The smile returned to her face as she nodded in agreement. “Okay. Let’s go to bed.”
Chapter 27
CHRISTIAN
Chris tried to read the name of the sender on the certified mail slip. It had been nearly a month since he told Vivian he wanted to enroll Lily in school instead of bringing her back at the end of the summer. It had also been a few weeks since he started the process of having his mother’s house signed over to him. After speaking to an attorney, he learned the best way would be for him to purchase it instead of her just signing it over.
Instead of going into his apartment, he turned around and got back into his car to go to the post office. There was no way he could get any sleep while wondering what was waiting for him at the post office, and it was a Saturday so they wouldn’t be open much longer. He was glad he ended up leaving Lily at Mallory’s after breakfast so he could read over whatever it was without an audience.
The line at the post office wasn’t long, but it felt like he was in it forever. When he finally reached the counter, he passed over the notice with a shaking hand. She didn’t seem tonotice, smiling warmly before stepping away from the counter to retrieve his item. She returned with a large envelope and passed it over after collecting his signature. Without looking at it, he made a quick retreat to the privacy of his car.
Finally looking at the envelope, it was obvious that whatever he held inside pertained to Lily. He took a shaky breath as he tore it open and emptied the contents into the empty passenger seat. He wasn’t one to show his emotions, but his eyes burned with tears as he read everything over for a second and then a third time. He was looking at everything he would need to enroll Lily into school, and a motion to move residential custody to him. Finally. After so many years being forced to be away from her for a majority of the time, it was over.
They say it isn’t a good idea to count chickens before they are hatched, but dammit if things didn’t appear to be falling into place. The idea of having Lily full time is the one thing that motivated him to get the process going on his mother’s house. He still didn’t like the idea of her giving up on returning to her home, but the woman was nothing if not stubborn. Once her mind was made up there was no changing it, and nothing was worse for a house than letting it sit empty.
His little girl had come to him a broken shell of herself. She’d been made small and fragile by the heavy weight on her shoulders. He’d watched as the spark of life returned to her eyes and she changed into, not his little girl, but a young woman who was embracing her new life. Even a blind man could see that her change had everything to do with Mallory, her family, and Dan.
Mallory may have thought she was keeping her distance and staying out of it, but she had changed Lily’s entire world by just being herself. Lily’s life wasn’t the only one that had been changed. He couldn’t wait to tell them the good news. But telling them didn’t quite seem like enough.
MALLORY
Mallory pulled the cupcakes out of pan and placed them on the cooling rack so they could cool the rest of the way off while she helped Lily make the icing. Christian had text her requesting cupcakes instead of dinner, and Lily was more than excited for the opportunity to play around in the kitchen. She was planning on making a simple spaghetti dinner, but Chistian said he would bring dinner and that it was a surprise. She loved surprises more when she didn’t know they were coming, and the anticipation wasn’t slowly killing her. Making cupcakes was a nice distraction.
“Like this?” Lily asked as she moved the hand mixer around to blend the butter, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
“Perfect,” she encouraged. “You sure you haven’t done this before?”
“Mom doesn’t bake,” she answered simply.
Once the icing was blended into a cream, Mallory helped her top each cupcake before placing them onto the cupcake stand. “These look almost too pretty to eat.”
Lily looked at her in horror. “They aren’t that pretty! I am definitely eating them. Dad needs to hurry up.”
Mallory laughed as she cleaned up their mess, placing the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. If she left the bowl out much longer, she was certain Lily was going to pick it up and start licking the icing out of it. She was wiping down the counter as Christian walked through the door, holding a large white pizza box and a gift bag.
“Luigi’s!” Lily shouted, completely ignoring the gift bag in his hand.
A smile tugged at Mallory’s lips as she walked over to take the box from Christian so she could place it on the counter. She tried to be smooth and grab the gift bag as well, but he saw through her and pulled it out of her reach as soon as his hand was free.
“Not yet.”
Chuckling, she raised to her toes and placed a chaste kiss on his lips. “I didn’t know we had two surprises to look forward to. You know I hate waiting.”
“Well, the pizza is just a bonus surprise,” he answered smugly. “Let’s eat. You’ll get the other surprise with dessert.”
Once again, she had to fight her body’s reaction when he used that tone of voice on her. They were having a family dinner. It wasn’t the time for her to melt into a puddle just because he used his stern voice on her. Things had been great between them ever since they’d talked things out and promised to move forward, but they hadn’t had much alone time with Lily no further than one room away. It might be time to suggest taking Sheila up on her offer.
“Mallory?” Christian’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
Feeling her cheeks flush, she looked up at him to find him smirking at her. “Sorry, what?”
“Well, I was going to ask if you wanted to eat here at the island or in the living room, but Lily has already plopped on floor by the couch and started a movie,” Christian said with laughter in his voice. “Where did you go?”
“The living room is fine,” she answered, ignoring his last question.
They joined Lily in the living room and ate in companionable silence. Lily was invested in whatever movie she’d turned on, but Mallory wasn’t paying any attention. The pizza was amazing, but she just wanted to hurry up and get to dessert so she could find out what was in the bag. She was worse than a child.
She brought their empty plates to the kitchen, but refused to ask if anyone was ready for dessert. As silly as it was, she was doing her best to play it cool and pretend like she wasn’t practically vibrating with excitement. When she turned aroundfrom loading the plates into the dishwasher, she found Christian leaning against the island watching her.
