The show-stealer, however, had to be the enormous inflatable Grinch on my front lawn. Right now, he was half slumped over, clearly needing more inflation, and he looked a little out of place on the mostly green lawn. The snow had melted overnight from the surprising warm-up, but it wasn’t due to last too long. I could already picture him glowing brightly green against the blanket of white.
Samantha would be so excited. If she didn’t start screaming in fright.
I swallowed over and over, but nothing seemed to diminish the lump in my throat.
This was all new to me. My mom had taken off when I’d been too young to remember much. I definitely didn’t recall her trying to make Christmas amazing for Mason and I.
Ever since I’d hit adulthood, I had shoved the notion of family holidays beyond my given family into a deep, dark closet. Some people weren’t made for lasting coupledom and the whole deal with kids. And I’d been okay with it. More than that, I had believed it was best for me.
Now I was in early talks with my lawyer to make sure my daughter would remain mine despite any potential future legal challenges from her mother—unlikely or not. Preston had agreed to handle this situation for me, and he’d asked me today if I wanted to go so far as to submit paperwork to Samantha’s mother to formally sever her parental rights. I didn’t want to risk her coming back into the baby’s life and confusing her or worse, hurting her. As far as I was concerned, she’d lost her chance with her kid. She’d put her in a basket and left her on the porch of a dude she barely knew on a brutally cold night.
Of course before I filed that paperwork, I had to actually do a paternity test.
I hadn’t answered Gina’s question last week about if the baby’s biological mother knew I was a cop. I couldn’t even give her that much credit. I’d deliberately been vague about who I was, although I’d told her where I lived. Crescent Cove was notorious in some circles for our baby boom, especially in New York State, so I’d wanted to be honest about my hometown in case she didn’t want to take the risk.
Maybe now the Cove’s reach was spreading. I had brought bottled lake water on my trip. I rarely disputed such seemingly impossible theories these days. I had the baby to prove it, even if we hadn’t done the deed in the town proper.
She hadn’t earned her parental rights, but that was only part of why I wanted to make sure she had no ties to the kid. The rest had to do with the woman who was trying her hardest to give my little girl an incredible holiday, even if she wouldn’t remember it later on.
But deep down, Samantha would know. The details wouldn’t be clear, but she would understand she had a home. A foundation. And yes, even a family.
Co-headed by an often clueless dude who would still do his very best to take care of the ones he lo—
Cared about. I cared so much.
I withdrew my keys from the ignition and closed them in my fist. I didn’t want to scare off Bee. Didn’t want to burden her with a child she hadn’t made. But it seemed as if she was choosing her. As if she was choosing us. I didn’t exactly grasp what that meant or what all this would look like going forward, but maybe we could just try.
Just see.
We were so good together. My buddy, John, had made it his life’s work to tease me about finally hooking up with Gina. August too. I hadn’t let myself go there, since I’d never wanted to risk messing up a damn great thing.
But what if that great thing could get even better?
I shifted in my seat. This line of self-questioning was not due to the prompting of my half hard cock, just from thinking about her brushing against me while we gave the baby a bath.
Okay, while she gave her a bath.
Or when we were reheating our late night snack, standing together at the stove, hip-checking each other and laughing.
Last night, we’d curled up on the couch to watch those relentlessly perky holiday rom-coms, and she’d set her socked feet in my lap like she always did. Except this time, I’d wanted to start with my usual foot massage—and just keep on going up her sexy as