“I’m sure Tide would be okay with you staying at his house.” I look at my guy, and my dad turns his way.
“I’ll give you the address and one of the spare keys. You can take a look around, and if you want it, consider it yours as long as you need it.”
“I appreciate that,” Dad says, then looks at his watch. “I have some stuff to take care of today. I’m scheduled to meet a client in an hour.”
“Of course,” I agree, and he sets down his still mostly full cup of coffee.
“Thank you both for last night.” He clears his throat as his gaze meets mine. “I’m sorry, Aria, for everything.”
Tears cause my nose to sting, and I hold onto my cup tighter when I really just want to get up and give him a hug. “I’m sorry too.”
“Never doubt that I love you. You are the best thing I ever did in my life, and I know I’ve messed up. But I want to have a relationship with you.”
“I want that too.” The words are barely audible over the sudden tightness in my throat.
“Then we will work on that while I work on me,” he says, and a sense of hopefulness fills me, because it’s the first time he’s ever acknowledged that he has a problem and that things between us are not like they should be.
“I’ll call you this evening, if that’s all right with you.”
“You can call me anytime, and my couch is always available if you need a place to crash.” I get up to walk him to the door, and he shocks me by wrapping his arms around me.
“I love you,” he says, and the tears I’ve been fighting back fill my eyes before I can stop them, then start to leak down my cheeks. “Never doubt that.”
Unable to speak, I nod, then he transfers me to Tide. I burrow against his warm, hard chest as his arms wrap around me, and he holds me tight as the front door closes. “Did that just happen?”
“It did.” His arms around me get tighter. “The situation with you mom cheating with your ex might have woke him up, baby.”
“Maybe.” I agree then let out a deep breath. “I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I really do hope he get’s it together, not for me but for himself.”
“I hope so too.” He kisses the top of my hair and I lean my head back to meet his gaze.
“So my dad is leaving my mom and hopefully getting sober, and you’re officially moving in with me even though you’ve been basically living here since I have?”
“Yep.” He says as his eyes roam over my face.
“It’s a busy day and it’s not even ten.”
“Yep.” His lips curve up into a smile, and I lean up on my tiptoes to kiss him but keep my hand against his jaw.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For always being right where I need you to be, for being strong, for loving me the way that you do and for knowing just what I need.”
“Loving you is easy Aria, and you feeling like you’re getting what you need from me just means I’m doing my job.”
“Only you would make it seem like it’s not a big deal.” I roll my eyes and his hand slides around my back so that he can pull us closer together.
“Stop talking and kiss me.” He orders and I sigh, then give him what he wants because I always what him to feel like he’s getting what he needs from me too.
Epilogue
Tide
Three Months Later
“STOP HIM!” I hear Aria shout as I open the door to our house.
Olivia yells, “I can’t! He’s too fast.”
Not sure what I just walked into, I kick off my boots, then slip off my coat and beanie, tossing both to the back of one of the chairs around the dining table before I walk farther into the house. As I step into the kitchen, Mittens—the cat George bought for Olivia—zooms down the steps from upstairs and runs into the living room. A long ribbon trails behind him as both girls pound down the steps.
“You couldn’t stop him!” Aria cries, running behind Olivia, and I smile as both of my girls chase the cat around the room in an attempt to rid him of the red ribbon that he somehow got taped to his back leg. With the two of them unable to capture him, I grab his bag of treats from his cabinet and shake it. Like always, he stops what he’s doing, comes directly to the source of his favorite food, and curls his body around my feet.
“Why didn’t we think of that?” Olivia asks as I pick him up.
“I have no idea.” Aria rolls her eyes at me when I smile before she unwraps the tape and ribbon from his leg.
“I’ll take him back upstairs and get ready,” Olivia says, and Aria takes the cat from my hold, handing her to my daughter. She carries him up the steps, reprimanding him quietly for what he did, as she disappears out of sight.
“I really don’t know why my dad thought it was a good idea to get Olivia a cat for Christmas,” Aria says, shaking her head and tossing the ribbon in her hand into the trash.
“She loves that cat,” I remind her. “And your dad adores her.”
“He does,” she agrees with a sigh, and I smile again. I didn’t know what would happen after George said he was going to leave Aria’s mom. Part of me doubted that he would follow through, but he did, and he did it in a big way. Not only did he leave Beatrice, but he moved into my old house, started going to AA, and has put in the effort to get to know his daughter.
I’m sure it hasn’t been easy for him, but he has stuck with it, which says a lot about the kind of man he is. Her mom, for her part, moved to California to live with Josh after her divorce was finalized, and how they are doing is anyone’s guess. Josh’s request for more alimony was denied, and the judge cut down his monthly payments to half of what they were. He also put a time limit of two years or until Josh remarries for how long he could receive benefits from Aria. It wasn’t what I wanted, which would be him getting nothing, but knowing his hold over her has a time stamp makes me feel a little better about the situation.
“Are we still meeting everyone in town for dinner?” I wrap my arms around her, and her wide eyes meet mine as her hands land on my chest. One of those hands is sporting the two-karat diamond ring I proposed to her with while we were out to dinner with my family, her dad, and Colton and Gia a week before Christmas. Two weeks later, I slid a heavy solid band on behind it when we got married at the courthouse in town, her not wanting a big show but wanting to make it official.
“Yes, we have reservations.” She licks her lips, and my eyes narrow on her mouth before they meet her gaze.
“What happened?”
“Nothing happened.” She puts pressure on my chest for me to let her go, but I refuse by holding her tighter.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Just tell me and get it over with.” I give her a squeeze, and her eyes narrow on mine. Over the last couple of months, she and my mother, she and Olivia, she and Gia, and even she and Anna have conspired against me on more than one occasion, and she always has the same facial expression when she’s getting ready to spring some news on me or ask me to do something. Thankfully, it hasn’t been anything that might lead to me losing my mind, but it’s still always been something.