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“I’ve never been so happy,” I said, wanting him to know what I was feeling. I wanted to make good on my promise to make sure he always knew how much I loved him.
His smile was so beautiful it took my breath away. “Me neither. How about you? Have you ever been so happy?” he asked Hannah.
“I liked the zoo.”
I laughed.
“I did too. Did you know that the Mermaid Parade is coming next weekend?” Ash said.
Hannah’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “With real mermaids?”
“I don’t know,” Ash said. “We’ll need to go find out.”
“Can we, Mommy?”
“Honey you don’t need my permission to do something with your Daddy.”
“She’ll come too,” Ash said. “We’re a family.”
After breakfast, Hannah colored while I helped Ash with the dishes.
“Did I tell you I quit my job?”
“Yes. I hope that wasn’t because of me,” I said.
“I did it in protest of all my dad did to hurt us,” he said putting the just washed pan on the counter.
I picked it up to dry it. “Are you having second thoughts?”
“Not so much. If this deal with your company goes through, I’ll need to be involved especially if Ben won’t be. Not that you couldn’t do it, but—”
“I don’t want to do it.” I looked down, hoping he didn’t think I was expecting to live off him like some gold digger. “I never wanted to go into the family business. I did it because my dad wanted me too.”
Ash stopped washing to look at me. “What did you want to do?”
I laughed. “I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
He reached out and took my hand. “What do you want to do now?”
“Love you and be Hannah’s mom.”
“I can only pay you in sex,” he joked.
“I can live with that. It’s not that I don’t want to work, Ash. I’m not asking for a free ride here.”
“Right now, Hannah needs you. That seems like a full-time job.”
“She goes to school in the fall, which will give me more time.”
“So why not spend the summer figuring out what you want? If you want to go back to school, I’ll pay—”
“That’s not what I’m asking.”
“I know. But it’s what I’m offering. Your happiness is important to me, Beth.”
“You’re the most amazing man in the world, do you know that?”
He grinned. “I was pretty good last night.” Then he kissed my head. “There’s no rush to figure this out. I might need some guidance around Ben, but other than that, you can spend your time with Hannah and figuring out your passion.”
“I know my passion,” I said, waggling my brows. “I just don’t know what I want to do as a career or what my purpose is.”
“You’ll figure it out. I’ll be curious to discover what it is. In the meantime, I should probably go to work to ensure my father doesn’t fuck up this deal—”
“Daddy, that’s a bad word.”
“Ah hell—”
“That is too.”
I laughed. “You’ll figure it out.”
He laughed too and then sobered slightly. “You’re okay with us buying McAdams Enterprises, aren’t you?”
“I’m fine with it. But if it doesn’t work out, I’m okay with that too. Mostly I’d like it for Ben. He’s put so much of himself into it and I hate that it’s completely breaking him.”
“Let me carry that burden with you, Beth.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled him to me, resting my head on his chest. “All the best things in my life have come when I’m with you.”
33
Beth – The following Saturday
It only took a couple of days to feel like Ash and I had always been together. We settled into a routine easily, spending as much time together as we could with Hannah, settling into being a family.
We had dinner with Hunter and his fiancé Grace, who was a lovely woman, and who Ash credited for helping Hunter deal with his PTSD. They were so sweet with Hannah and I was glad for her to have more family. The next night, we had dinner with Chase and his young wife, Sara, who was very pregnant. She picked my brain about childbirth and being a mom. Later, Kade, who I remembered as being a spoiled brat, and his father came over. I was nervous about seeing Mr. Raven again since he’d caused Ash and me so much pain. He was gracious and surprisingly sweet to Hannah, but that didn’t completely erase my resentment.
By Friday, a crew had come in to turn Hannah’s room into a zoo. Because he had the space, Ash gave her a second room for playing that had her mermaid theme. She was ecstatic and adored Ash. My heart broke open with love every time I saw them together.
Ben grumbled about Ash and me being together but kept his word about not speaking bad about Ash, especially in front of Hannah.
