Page 107 of Game On

She shook her head. “No! Da-da!”

“Logan.”

“Up? Da-da up?”

She shook her crib, and I gave in by picking her up, not bothering to correct her again. I hefted her onto my hip; she was getting so big now. I felt a tug on my pajama pants, and I nearly jumped when I saw Liam attached to me. I hadn’t even noticed him creep out of bed.

“Okay, you two. You want to sleep in my bed, huh?”

“Yes!” Liam cheered.

I took Liam by the hand, and I brought them into my bedroom. The corner of Lily’s lips upturned into a smile at Liam jumping up onto the bed. He snuggled down beside her. To say my nephew was smitten with Lily was an understatement. I plopped Rosie down on the bed and got in on my side.

“You two should be asleep in your own beds,” Lily said in her stern mom-voice.

“We wanna be with you,” Liam argued.

“Alright, bud,” I conceded. “Only if you two go back to sleep.” I gave Lily a helpless smile from between the kids, and she shrugged in response. We were total pushovers when it came to these two.

We settled them down, and soon, they were fast asleep, but Lily and I lay awake for longer.

“He hates that she keeps calling you ‘Da-da,’ but I don’t care. I want my baby to be loved, and if she has two dads who want the best for her, that’s all I could ever hope for,” she admitted. There was a shakiness to her voice like she didn’t quite believe it.

I held my tongue. In the back of my mind, I wondered when Seth would disappear. I knew his kind, and finding out he cheated on another girl sold the deal for me on him. He was a Grade A douche-bag.

I reached out for Lily’s hand and kissed the back of it. “All I want is for my girls to know how much I love them. I’m with you on this. Whatever the outcome of tomorrow, all that matters is Rosie knows how much we love her.”

“God, you’re the perfect man.”

I laughed. “Not always.”

“For me, you are.”

“Let’s get to sleep, princess. Tomorrow’s gonna be a long day.”

“You ready?” I asked Lily as we sat outside of the courtroom, waiting for our trial to begin.

She had a pained look on her face.

“You have the better case,” her lawyer told her. “The courts want to do what’s best for the child, and the fact you want to work with Seth means they’ll listen more. But…”

“But what?” Lily asked, panic in her voice.

“Given the evidence that he has not followed through with your informal plan, they could decide to give you sole custody.”

I gave her a knowing look. I thought that as well. I squeezed her hand. “Whatever happens, we’ll make it work.”

“You got a good man here,” her lawyer said. “Let’s get in there.”

We entered the courtroom, and I sat behind in the stands but close enough that Lily knew I was right there if she needed me. I watched as the trial proceeded and clenched my fists as the judge asked Seth questions about why he wanted custody.

Seth was a skinny white guy with tattoos all up and down his arms and a squirrelly look in his eyes. Blaise said he was a weasel, and he hated him for how he treated both our girls. Fuck this guy. He might be Rosie’s father, but it didn’t mean I had to like him.

“Why do you want sole custody and not a shared plan?” the judge asked.

“Because she’s my daughter,” Seth answered.

“That’s not a good enough answer. Your ex-wife has agreed to a shared custody plan, and that was your informal plan, but her notes have documentation of how you weren’t even meeting those and how she’s had physical custody most of the time. So I’m going to ask you again, why do you want custody?”