Page 69 of Hungry Hearts

The kid squeals and clasps her white-gloved hands together. “You got me a present?”

“I thought that was a requirement for coming to a princess’s party.”

She scurries out of the jumpy house and bangs on the edge to hurry us up. “Let’s go, slow pokes.”

“Patience, Ruby. Don’t be rude.” Maia takes my hand and I help her walk to the exit, where she drops to her fucking peach of an ass and bounces two times before landing on her feet on the grass.

I do the same, landing on my feet, thank you very much. So lost in all our bouncing fun, I momentarily forgot there were other people around. Juliana, Nate, and Flynn sit around the patio near a small fire pit.

Maia’s sister is smirking, Nate is studying me with a serious frown, and dickhead is scowling. I don’t give a shit about anything but the sister’s approval and the glee in Ruby’s voice.

She dashes inside in search of said birthday present. “Where is it?”

“Ruby,” Maia scolds again from the patio. She turns to her sister. “Juliana and Nate, in case you didn’t hear Ruby for the past thirty minutes, this is Ryder. Ryder, my sister and her husband. And you’ve already met Flynn.”

I ignore the dickhead and stick my hand out to Nate. “Nice to meet you.” I take Juliana’s hand and clasp it between both of mine. “Your mother must be stunning to produce two beautiful ladies.”

Nate snorts and Flynn curses under his breath while Juliana bats her eyelashes at me. “Such a charmer. And not bad looking either.”

“Hey.”

“You’re good looking too, honey.” Juliana pats her husband’s knee. “Ruby’s taken a liking to you.”

“She’s a great kid. Maia’s done an amazing job raising her all on her own.”

“She hasn’t been alone. She has friends and family who have been with her for a long time,” dickhead whines.

I ignore him and place my hand just barely above Maia’s ass, guiding her inside. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m not sure how much longer the princess can wait to open her present before she kicks my ass to the curb for making her wait so long.”

Dickhead grumbles something under his breath. Maia’s already inside, but I make outkick your ass to the curb.I wouldn’t hate the man if he hadn’t tried to sabotage our relationship early on by making me think Maia was married.

I know I have Ruby’s approval, and by the fangirl eyes Juliana was making, I’m pretty sure Maia’s sister approves. What matters most though, is Maia and Ruby’s approval. Everyone else can go to Hell.

Having her family on my team would make things a hell of a lot easier though.

Ruby is sitting on the floor in the middle of the living room, her yellow dress poofy around her, waiting impatiently for her final birthday gift of the night.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t go,” she whines, and my heart does an unfamiliar flip-floppy thing.

“Not going anywhere, Princess. Your present is in the truck. It’ll take me a minute to bring it inside. Nate? Want to give me a hand?”

“What did you get her?” Maia whispers loudly.

“Nothing that wasn’t on her list.”

“She had a thousand items on her list. Tell me you didn’t get them all.”

“I only got her one. Promise.”

She eyes me in disbelief. Nate follows me out to the truck and lets out a low whistle when I uncover the castle.

“Ruby’s gonna love this.”

“Found a design online and built it this week. Still needs a paint job but I figured that could be a project Rubes and I do together.”

He helps me lift it out of the truck and we set it on the pavement while I close the tailgate.

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