Page 50 of Their Forever Daddy

Taking Edie’s hands in hers, Jesse squeezed, her eyes filling with a silent plea. “Please answer the question. Forget California, forget everything else. If there was nothing standing in our way, would you want to be with me?”

“It’s not that?—”

“I know it’s not that simple. But I can’t just leave here again without knowing for sure.”

“Without knowing what for sure?”

It was Grant who spoke next. “If the three of us could find a way to make a relationship work. Together.”

Grant

* * *

This was, potentially, the worst idea he’d ever had.

But he knew his Little girl. After nearly three years together, he’d learned every nuance of her expression, every emotion she couldn’t hide in her eyes. And he’d known the moment he’d seen the way she looked at Edie that she hadn’t just come here to make things right.

Not that he believed she had known that. As certain as he was she’d had ulterior motives for coming all the way out here, he was equally as certain she hadn’t actually been aware of those motives when she’d left California.

She knew now, though. He’d seen it in her eyes when she’d looked up at him as he held Edie on his lap. Seen the hope, so bright and shiny it had caused a physical ache inside him. And there was absolutely no way he was going to be the one to squash that hope.

Especially when there was a part of him that was equally as hopeful Edie would say yes.

“I’m sorry. What?” Shaking her head, Edie yanked out of his arms. He let her go this time, and manfully managed not to laugh when she tripped over Jesse’s too-big-for-her jeans as she tugged them back up around her waist so she could pace in front of the couch. “You’re insane. Both of you. That will never work.”

Jesse, still naked as the day she was born and with zero shame about it, climbed up onto his lap as she watched Edie pace. “Why not? It works for plenty of other people.”

Without even pausing, Edie shot her a glare. “We aren’t other people.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Temper had Jesse’s voice rising, and he squeezed her in warning. Regardless of how emotional this whole situation was, he was absolutely certain Edie would balk at the first sign Jesse couldn’t discuss this in a calm, rational manner.

“I don’t know!” Still pacing, Edie waved her hands over her head in a dramatic gesture that seemed more Jesse’s style than hers, and he couldn’t help but be amused. “We live on opposite sides of the country, for starters.”

“And I have more than enough money to fly back and forth as often as I want,” Jesse countered, tilting her chin up in a way that told Grant she was ready to dig in her heels and fight.

“When you’re not working, you mean. How many days a year do you spend on a movie set, either in California or halfway around the world?”

“Actually, I spend a good bit of those days on the East Coast.” Jesse’s tone turned smug. “Atlanta is a hotbed of filmmaking activity.”

“That doesn’t mean I’ll actually get to see you.”

“Well… not as often as we’d like, probably. But that’s the nature of what I do, Edie. And I think you’re forgetting a rather obvious solution.”

Edie snorted. “Yeah? What’s that?”

“You could come with me.”

That had Edie stopping in her tracks, her mouth falling open. “What?”

“Come with me. Travel the world with me, Edie.” Hopping up from Grant’s lap, Jesse took Edie’s hands in hers. “There’s so much more out there than just this tiny little town.”

Sensing his Little girl was getting a little carried away—and that Edie was on the verge of becoming very overwhelmed by it—Grant rose to his feet. “Let’s put a pin in that for now, little outlaw. We can decide our future together after we decide if a relationship between all three of us is even going to work.”

Eyes narrowed, Jesse crossed her arms beneath her pert breasts with a huff of annoyance. “It is. I know it is.”

“Be that as it may, you aren’t the only one in this relationship. Edie may decide having a bossy Daddy around isn’t how she wants to live her life.”

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