Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76541 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76541 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“Whatever,” he grumbles. “I’ll pay you child support, whatever is standard. And I’ll need you to pack up Hope tomorrow. I’d like this done sooner rather than later.”
Jesus. Doesn’t he care at all about our daughter? While I don’t have a doubt in my mind that this is going to make Hope insanely happy, I know she’ll be confused by it, too.
And she’ll miss her dad. How could she not?
“Okay. Tomorrow,” I murmur into the phone. “Have you told her?”
“You can handle that,” he clips out, and then, to my surprise, he hangs up.
I don’t care, though. Nothing more to say.
The most important things were said.
I slowly set my phone down, still in a bit of a haze over how drastically and fucking fantastically my life just changed with that phone call.
I rotate on my stool seat to face Asher, who is watching me with what seems to be the keen attention of a hawk. “What did he say?”
My tongue seems thick, and I still don’t half believe what I just heard. “Nelson just said he’s not fighting me on custody. I can have Hope starting tomorrow. And he’ll pay child support.”
Asher doesn’t say anything, but his eyes sparkle and his lips curl upward.
And then it really hits me, and a jolt of pure joy and awareness of all that is great in my world slams into me.
Grinning hard, I enunciate my words. “He just fucking gave me custody of my daughter.”
Asher’s smile gets bigger. When I shriek with excitement, he blinks in surprise. Suddenly, I’m throwing myself out of my seat and right at him. I slam into his body, planting my feet on the floor. My arms go around his neck and I start jumping in place as I try to hug him, all the while screaming, “I have custody of Hope. I have custody of Hope.”
I feel strong arms come tightly around me, and I’m crushed to his chest as he returns my hug. “That’s amazing, Hannah.”
God, his voice is so buttery soft and full of happiness on my behalf. It makes me pull away from him so I can check out the expression on his face to see if it matches.
It does, and it makes me feel a little crazy. My hands go to his cheeks, and I plaster my mouth on his.
Asher would never deny my kiss, and he gives it right back to me. Furious and hot and totally taking advantage of my ramped-up excitement right now.
My hand drops to his lap, and I palm his growing erection. Asher growls, lifts me from the stool, and pivots toward the master bedroom. He takes great strides, wanting to minimize the time our mouths are apart.
Wanting to maximize fucking me.
And it’s the second-best thing that’s happened to me today.
CHAPTER 21
Asher
I lean back against my Mercedes, not minding the need to pull it out of the garage and dust it off. While I much prefer the McLaren, it’s not practical tonight because it’s just a two-seater.
I’ve been waiting in front of Hannah’s house for about fifteen minutes now. She has no clue I’m here because I didn’t want to give her a chance to tell me ‘no’ over the phone.
Just as Hannah is clueless in this moment, so am I. I have no idea why I left work early on a Tuesday night to do something that’s so far out of my comfort zone I barely recognize myself these days.
All I do know is I could not let Hannah take her daughter trick or treating in this neighborhood. It’s not safe at all.
Why this should bother me is a mystery. My relationship with Hannah took a drastic turn, leaving me with no satisfaction.
Well, that’s not quite true. I am beyond satisfied that Nelson did what I told him to do and turned Hope over to Hannah. Fuck, it gave me so much satisfaction after he made that call to Hannah that we had what was the absolute best fucking sex, and it was all because she was riding a wave of pure euphoria. It clearly had a tangential effect on me as well.
Where my dissatisfaction comes into play is that Hannah is no longer mine to do with what I please. I knew this would happen when I went to see Nelson, yet I didn’t change course. It’s basically my fucking fault I’m in this situation.
Hope moved in with Hannah on Saturday as planned. I know this because Hannah surprised me with a quick text about it. She also told me that her new hours starting Monday would have to be eight-thirty to three since she’d have to take Hope to and from school. Of course, it was implied the evenings were out since she had Hope.
I was aware it would happen, yet it was still a punch to the gut that I’d essentially given up every single night with Hannah. Her priority was now to her daughter.