Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88841 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“Of course.”
“Dada!” Addie yells as Ryder gets out of the pool.
“He’ll be right back,” I tell her, pushing her wet hair out of her eyes while trying and failing not to look at Ryder as he walks away with his muscular back on display, droplets of water trailing down his body. I’ve never been jealous of water until now …
Once he disappears inside, I take a deep breath and vow to get my shit together. I have too much going on to be thinking about him sexually. It doesn’t matter that I’ve gone over six months without sex—and even longer without good sex. I need to focus on what’s important—Violet and our future.
A few minutes later, Ryder returns with the food and drinks—and thankfully has a shirt on. We eat, both of us focusing on the kids, and even though it should be awkward, it’s not. Violet fills the silence with talk of the museum we’re going to visit tomorrow while Ryder acts like it’s the coolest place in the world.
“You wanna go?” Violet asks him, making me damn near choke on my drink.
“I think it’s just you and your mom going,” he says.
“Yeah, but you can go too. Right, Mommy?”
“I’m not sure Addie will have as much fun as you, but they can go if they want.” I shrug.
“You wanna go?” Violet repeats to Ryder, who smiles warmly at her.
“Sure,” he says.
“Okay! Can I go swimming again?”
“Go ahead,” I tell her since I’m done with my food anyway. “But first, what do you say to Ryder for buying this pizza?”
“Thank you,” she says. “It was yummy!”
Then, she takes off like a bat out of hell toward the steps.
“Thank you,” I tell him.
“You’re welcome,” he says, wiping Addie’s face.
So she didn’t feel left out, he cut up some of the crust so she could munch on it, along with her dinner.
We make our way back to the pool, both of us sitting on the steps while Addie sits between Ryder’s legs, splashing in the water.
As Violet flies down the slide for the millionth time, her giggles fill the air, and I inhale a breath of fresh air. The sun is setting, and the orange backdrop is picturesque. The past couple of months have been rough, and I don’t know what the future holds, but right now, my daughter is happy and laughing, we have a roof over our heads, and our bellies are full.
I can’t ask for much more than that.
chapter six
RYDER
“What do you mean, she’s homeless?” Ana shrieks over the phone, telling me everything I need to know—she had no idea that Kira and Violet had been living out of their SUV. Had she known, we’d have been having an entirely different conversation.
“She’s been parking at the top of the garage, and they’ve been sleeping in their vehicle.”
“Oh my God. I didn’t know,” she cries. “How did you find out?”
Even though I’m in my office, which is nowhere near where the girls are situated in their room and taking showers while Addie sleeps soundly in her own room, I speak low, not wanting to risk Kira overhearing me.
I tell Ana how I needed to run back up to my office to send a budget report over to Julian that I forgot to save, and when I came out, I saw Kira and Violet heading to the car. I go into detail about finding them camping out at the top of the garage like they were in a camper and not a fucking SUV and her freaking out because she thought I was going to turn her in and have her daughter taken away.
“What are we going to do?” Ana breathes. “We can’t let them keep sleeping in their vehicle.”
“I know. But Kira is too proud to take a handout.”
“So, what should we do?”
“I was thinking I could hire her as my live-in nanny.”
I’ve been thinking about how to fix this since I found them, and it’s the only solution that I can come up with that will give them a safe place to stay while Kira works.
“You’d do that?” Ana asks. “I thought you didn’t want to hire a nanny.”
“You said it yourself. With Kingston staying home with you, it only leaves Addie for her to care for. She might as well do it from the comfort of my home.”
If there were any other solution, I’d be all over it, but handing her money would be a slap in her face. She doesn’t want to be a charity case. If she did, she wouldn’t have been coming to work every damn day, surrounded by wealth, with a smile on her face and working her ass off, all while living out of her vehicle. She would’ve asked for help already, which she hasn’t. Hell, even after I found out, the only thing she asked was for me not to turn her in.