cloud had appeared over his daughter’s head as soon as Grace told them she was going on a date. Maia no longer wanted movie night with him. She just shut herself in her room to brood.
Although Logan was beyond grateful for everything Grace had done for Maia there was a part of him that was peeved her actions could affect his daughter so much. It wasn’t her fault. Grace was entitled to a life outside of them. But Maia had latched onto Grace with a possessiveness that worried him… mostly because she wasn’t the only fucking one.
“Maia?” he called softly.
No answer.
“At least grunt, sweetheart, so I know you’re alive.”
“I’m alive,” she muttered. “Tired.”
He frowned but replied, “Okay, sweetheart. Night.”
“Night, Dad.”
That produced another flare in his chest. This time a good one. He wandered back into the sitting room and picked up his phone. He didn’t know what he was hoping for. A text from Grace to tell him she was bored, that she needed rescued.
That it was him she wanted fucking her senseless and not some arsehole her friend had set her up with.
Jesus, his head was all over the place because it wasn’t as if anything could happen with Grace. Maia was acting weird whenever he showed an interest in a woman and according to Grace it was because she still didn’t feel secure in his affections. Truthfully, if someone had told him he would be a full-time dad a few months ago he would have told them to bolt. No way. But as soon as he clapped eyes on his wee girl, who unfortunately, wasn’t much of a wee girl anymore, he’d felt something shift inside him.
When he realized everything she’d been through, it became his mission in life to make Maia’s life the best life possible. She’d had a shitty start but Logan would make sure she never felt neglected again in her life. He couldn’t make up for those years, and it killed him that he’d lost those years. It killed him he’d missed her first steps, her first words, the possibility of her first word being ‘daddy’.
He’d never get that with her.
But he’d get her sweet sixteenth, her first date (when she was thirty), her graduation, her first day at uni. He’d walk her down the aisle. He’d dance with her at her wedding. And he’d hold her in his arms as she held her first child in hers.
He’d make bloody sure of that.
Maia would know she was loved in all of that. However, that would all take time. Right now it was important she knew she had his entire focus and attention. These feelings he was developing for Grace had really bad timing.
They needed to be shoved aside for Maia’s sake.
Still, as much as he tried to convince himself of that, he found himself pacing the flat, driving himself crazy with what ifs. What if this guy she met she liked? What if they started dating and it grew serious? What if she no longer had time for Maia? For him?
Logan grew more and more agitated, and more and more pissed off by his agitation. The moment he stepped out of his apartment and saw her standing in the hallway, glaring at a dripping thong on the banister he was done for. He just didn’t know it then. Instead he’d taken her in, in classy clothes with her perfect honey hair, and perfect complexion that needed no make-up it was that fucking flawless, and he’d resented her on sight. Once upon a time she was exactly the kind of woman he thought he’d end up with. Classy, stylish, soft-spoken, and smart enough to make him laugh. Really fucking laugh. She’d never be easy, she’d be a challenge, but one that would never bore him.
Then he went to prison and it fucking hurt to realize that a woman like that was forever out of his reach. So he made an art form out of sleeping with easy.
And when Grace had stared at him in distaste he thought someone had told her about his time in prison, and he’d thought how goddamn right he’d been.
Until that day with Shannon and his bitchy neighbor and he realized Grace could give a shit he’d been to prison. Grace was pissed off because he was interrupting his sleep… and to his shock as she’d blushed under his surprised stare, she was pissed off because she was attracted to him.
He quickly realized, too, that she didn’t want to be attracted