“What do you say to Mr. Jack?” I prompted.
Her gaze landed on the handsome man beside me. “Thank you for letting me stay here.”
“You’re very welcome.” Jack mimicked my stance just as Siarra came over and squeezed between his spread knees. “Thank you for playing with Siarra.”
“Daddy, is it pancake time?”
Gathering his daughter into his arms, he stood and smiled. “Let’s go see if Mommy and Uncle Trey are ready for us.”
“I see, I see,” Madden called out, scurrying right past us out the door.
Shane was next to saunter over, whispering something to Alivia and prompting her to giggle.
“Daddy, let me down,” Siarra said. We then watched Alivia take Siarra’s hand, and the three of them followed after Madden.
“She’s a doll,” Jack said once we were alone. “Siarra adores her.”
“Well, I’m so glad she got to spend time with you guys.”
“Ready for a chaotic breakfast? Between us, Trey is about to get a good dose of humiliation.”
“Oh boy… I look forward to that,” I admitted with a grin.
“Oh, me too. Hunter and Scott will be pissed they missed it.” He returned a dimpled smile of his own while waving a hand toward the doorway. “After you.”
Breakfast was disguised as a party for Trey. Everyone was forced to wear birthday hats while we feasted on pancakes. Most were perfectly shaped Mickey Mouse faces, and then there were a few that mimicked giant blobs with eyes—pancakes Trey claimed were planned to look like that.
After a birthday cake, Trey was presented with a homemade card that read, To the best Daddy.
I watched the expression on his face alter as he read the inside. With Leila’s help, Alivia had made a butterfly from painted imprints of her hands, and she’d spelled out her name with a bunch of heart stickers. I swear he teared up when she squeezed his neck and kissed his cheek.
Jack was sure to take a ton of pictures to share with the rest of their band. And when Trey thought no one was looking, he flipped his friend off with a scowl.
We decided to get Alivia home. Although she protested, the glassiness in her eyes, along with a series of yawns, had us sticking to our guns.
Sure enough, we were ten minutes into the ride to Queens when she conked out. Leila had apologized, because no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get their middle-of-the-night giggles to stop. A part of me was eager to get her back into a routine. As wonderful as her new life had suddenly become, the need to keep her grounded overwhelmed me.
Trey admitted he was eager to have her sleep in her room at his place but understood she had summer camp the next day and activities to resume. We agreed to go back to normal on weekdays and keep playdates and sleepovers for weekends.
“Summer is winding down. When is her camp over?” he asked quietly.
“She has two more weeks before she’s out of camp, and then school starts the week after Labor Day.”
He thought about the information. “Usually, Jack and Leila have us all out for Labor Day weekend, but this year they’re taking the kids to Disney World before school starts.” Wondering what he was getting at, I waited for him to add, “They offered us the house.” When my mouth gaped, he nodded. “Yeah. They thought it would be a nice way to have privacy while enjoying the last bit of summer.”
“I don’t know.”
But when I didn’t elaborate, he asked, “What don’t you know?”
My attention briefly cut to Alivia between us. “Is it too soon?”
He stared back for a beat. “Well, the offer stands, and we have two weeks to think about it.”
“Okay.” I turned my head toward the window, but the visuals that came were of Trey, Alivia, and me acting as a family in that paradise at the Jersey Shore.
Wanting it more than anything didn’t mean it was the right thing to do. Since day one, it was scary how Trey seemed to be running into newfound fatherhood instead of walking. Throwing our relationship into the mix made it even scarier.
But just as he was working on breaking patterns, I guessed I needed to as well. Trust wasn’t something that I doled out easily. Maybe it was time I did.
Once we got to my apartment, Alivia woke as Trey carried her in. Having skipped lunch, she used her charm to convince her father to stay for an early dinner. We brought in a pizza and then sang “Happy Birthday” yet again after placing a candle in one of the cupcakes left from the day before.
As she ate the last bite, I reminded her she needed to take a bath and get to bed on time because of camp the next day, and she then convinced Trey to stay to read her a story.
While she squatted before her bookcase, carefully choosing the perfect book, I whispered, “I bet she could get you to jump off a bridge.”
He regarded me with that damn smirk. “Your point?”
“You can say no to her. She’ll survive.”
“Nah… I plan on letting you be the bad guy.” When I scowled at him, he twisted his head to be sure Alivia was still preoccupied before planting a hard kiss on my lips. “You’re good at it.”
“Okay, this one,” Alivia announced before I could argue. She waved her favorite hardcover read in the air, promptly slipped under her covers, and patted the spot beside her. “Come on, Daddy. You’ll love this one.”
And I had no doubt Trey would love learning all about her favorite princess just because his little girl said so.
Chapter 29
Trey
It’d been only one week since we were last in the studio recording, but it felt like months. So much had happened, from telling my daughter the truth to turning a corner with her mother. Alivia was now part of my world, and that was both exhilarating and terrifying.
I truly couldn’t believe how different my life had become in such a short amount of time. One summer had changed everything I thought I knew, everything I thought I wanted. So completely different that it was hard to remember how lonely my life had been before this past June.
When I wasn’t with Alivia, I ached to be. Now that I’d had Camilla, I wanted her every day. Fucking crazy how much I’d changed.
Even as I stood strumming my bass and playing my part to perfection, my mind was on the two girls who had effectively rocked my world.
But last night, while lying in my bed, my mind had been strictly on Camilla. The way she felt as I slid into her warmth. The way she clung to me as she came. I know it’d been a while for me, yet she’d sparked something much deeper than just desire. She’d managed to awaken an ache within me that had been long buried… a good ache. Not the kind I was used to that pulsed in my cock.
This ache was smack in the middle of my chest… a place that hadn’t felt anything other than pain since Tara’s death two years ago. The ache was better than the pain.
Before last night it was kissing her that pulled me in. Now every part of me, from head to toe, was involved. My mind hadn’t stopped remembering the way she felt in my arms. My lips burned to taste more of her. My cock screamed from behind the zipper of my jeans for a repeat. And my heart, well, it just wanted to hold her.
The emotions that ripped through me were so powerful I felt like a fish that had been out of water for too long. Aimlessly thrashing around on the cold, hard sand, trying to remember how to act once it rejoined with the sea. And then the moment that wave of cold seawater picked it up and carried it away, it was as if it hadn’t been separated at all.