Page 31 of Their Forever Daddy

She didn’t talk again until he was tucking her into bed. “I didn’t mean to break her heart.”

“I know, baby.” Brushing her hair back, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Go to sleep. You can try again in the morning.”

“Do you think she’ll ever forgive me?”

Honesty was the best policy. That was a belief he lived and breathed in all aspects of his life.

But there were times when protecting the ones you loved meant lying through your fucking teeth. “I’m sure she will, baby.”

“I hope so.” Her eyes fluttered closed as she snuggled beneath the blankets. “I just don’t want her to hate me anymore.”

“Go to sleep, little outlaw. Things will be better in the daylight.”

He waited until the familiar rhythmic sound of her breathing told him she was asleep before he slipped out of the room. A shadow moving across Edie’s floor caught his attention and he paused, watching the light shift and change as she moved around her room.

Before he realized what he was doing, his fist was raised, and he just barely caught himself before he knocked on her door. What the hell was he even going to say to her? As much as he felt he should be pissed at her for hurting his babygirl, after learning the truth of how Jesse had left things, he couldn’t really blame Edie for drawing such a hard line. But offering comfort felt like betraying Jesse, even though there was certainly a part of him that wanted nothing more than to hold Edie through her tears the way he’d done with his Little girl.

Better to just leave her be until he could figure out exactly how to handle things. Forcing himself to turn away from her door, he headed downstairs to the kitchen to clean up the mess left behind from their abandoned dinner.

Edie

* * *

She didn’t sleep worth shit.

But the animals didn’t care if she was so exhausted she could barely force herself out of bed. They only cared that they got to eat on time.

Coffee. She needed coffee.

Praying her guests would sleep until she felt at least marginally more human, she tiptoed down the stairs to the kitchen—and for the second time in forty-eight hours stopped dead in her tracks.

Her kitchen wasn’t just clean. It sparkled. While she kept a fairly tidy house, she couldn’t remember the last time any room of her house had looked so… shiny.

Was this some sort of weird penance on Jesse’s part? Her way of trying to make things right between them?

If it was, it wasn’t going to work.

Still, that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy how nice and sparkly her kitchen was as she brewed herself a pot of coffee. And while she enjoyed that first, life-giving cup as the sun turned the sky into a masterpiece of pinks and yellows and oranges.

She left her mug beside the pot so she could easily pour herself another cup after her morning chores, then headed outside to go through the familiar routine of feeding and cleaning up after her animals.

It was all routine enough for her mind to wander as she went through the steps. And wander it did, right back to the night before.

Jesse had finally apologized. Not only that, she’d literally flown from one coast to another to do so in person. That meant something. Edie wasn’t so heartless she couldn’t appreciate the effort behind it.

And once upon a time, she’d have given anything to hear those words. At first, because she would have delighted in throwing them back in Jesse’s face before shutting her out of her life for good, but later because she would have genuinely appreciated the apology.

Now… now it just felt like too little, too late. She’d meant what she’d said the night before about moving on. Ken had helped with that, more than he’d probably ever realized. Though she’d fought him at first, he’d worn her down over time and eventually she’d told him everything. About falling for Jesse, about fighting with her parents, about being left behind and heartbroken beyond repair. And through it all, he’d just loved her. Supported her until she’d finally been able to breathe without her chest feeling as though it might crack open at any second.

And then he’d been gone. Taken from her without a word, just like before, though at least with Ken it hadn’t been through any fault of his own.

Blinking back yet another wave of tears, she stopped in front of Luna’s stall and smiled as those big brown eyes stared at her. “Hi, Luna baby. Ready for breakfast?”

“She’s beautiful.”

It was a testament to her sturdy disposition that she didn’t jump three feet in the air and scream at the sound of Grant’s voice. “She is.” Running her hand down Luna’s snout as much for her own comfort as Luna’s, she glanced over at him. Dressed in a pair of dark jeans that molded perfectly to his legs and a white t-shirt that did the same, he was enough to make any woman’s mouth water.

Not yours. Not yours. Not even remotely yours.

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