“Eventually, princess. No bullshit, that’s the plan. But I don’t want to push too much too soon on you.”
“But, daddy?—“
“Exactly. I’m your daddy, and you’re my baby girl. Let me take care of you and make sure that we go at a pace you’re okay with.”
“Okay,” she agreed easily, and I could see she got where I was coming from. “I can’t believe we’re actually going to do this.” She smiled brightly.
“Oh, we’re more than doing this. You’re meeting my sister and her kids at brunch, and then I’m meeting your girls on that video chat you guys planned for tomorrow.”
“Wow… we’re meeting each other’s people.” I could feel the excitement radiating off her in waves.
“We are. We’re doing it all, baby girl.” I winked before rolling us around, her back against the mattress, I got to work on getting that first time of the new year on the books. “Starting right now.”
Epilogue
Asher
“Anything worthwhile takes time, work, and effort. A relationship is no different.” I found myself saying to Dane, who was looking at me like I’d grown two heads.
“Uncle Ash?—“
“Just—” I put my hand up, and he quieted. “You’re a smart kid. I mean, of course, you are. You’re my nephew,” I teased, which earned me an eye roll. I chuckled.
Fuck, the kid in front of me was now a young man. Almost done with his senior year, about to head out to college and start to trek his own way in the world. And somehow, I still saw him as a ten-year-old who was always excited about me showing up to his baseball games and talk my ear off about Spiderman. How much had I missed thanks to me not coming home as much as I should have?A lot.Thankfully, these last couple of months had changed that.
I was back home, living in Sugarloaf.
Living in the cabin I had built. But what no one knew was that one more move was coming soon. One that would make me an hour away from my sister, but I would still be close enough to help her out with her kids when she needed me to. Close enoughthat she wouldn’t have to ask I’d see things and be able to pitch in.
I’d promised Ember we would figure shit out, and I hadn’t broken that promise. In these last few months, we’d only been apart a total of seven days. One week. And even that had felt like too much.
“Let me guess, Mom asked you to talk to me because she saw me with Britt?” The kid was way too smart for his own good.
“Buddy.” I scratched the back of my neck, and he shook his head, looking away and out towards my house. We were both leaning against the fence at the back of the yard. My sister and Ember, along with my two nieces, were inside watching a movie. “She’s worried. I get you might have… urges.”
“Oh god!” he groaned, covering his face with his fingers. “Look, Uncle Ash, I get it. You’re going to tell me to wait and?—“
“No, I’m not,” I said, straightening my back.
“What?”
“I’m going to tell you to be safe if you do something, and that’s a big if.”
“Uncle—“
“Look, kid, I’m not stupid,” I cut him off. “I was your age once,” I pointed out and somehow managed to do it without wincing at how old that made me sound. “I got you something.” I took a box out of my pocket and handed it to him.
“Oh my god,” he groaned, his face red with embarrassment. But he still took it and shoved it into the front pocket of his hoodie.
“What I am going to tell you is, if you think you’re old enough and responsible enough for sex?—“
“Uncle Ash,” he complained, tossing his head back and looking at the sky.
“If you can’t talk about it, you shouldn’t be doing it,” I added, and to his credit, his back straightened and he crossed his arms.
“Fine, what do you want to talk about? Let me guess.” Attitude laced his voice. “How actions have consequences? Because I know that.”
“I know you do, kid.” He’d seen it with his dad. “Make sure to treat her right. Respect her.”
