Ed stalked toward her and she shrank back a little bit at the menace that seemed to be vibrating from him. When they’d hooked up at the bar, he’d been super sweet. He’d even been nice to Finn, and she couldn’t have that, so she’d sent the boy back to the boy’s home.
When she’d told Ed what she’d done with her nephew, he’d been happy and said he wasn’t a fan of kids but had been nice to him for her sake. Now that it was the two of them, they could do whatever they wanted. The sex they shared had been wild and all over the house. Ed seemed to take her whenever he wanted, and she was okay with that.
Each time she’d returned Finn to the home, she’d felt guilty for doing it, but she wasn’t ready to be a mom. She’d had no idea, when her brother and sister-in-law asked her if she’d be Finn’s guardian, that two months later she’d be responsible for him. She wanted to enjoy her twenties without being stuck lookingafter a kid. She loved Finn, but she couldn’t have him all the time.
Sighing she reached down and picked up the wine glass, guzzling the remains of the liquid, grimacing at the warmness of the white wine. It didn’t erase her feelings of inadequacy like it once used to.
Ed stopped in front of her, waving the paper. “This paper says that your brat, Finn, is the beneficiary of some money?”
Poppy thought for a few seconds about what he was talking about. “Oh yeah, that’s right. But I don’t get anything from it. It’s held in trust until Finn turns eighteen.”
“Have you seen how much this trust is worth?” Ed demanded, waving the sheet again.
Sitting up she pulled her skirt down and buttoned up her blouse. “Give it to me.” She held out her hand. When he handed her the paper, she scanned it. The amount written on the paper shocked her. She had no idea how much the trust fund was worth. Normally, whenever she got a letter from the company in charge of the account, she shoved it into a drawer and forgot about it, until it was too full, and then she just dumped everything in the garbage. “That’s a lot of money.”
“It is. Why don’t you have control over it? Or at least get some sort of monthly allowance for looking after the kid.”
“Money does get deposited into my account once a month which I use to help pay for the rent on this place. But as for not having control over it, it’s what my brother arranged.”
“I wonder what would happen to the money, if something happened to the kid. Would you get the money? You know, being his only relative.”
The wine was going to her head. She should’ve had something to eat, but going to the stores was too hard some days. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
Where was Ed going with this? She was about to ask him, but he pulled the piece of paper from her hand. As he pushed his jeans down, his cock sprung out, hard and ready. “Again?” she asked, reopening her blouse for him.
“Yeah, large sums of money turn me on.”
He hauled her up and carried her into the bedroom. At least he’d fuck her on the bed this time.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Cerise lookedat the two heads close together as they studied the instruction manual before picking up the pieces to add to the LEGO model they were building. The day had been perfect and amazing. Sure, there were some bumps along the way, like when Bridget assumed that she and Brodie were a couple and fostering Finn together. Or when Finn talked about how his mother had been pregnant when she died. The poor kid had had so much ripped away from him. The way he’d played with Louise showed that he would’ve made an awesome big brother.
Her gaze tracked to Brodie. Once again, he’d proven to her what an awesome guy he was, and her heart wanted to ask him if he’d help her with the adoption process by pretending to be more than her friend. Her brain cautioned her that not only was it a bad idea, it would also jeopardize her chances of making the adoption happen and any future kids she’d like to foster. She’d be blackballed and she couldn’t have that. There were too many children out there who needed to be loved.
Nope, it would be better if she went through it alone and if her application was denied, then it was denied. But she wouldn’t stop fighting to make sure Finn had a stable home life.
“How’s the great construction project going?” she asked when she sat down. It didn’t look like they’d done much since she left them to go load the dishwasher.
“Slowly. We needed to make sure the foundation is sturdy and done correctly, right, Finn?”
“Yep,” he said looking up with a serious expression on his face. “A bad foundation will lead to a collapse, and you can’t have that.”
Cerise bit the inside of her cheek to stop the smile from exploding out of her. She nodded sagely. “Good advice. Did Brodie give it to you?”
“Nope, Dad did.”
She waited for the look of sadness to creep across Finn’s face like it had every other time he’d talked about his parents, but this time there was a little smile as if it was a good memory of the time he and his dad did something special. “Right, well, I think it’s almost bedtime and you need to shower.” She walked over to him and ruffled his hair. “You’re all stinky.”
“Aww, but Cerise, we’ve finally started making progress.”
“It’ll be here when you get out of the shower. And seeing as you’ve been extra good today and were super helpful with Louise, how about I let you stay up for another hour, so you and Brodie can try and finish your project?”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
He jumped up and ran over and gave her a huge hug. “Thanks, Cerise. I’m going to go shower now.” He zoomed off toward the bathroom.
