Page 39 of From the Shadows

Chapter 16

Price of Admission

EDDIE

Someone needs to tell me how this smart, sassy, and very much bad-assy woman can be so freaked out by a snake. She has had zero issue with the one I have in my trousers.

…kill me now.

Did I really just compose that thought and physically smirk at the image? Yeah. I fucking did.

I need to get my grasp on reality checked ASA-fucking-P, emphasis on the fucking with where my head is at. I could be proud of the fact that I resisted Jess for as long as I did. I could also be a callous asshole and strut around like I’m a god instead of merely a lawyer, and take getting my dick wet as my due.

The truth is… neither.

My goal has always been to avoid dragging anyone further into this life. To not take on responsibility for another soul within the confines of the family I’m tied to.

But Jess is already in. Out of anyone, she can hold her own. And need most definitely outweighs want when it comes to her.

If keeping her place snake-free is the price of admission, I’m willing to pay it a thousand times over.

So I chase after the thing and use the hoe to encourage it through the fence and into the neighbor’s yard. It’s probably doing her more good than bad, keeping her place free of rodents.

Inside, Jess has Evie fresh from the bath and ready for bed in frilly pajamas with red and black doodled ladybugs on the white background.

Evie, proud as she can be, pats her belly. “See, Daddy? Cinn-ay? Ebie bugs?” She rubs her eyes and nuzzles into Jess’s neck in the exact spot I love. Nothing like coveting that which soothes a toddler. Makes me feel like an asshole, but soon enough, she’ll be sacked out, and that spot will be mine.

“I see, coccinelle.” I reach for her not missing the fact that her arms still cling to Jess. I like it. Maybe more than I should. But seeing my daughter bond with a woman who is strong, fierce, and selfless, who engages with her instead of sloughing her off on the nanny—a woman who obviously cares for her—hits me hard.

“Wait. Smooches goodnight first.” Jess leans forward and places twin kisses on each of Evie’s cheeks.

Then we sway off to bed.

I sway.

Evie tucks her arms between us and her head below my chin. Her black curls tickle my nose, smelling of lavender and storms. It’s soothing in a way that is distinctive to being here. In Jess’s home.

In the room that has quickly becomes Evie’s, I shift my weight and pat her back until all tension is gone and she’s nothing but a sack of dreams in my arms. And when I tuck her into the portable crib, even the temporary state of her sleeping arrangement can’t diminish the peace.

I pull the door closed and join Jess back in the living room, taking what’s become my seat on her couch. “Is it okay that we stay again?”

Asking seems like the right thing to do, though with Evie already down, leaving would be absurd. Though, I should probably go back to my penthouse for something more than a change of clothes sometime soon.

To see if the nanny has been back.

To see what the deal with Amie is.

To not become so dependent on someone who may just disappear one day. Amie used me as a way into this life. Jess has always been a part of it.

“Why would you leave?” She asks the question like the alternative is ridiculous.

There’s a beer open on the coffee table in front of me.

Jess closes her laptop, setting it at the corner farthest away from me. Perfectly squared to that corner. Precise. Innocent.

I have no doubt she thinks she’s being coy, keeping her side project away from me, but she would be mistaken. Completely wrong. Direly wrong. Exponentially wrong. Because, though I’m not a big enough dick to go snooping through a single woman’s things, she has left that laptop open, her document on display. The screen canted in my direction.

I’m not a creep, but I also don’t take gifts such as that lightly. And if I remember correctly…