Florida sun shines down, warming my skin.
“She’s a beauty, isn’t she.” I can hear his satisfied grin on the other end of the phone when he realizes I’m checking it out. “Admit it, she’s turning you on a bit. She’s not as sexy as mine, but you’re going to love driving her.”
“Are you talking car porn to me right now?” I run my hand over the stitching on the tan leather seats, remembering the thrill whenever I would get in one of Ryder’s cars. He loves to push the limits with speed, but I always felt safe with him. I trust him with my life. It’s also sexy as hell watching him shift those gears.
“Is it working?” His voice goes lower, and I wonder if he’s thinking the same thing I am. We could never get enough of each other whenever we took one of Jimmy’s cars for a spin. It would turn us both on so much that we would tear each other’s clothes off the minute we got back home, the adrenaline running high in our bodies.
“It is,” I whisper. I swallow down the desire that’s beginning to build up. After our talk with his parents and sister last night, it brought up a lot of emotions all over again. He went to bed shortly after, saying he had to work early. I laid there most of the night, wishing I was on the other side of the wall with his arms around me.
“I knew you would love it. You were always so wet for me after I would take you for a drive,” he murmurs in my ear. “Do you remember all the times I took you against the front door because we couldn’t even make it to our bedroom?”
“I remember.” I grip the phone tighter as my body comes to life with his words. He has been thinking the same thing as me.
“Are you wet for me now, Eve? Is your pussy begging for my touch?” I close my eyes and press my thighs together. He knows exactly what he’s doing to me. I’ve always loved it when he talks dirty to me. I don’t know how many times I would lock my bedroom door, and he would take care of me over the phone whenever I couldn’t sneak away to be with him. His voice has a way of making my body a slave to him and can easily make me cum when he talks like this.
“I am.” A soft moan escapes as I start to throb where I crave him right now.
“Good.”
I wait for him to say more, but he doesn’t. I know he’s still enjoying this little punishment he has going. If it’s helping him work through some shit, I’ll let him have his fun for now. He and I both know, though, that it’s only a matter of time before it all comes to a head. Not being together is like trying to live without air, and sooner or later, you are going to need to take what allows you to breathe.