Mine To Promise, page 14
“Hi,” he says, bending to kiss her neck as he unbuckles her seat belt. “Good morning.” He kisses her again. “I just put bacon and sausage in the oven.”
“I like pancakes,” Avery says to him as she gets out, and he picks her up to carry her. I slowly get out of the car, trying not to freak out at how huge this house is. “Whose house is this?” I hear Avery ask him as he walks up the stairs. “You live in a mansion.” He just chuckles at her.
“No, I don’t,” he denies as he opens the front door and then places her down on her feet before turning to wait for me.
“That’s what Momma said.” She throws me under the bus, and I gasp.
“I did not.” I try to lie, but my daughter is shaking her head.
“She did.” She points at me, then turns around. “This is nice.”
“If you want, you can go upstairs and see if you can find the room I made for you,” he suggests as I step in. A spiral staircase sits in the middle of the house, and I about groan, of course it comes with a spiral staircase. “Be careful,” he warns her as she walks up the stairs.
He turns to look at me when she gets to the top and turns to walk toward an open door. “Hi,” he repeats to me, closing the distance between us before he wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me even closer to him. My heart starts to speed up. “Thanks for coming.” Every single word that I’ve ever learned is thrown out the window. I have no vocabulary in my body, none. “We have to talk. We do.” I don’t know if he’s asking me or telling me.
“We do?” I say and then I’m interrupted when I hear Avery squealing and then running to the railing.
“There is a princess bed!” she shouts, looking through the spindles. “It’s a big princess bed with a dresser and everything.” She looks at Stefano. “Can I play with the toys?”
“You can do what you want. It’s yours,” he replies, and she squeals right before she runs back into the room.
“Come and have some coffee. We can talk before she comes back downstairs.” He drops his arm around my waist and slips his hand into mine. “I’ll give you the tour after,” he tells me as we walk past what looks like an office, and on the other side, I think, is a dining room, but all there is are hanging lights with no table.
I stop in my tracks when we walk into the kitchen that has a little table off to the side, but there is a huge island in the middle of the room with six stools tucked under. But it’s the attached family room that makes my feet stop. It’s what I always thought my family room would look like. It’s what I’ve always dreamed my family room would look like. Definitely not like the family room I grew up in, where everything had a place, and you were afraid to touch anything. Where pictures were displayed because of who was in the pictures and not because it was a nice picture. No, this room is where you know it’s okay to curl up on the couch. Where you can sit and have a movie night with throw blankets. Where you can lie down and take a little nap.
A huge couch sits in the room that can seat a lot of people, with a big square table in the middle facing a fireplace. A big-screen television is hanging above it. “This is—” I start to say as he lets go of my hand and walks into the kitchen. “This is perfect,” I tell him softly before I smell the coffee, turning to watch him put another pod in the coffee maker.
“Where do you want to sit?” he asks me, grabbing the milk from the fridge and pouring a bit in each cup.
“The couch, if it’s okay,” I say, trying to hide how badly I want to sit down and curl my feet under myself.
He walks toward the couch with both cups of coffee and waits for me to follow him before he hands me a cup and I sit down, but not the way I want. I take a sip while Stefano faces me. “Do you know what I do for work?” he asks.
“I don’t.” I just look at him, placing the cup of coffee on the big wooden table. I look for coasters in the middle, where a big square tray holds remotes and a notepad, but nothing else.
“I’m a forensic accountant,” he says, putting his own cup on the table, so I don’t feel as bad.
“What does that mean?” I tilt my head to the side and he leans back onto the couch.
“They hire me to investigate financial inconsistencies, misappropriation of funds, and irregularities with the company, and to investigate fraud and cybercrimes,” he tries to explain it to me. “I work for private companies also and, well, the government—but I can’t discuss that.”
“How?” My curiosity is piqued.
“A computer is not the sacred place people think it is,” he says with a smirk. “People use those things without a second thought, thinking that things can be deleted.” He folds his hands together as he sits forward. “News flash, they can’t.” He grabs his cup of coffee and takes another sip. “So I go in and find out what’s wrong, and they either change it or people get fired.” He shrugs. “But then sometimes the board of directors calls me in and asks me to see if everything is up to par and, well, no one likes when I show up.”
“How did you even get a job like that?”
“It started when I was younger.” He smiles. “I started hacking into things here and there.”
“What does that mean?” I ask him, knowing there is something more to that.
“Well, one year, I think it was Stone, he was failing math, and he asked if I could change his grade. So, I hacked the system and his forty-nine got changed to a seventy-nine.” I gasp.
“Did anyone find out?” I ask him.
“Yeah, the teacher did when his parents didn’t show up to have a meeting with them.” I put my hand to my mouth. “Obviously, I didn’t only change his grade, I changed a few, so they chalked it up to a system error.”
I shake my head. “That’s interesting.” I pick up my cup of coffee.
“I guess it is, but I’m not going to lie, I shit the bed when I found out that they called in the authorities to see if anything else was compromised. My thug life was short-lived,” he confesses, his voice soft, but then laughs. “I mean, I did hack the internet when my cousin Franny had a sex tape.” My mouth hangs open. “And then Uncle Matthew needed some info on someone. What I’m saying is, I need you to be honest with me.”
I put the cup of coffee down, finally realizing what he is saying. “Or you’ll find out yourself.” I swallow down the lump in my throat. There really isn’t anything for him to find out that he doesn’t already know, except for the fact my credit score is shit and I’m in debt up to my eyeballs, but I’m slowly working my way out of it.
