Seeking Happily Ever After (Ever After #8) - Elena Aitken Page 0,3

Nick was the opposite. The quiet made it impossible to silence his own thoughts long enough to get the answers he needed.

And he needed answers.

After Amelia’s early morning wake-up, he’d been unable to get back to sleep and had instead decided to do a little more research into his situation before calling his lawyer at the much more reasonable hour of five a.m. Nick knew Chris was awake, and no doubt already at his desk. He was the only person who worked harder than Nick and Damon—when they’d been working on their design—which was why Chris Montgomery had been the perfect choice for their team.

He hadn’t been surprised to hear from Nick, either. “Have you thought more about your situation?” Chris never was one for small talk.

“It’s all I can think about.”

Chris was one of the very few people who knew the truth about baby Amelia’s parentage. At least as much as anyone knew. Only Jessica knew who her father actually was. At least, Nick assumed she knew. But that could turn out to be a pretty big assumption, given Jessica’s lifestyle at the time.

“And?” Chris had presented Nick with a few options for how to proceed with Amelia. There was only one really good choice, but that didn’t stop Nick from feeling badly about it. “Nick, you know there’s only one thing to do.”

He did know.

“If you want that little girl to stay with you, it’s the only choice.”

Nick swallowed. “I know.”

“So you want me to proceed with adoption?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

Adoption would mean that Amelia was his and no one could take her from him. He had the best legal team money could buy, and Chris had assured him that they’d do everything they could to make it come together quickly and as painlessly as possible. Which no doubt also meant it would cost him. But Nick didn’t care. He only cared about making sure Amelia’s future was secure and safe.

He’d grown up without a father. And a mother who might as well have not been there most of the time, she was so lost in addiction. To both men and alcohol. It wasn’t fair to compare Jessica with his mother, not when he didn’t know. Not really. But it also wasn’t fair to Amelia to roll those dice. She deserved more than the start he got in life, and he would go to the ends of the earth to give it to her.

Chris had spent the next fifteen minutes reminding him that it wouldn’t be easy, and they’d have to contact the birth mother, get her to sign over parental rights or have her proved unfit, neither of which was what Nick wanted to hear. And he’d told him as much. If Jessica didn’t agree, it could get messy and Amelia didn’t deserve that. He also knew, thanks to Chris, that it wasn’t easy for a single father to proceed with adoption, particularly when he wasn’t actually the biological father.

Still. There weren’t any other options.

Nick had agreed to send over the information from the private investigator regarding Jessica’s whereabouts and put the wheels in motion.

But that was a few hours ago, and he still hadn’t sent it. Because he knew exactly what would happen if he did.

Everything would change, and the peaceful, little, quiet life he’d been trying to build in Glacier Falls would become anything but.

At least for the time being, he could enjoy the quiet…and Charlotte. Nick snuck a glance back toward the table where he’d left her and Amelia to get settled while he went to grab coffee and snacks.

He smiled the way he always seemed to when he saw Charlotte Davis. From the first time he’d met her, something drew him to her. Sure, he knew she was coming out of a terrible relationship and was not in any way ready to date again, but he wasn’t either. It was a detail that almost made him like her more. She was sweet and funny and absolutely stunning. Something about her—a quiet, thoughtful undercurrent—let Nick know there was a lot more to her than she showed people on the surface. In a different situation, he would have already asked her out.

Charlotte wasn’t like any of the women he’d met before. Which wasn’t too hard a feat, really, considering when he and Damon were busy at work on their microchip design, there hadn’t been any time for women, and definitely no time for dating. When he was invested in a project, he went all in, with