Chapter 19
Tide
“IT’S HALLOWEEN!” I hear Olivia shout, and I jolt awake right before the bed bounces, and she lands on my chest, making me grunt. “Did you hear me? It’s Halloween.”
“I heard you.” I smile at my beautiful girl and brush her hair off her cheek. “Good morning, angel.”
“Morning, Daddy.” She touches her nose to mine, something she’s never done before, then she looks to my side where Aria is curled up against me, and whispers, “It’s Halloween Aria.”
“I heard.” I feel Aria’s cheek move against my bicep and know she’s smiling as she reaches out to touch Olivia’s nose with the tip of her finger.
“Aren’t you excited we get to eat candy all day?” She rolls off my chest to her back, which places her between Aria and me, and I move to my side and rest my head in the palm of my hand. Since she was little, she’s loved Halloween more than any of the other holidays. I thought as she got older it would change, but it hasn’t, which is why I’ve given up Christmas Day most years. As much as I love seeing her open gifts Christmas morning, I know she really looks forward to today, eating junk and dressing up with me, and I want her to have that for as long as this time lasts.
“You don’t get to eat candy all day, angel.”
“I kind of do.” She holds up her small hand and ticks off one finger. “You always make me Reese’s chip pancakes on Halloween.” She holds up another finger. “Then we always go to Grandma’s, and she gives me lots of candy when I help her.” She holds up another finger. “And tonight when I get done trick-or-treating, I get to eat all the candy I won.”
“Right,” I mumble, and Aria laughs, then Olivia rolls her way and rests her hand against her cheek, the contact causing Aria’s expression to gentle and my heart to squeeze.
“Can we finish carving our pumpkins before we go to Grandma and Grandpa’s?” Last night, it took forever to get the mess we made cleaned up, so by the time we were done and showered, we headed into town to pick up pizza, then came home to eat it and watch a movie.
“Yes,” Aria says quietly, and Olivia crawls forward to touch their noses together like she did with me, then she pushes up to stand and begins jumping up and down.
“Why don’t you go brush your teeth, and when you’re done, we’ll head down to make breakfast.”
“Okay.” She bounces on to the edge of the bed, lands on her bottom, before dropping to the ground and running out of the room. With her gone, I reach out for Aria and drag her across the bed toward me.
“Morning, baby.” I burrow my face into the side of her neck, then kiss her shoulder and pull back to look at her.
“Morning.” She rests her palm against my chest, her expression the same as it was last night when I brought up us having kids and getting married. Two things I’m looking forward to doing with her. Two things she seemed surprised I wanted. How she hasn’t realized I’m obsessed with her is anyone’s guess. “I know I shouldn’t be thinking about tomorrow morning already, but I’m going to be bummed when Olivia goes back to her mom’s.”
“Me too.” I lean in to brush my mouth across hers, then tuck a piece of her hair behind her ear. “But we’ll have her back in a week.”
“I guess you’re right.” She tips her head to the side. “So Reese’s chip pancakes for breakfast?”
“It’s Halloween.” I grin, then ask, “Is Gia still meeting us at Mom’s?” With Colton working tonight, Aria invited Gia to spend Halloween with us, even with Gino too young to actually trick-or-treat she wanted to have photos of him dressed up.
“That’s the plan, and I told her that we will just get ready there. That way, we’re not trying to eat dinner in our costumes. What time is Anna picking up Olivia from your parents?”
“Around nine. She called yesterday to let me know she has a date, so she might be a little later.”
“That’s good that she’s dating. I hope it gets serious,” she mumbles, and I chuckle my agreement before I plant a kiss on her lips and get out of bed. Once I’m standing, I haul her across the mattress, then lift her up to stand, and she blinks up at me and looks back at the bed.
“We don’t have time to lounge in bed today, baby. We got pumpkins to carve and junk food to eat.” I usher her toward the bathroom with a smack on her bottom, then go check on Olivia to make sure she’s on task and head back down the hall to get dressed before we all head downstairs.
In the kitchen with the girls settled at the table a few feet away, I get the stuff out to make pancakes while listening to them talk. Olivia has always been a pretty good kid, but she’s blossomed under Aria’s adoration and easygoing personality this week. Seeing the bond they are building has only reinforced that Aria is it for me.
“Now that we have our design, we need to draw it on the pumpkin,” Aria says as my cell rings, and I grab it off the counter, seeing Anna calling. I glance over at Aria, who’s helping Olivia tape a cutout of a cat wearing a witch’s hat to their pumpkin as I answer the call.
“Anna.”
“Hey, is Olivia there?”
“Yep, hold on.” I set the phone on the counter and look at the table. “Angel, your mom wants to talk to you.”
“Okay, Dad.” She hops off the chair she’s sitting on and grabs my phone as I flip on the burner and half listen to her talk to her mom. Dealing with Anna these last few weeks has been a roller coaster of fucked up. One minute, she’s overly sweet, asking me to do shit around her house or to help her out, then when she realizes I’m not stupid enough to fall for her games, her attitude starts right back up and she goes back to threatening to take Olivia from me if I don’t fall in line. The thing she doesn’t know is I’ve already spoken to my lawyer, and he’s assured me that she can’t decide to change things just because I’m dating and she doesn’t like that. “Dad, Mom wants to talk to you.”
“Thanks, angel.” I take the phone from her, then wait until she goes back to Aria to put my cell to my ear. “What’s up?”
“My date canceled tonight, so I’ll be at your parents’ at six.”
“Anna, you know we’re going to be out trick-or-treating then, so that’s not going to work.”
“Well, I’ll join you guys then.” She huffs and my gut gets tight.
Right.
I flip off the burner and step out of kitchen, not wanting Olivia to hear me if I lose my mind.
“You’re going to join Olivia, Aria, and me?” I try to keep my tone even, when I want to ask what the actual fuck she’s thinking now.
“I didn’t know your girlfriend was going to be with you.”
“You did.” I know she did, because Olivia told her when I was at her place, and she got a sour look on her face, which caused Olivia to lose her excitement about it and close down.
“Can’t you just be an adult for once? This doesn’t have to be a big deal, Tide. And your girlfriend should learn to deal with the fact that you have an ex you share custody with.”