“You’re staying with me tonight, right?”
“Yes.” I don’t hesitate.
“You need to stop and get clothes?”
“I should get something to sleep in at least. I can come home in the morning and shower.”
“How about you get something to wear tomorrow and get what you need to shower at my place?”
“I have to open the shop in the morning.”
He nods. “I know, but I want you to make breakfast with us and start your day with us. Then when you close up, I want you to come home to us.”
“Then, yeah, I’m going to need a few things.” Everything he just said is what I want. Only, I wish I didn’t have to go to work. I want to spend my morning with the three of them. I think it's time to hire more help at the bookstore. Things are going well, but I’ve never had much of a dating life, so I just worked the hours, saving me and the business even more money because of it. I can afford it. I want to spend time with Grayson and the girls. I’ll be placing a Help Wanted sign in the front window very soon.
Chapter 18
Grayson
When we made it back to my place, Laken and I both carried one of the girls inside. She helped me get them in their pajamas and coerce them to use the potty before tucking them in. It’s been a long damn time since I’ve had help with the twins’ nightly routine. If tonight has shown me anything, it’s that I didn’t realize how lonely I was. I’ve been missing the companionship that comes with a relationship.
Laken fits so well with us. She jumps right in and helps with the girls. She listens to their silly stories, and she shows them love and compassion. I never imagined sharing my life with anyone but Holly. Life had other plans, and here I am. A single father, twin girls, and the boyfriend of a woman who blows my mind.
She’s everything I want. She’s everything I need. I already know I never want to let her go.
I’m not going to tell her that. She’d think I’ve lost my mind, and maybe I have. All I know is that she appeared in my life for a reason I can’t explain, not when technically she’s been there all along. Now, what I want to do is keep her close. I want to submerge her in my life and my daughters’. I want to see where this goes.
Some may say it’s too soon to bring a woman into my daughters’ life. We’ve only been dating a handful of weeks, but I’m confident this is the right thing for us.
I had the same feeling when Holly and I started dating all the way back in high school. I knew she was going to change my life. At the time, I didn’t know it would be to show me love and give me a part of both of us. I didn’t know when the twins were born they would be forever a piece of the two of us or that we would lose their mother when we did, when they were so young. Holly is gone, her time here on earth ended far too soon, but there is still a piece of her here. Two four-year-old pieces who are the best parts of both of us. I owe it to them to show them what it looks like for a man to love a woman.
“You ready for bed?” I ask Laken, leading her by the hand to my bedroom down the hall.
“I need to go grab my bag out of the truck.”
“I’ll get it. Be right back.” I kiss her quickly before going to grab her bag out of my truck. She wanted to just follow me over, but it’s late, and I insisted on driving. Sure, my house is a few miles at best outside of town, but that doesn’t matter. I wanted her with me.
Rushing back to my room, I peek in on the girls, who are sound asleep, and then disappear behind my bedroom door. I place her bag on the floor and allow my feet to carry me to where she’s sitting on the bed. Her eyes are trained on a picture of Holly and the girls sitting on the nightstand.
“She was beautiful,” she whispers.
Shit. I don’t know how to handle this. Do I apologize? I mean, she’s my kids’ mother. She left this world tragically, and I want them to know she’s still a big part of our lives. “She was.”
I reach for the picture and start to place it facedown, but Laken’s hand on mine stops me. “Please don’t.” I stop my movements, my eyes finding hers. “She’s their mother.”
“I can move it to the living room or add it to the ones that the girls have in their room.”