Page 85 of Accidental Dad's Best Friend

“I understand,” Ethan says soberly. “I’m not going to lie, it gutted me. Not a day goes by that I don’t have conflicted feelings about it.”

“I bet,” I sob, reaching for more tissues.

“But I’d also be lying if I said that I haven’t thought about you. About us. About Jax. How is he, by the way?”

“He misses you. He asks about you a lot. But he’s happy. He loves his school and the neighborhood and…I need a job like this, Ethan. Don’t do me any favors. But I need to be able to afford this house. It’s our home.”

Ethan nods. “I know. And I want you to stay in that house. I want Jax to have everything he needs and more. I want–” he stops. Then he moves to the other side of the desk and takes my hand, pulling me to my feet. Our eyes lock and my heart skips and he keeps talking.

“I want to be in his life. I want to be there for school plays and soccer games and birthdays and lazy Sundays. I know he’s only five but I feel like I’ve missed so much. I don’t want to miss anymore.”

Ethan’s words are sweet and soft but his face is serious.

My stomach bottoms out. “Are you…are you going to take him from me?”

Ethan’s eyebrows stitch together. “No, I’m not going to take him from you. Why would you even say that?”

I take a step back, pulling my hand from his. “Because you said you want to be inhislife. You want to be aroundhim. I just assumed–”

“You assumed wrong, Isabelle. I said him, but that means you too. You are a package deal and I realize that. But you know what else I realized? I want to be inyourlife too. I want to spendtime withyou. I want to work withyouand go on dates withyouand have dinner with and wake up withyou.”

“You…you do?” I stutter.

And Ethan smiles. A real, warm smile that reaches his eyes makes every nerve in my body tingle. “Yes. I want all of that because I want you. I love you, Isabelle Sloane.”

Ethan reaches for me and pulls me against him. It’s a good thing because I think my knees just about buckled. Then he presses his lips to mine in a deep, sweet, reassuring kiss. After a moment, I pull back just enough to look up at him.

“I love you too, Ethan.” I whisper and we kiss again. “But there is one thing…”

“Shoot,” he tips his chin up in a nod.

“It’s Izzy. Not fucking Isabelle.”

Ethan laughs before pulling me even closer. “Good girl,” he says before kissing me even harder.

Epilogue - Izzy

One year later…

“Did you get enough water balloons?” Jax runs inside the house, a trail of water and grass and lord knows what else forming little footprints across the tile as he goes.

“Jax, honey, where is your towel?!”

“Oh it fell in the pool. Mom. It’s literally the best poolever!”

The best pool Costco can buy. Ethan wanted an in-ground pool. He went as far as to have a construction crew come in to look at the grounds right after we bought the house. But I shut it down.

“Why?” He asked, wrapping his arms around my waist. “We can afford it. And the kid is a great swimmer.”

“Being able to afford it and needing it are two different things. An above ground pool will suit us just fine.” I grinned, kissing Ethan on the cheek and going back in the house.

That’s code for, what I say goes. And I get my way, a lot of the time anyways.

Like how I got my way with the house in Cherry creek. As much as we liked the townhouse, Jax was having nightmares there. It was also bothering me that we still lived so close to Rosilyn, even though she never came around. After the explosion at NBT, she was afraid to show face ever again. I did worry about Luca, though. And I empathize with her being a single mom. That shit’s no joke. I was able to convince Ethan to cut her a decent severance package. What she did with it, I don’t know. But she doesn’t bother us anymore.

I also convinced him we didn’t need a mansion, another thing he argued that we could afford. Again. Afford and need are different things. After some back and forth, me stomping my foot and him punishing me with rolling orgasms, we found a middle ground. A medium-sized house down the street with a back yard, gas stove, and enough rooms to grow a family, if we decide to do that.

At first I worried that it would stunt his ego not living in a ten-thousand-square-foot castle or a penthouse overlooking the city. But I quickly learned that Ethan’s ego is much smaller than I’d assumed. If anything, he was just doing what I was doing all those years– presenting a certain way to deal with my dad. To survive. To keep himself from acting on his impulses…

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