“Hi, I’m Maddie,” a small voice to my right says. I look down and see a mini-Larkin with her red hair falling out of its ponytail and what I’m assuming is chocolate, smeared all over her shirt.
“Hi, Maddie. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Ledger.” I hold my hand out to her too, but she just stares at it like I have cooties.
“Mommy says you’re Auntie Ains’s boyfriend. Do you kiss her?”
My lips roll inward on themselves as I nod, unable to answer her without cracking up, and I’m not trying to offend a sassy toddler today.
“Eww.” Her nose scrunches up in disgust, and my laughter breaks free.
“Maddison,” Larkin scolds her.
“She’s good, I promise,” I say with a laugh.
“The two of you need to get cleaned up and ready for dinner,” Theo says with a smirk as he comes in from the garage.
Gavin rolls his eyes but heads upstairs, and Maddie gives me a death-stare I’m honestly scared of before joining him.
“She’s scary,” I mutter.
“She’s too smart for her own good,” Larkin says. “You’re staying for dinner, right? We got Thai from Ainsley’s favorite restaurant.”
I look at Ainsley, and she has a soft smile on her face as she nods at me.
“I’d love to stay, thank you.”
Theo walks into the kitchen holding two giant bags of food, and I rush to help him, not noticing it before now.
“Thanks. Gavin eats, like, triple his weight in food right now, so I feel like we’re feeding an army.”
We both start unloading all the food on the kitchen island while the girls get all the serving wear together.
“He’s a great kid,” I tell Theo.
“He’s the best,” he says wistfully, and my mind wanders to what the future holds for Ainsley and me. I think I could go either way with kids, willing to go whatever direction she wants to. I’ve never really put much weight into having kids, but I would absolutely do it with her. What I do know is it would thrill me to have these kids as a niece and nephew.
I would marry that girl tomorrow if she let me.
The thought slams into my head, but it’s not a lie. I would take her down to the courthouse anytime she wanted. She’s stuck with me now.
“So, how’d the meeting go?” Larkin asks Ainsley.
“Great. Handed over all the shit I had on Lance and got a big fat check for two hundred and fifty grand.” She says it so nonchalantly, I almost choke on the sip of water I just took.
“What the fuck?” Theo sounds outraged.
A sigh sounds from the doorway. “That’s a dollar in the swear jar. I thought you guys were doing better,” Gavin says, and I almost lose my composure entirely.
Wordlessly, Theo pulls out his wallet and hands Gavin the dollar as he continues to stare at Ainsley.
“I should probably pay for that one, sorry.” Ainsley cringes. “But yeah, they offered me a settlement to not take further action against them, and I took it and ran.”
“Why?” is all Larkin can ask.
“Because of everything we talked about last night. I want to stay in Bluebell Falls. I want to be a bigger part of Ledger’s company, and this money was just gravy. I think this is how things would have worked out, anyway.” She looks at me for reassurance, and I nod at her. “But now, we can throw some capital into the business to grow it.”
“Or we could add on to my house, or yours,” I offer. She doesn’t know Bluebell Landscaping’s financials yet, but we aren’t hurting for money. The house idea pops into my head, but the more I think about it, the more perfect I think it is.
“What?” Ainsley sounds shocked, and who can blame her? So much change has happened in a couple of days, and I just threw this out there without really thinking about it. It’s a gigantic step and not something we need to rush into.