“In not so many words.” He makes sure he stares in my eyes when he says the next part, “Or I’ll have someone do it from my team so I don’t feel guilty.”
“Someone from your team?” I ask him and he nods his head.
“Yeah, a couple of guys from the same class as me decided to open a firm and, well, now we are the most sought out firm in the world. There are different divisions in the company. We started with just the three of us, and now we have over one hundred people working for us.” He looks down and then looks up again. “I’m sorry for leaving you to do it all by yourself.”
My hand flies out to put on his arm, the way his voice cracked rocks me to my core.
“You didn’t know.”
“But now I do, and it’s time to do my share,” he declares to me. “You don’t live the high life, and I can’t even think about the struggle you had without hating myself. So, I need you to be honest with me.” He blinks away the big tears. “And tell me about what you owe.”
“I’ve got it under control,” I reply, not really sure what else to say. “Now, I do.” I avoid looking into his eyes as I hold the cup and look down in it. “But it wasn’t always like that.”
“I want to know,” he nudges, and for the first time I finally let someone in.
“Well, after I made my stance that I was not going to give up the baby or terminate my pregnancy, all financial aid from them stopped. My allowance didn’t come one month and I was like whatever, but then I got a nice notice from the school that I owed them for the tuition, which was fourteen thousand dollars.” I shake my head. “And then, if that wasn’t bad enough, when I went to the doctor the month after, I found out my health insurance wasn’t going to cover Avery. For the first time in my life, I was literally alone.” I see his hands clench into fists. I’m back to feeling the despair like I was that day. I felt like I had nowhere to turn, feeling like the world would swallow me up. Every day I got up and wondered how I would go on, but I fought for everything we have. I worked my ass off, and it’s finally coming back to me. “And then she was born premature, so there was six weeks in the NICU.” I wipe away the tear. “But I’m on a payment plan,” I say, proud of myself. Proud that no matter how my parents told me I would fail, I didn’t.
“How much?” he asks the big question.
“It doesn’t matter.” I finally look up at him. “It’s fine now. We’re doing okay.”
“How much, Addison?” he repeats, and this time his teeth are clenched.
“It’s not much,” I try to lie, but then his words play back in my head, I can find out anything. “It’s a little over three hundred thousand.”
stefano
I listen to her as she says how much she owes. I hear the sadness in her tone and I also see she is trying to keep it all together. I can’t even fathom how she did it for four years all by herself. All of this happens and all I want to do is throw something against the wall and kick my own ass for not being there. I lean forward off the couch to the notepad in the middle of the coffee table. Picking it up, I spot the check under it I started to write before she even told me the total. I grab it and then look over at her. “I’m giving you this,” I tell her and she looks at me confused, “and if you don’t take it, I’m going to have it deposited in your account.”
I hold out the check for her and all she does is look down at my hand, the top of the check with her name on it, and also for the amount of four hundred thousand dollars. “I can’t take that,” she squawks, and her eyes go big as she hides her hands behind her back.
“Fine,” I say, putting down the check by her coffee cup. “I’ll pay all your bills. Either way, you will be getting that money.”
“I don’t need it,” she says to me, and I side-eye her with a glare.
“I don’t care,” I tell her. “After everything…” I try to calm down my heartbeat and the way I just want to lash out at everyone, me included. Her family, her fucking family is going to pay for what they did to her, for leaving her without anything. Who does that? Who? “Everything you went through, it’s never going to be enough.”
I fold my hands together but all I want to do is lean in and kiss her again. “Why are you being like this?” she asks, frustrated when she finally realizes she is not going to win. There are things she will win, but it’s not this.
“Because it was my job to take care of you two.” I look into her eyes, hoping she sees how much her story killed me to listen to. “And I failed.” The lump forms in my throat. “Miserably.”
Her hand flies out from behind her, landing on my forearm. “You didn’t fail anything.” Her voice starts out low but then rises by the time she says the rest. “You didn’t even know."
“But now I do.” I lean in a touch. “I know now, and I promise you that you will never, ever have to worry about that again.” I move even closer to her so I can taste her lips on mine. Her tongue comes out to lick her bottom lip, and I want to trace her tongue. My cock goes so hard it hurts. “Never again.” I’m about to kiss her when we both hear footsteps coming our way.
Addison jumps back from touching me and nearly flies off the couch. “Are we going to eat?” Avery asks, walking into the living room. “My stomach rumbled.”
“Yes,” I confirm, getting up, hoping my dick isn’t popping out in my shorts and she points it out. “Let’s see if the bacon is ready, and then we can get some pancakes going.” I clap my hands as I walk around the couch, as far away from Addison as I can, because getting closer to her will make my cock jump out even more.
“You have a big—” Avery says, and the blood immediately drains from my whole body, thinking she is going to say penis. I don’t even know why my head went there but it did. “Kitchen.”
I literally let out a sigh of relief. “You think so? Well, then, you should see Glammy and Grand-père’s,” I inform her as we walk to the island. “It’s really big.” Her eyes go huge. “I got you a stool,” I tell her, walking over to the wooden thing my mother told me to buy her so she could stand next to me safely. Apparently, all my cousins have it, who knew. “Okay, let’s make pancakes.” I grab the bowl. “Momma.” I look up at Addison. “We are going to make breakfast for you.”
“I can help.” She is about to take a step to us and I hold up my hand and shake my head.
“You will not. You sit down, drink your coffee, and relax.”
“Yeah, Momma,” Avery repeats, “relax.” She then looks at me. “Do you have chocolate chips?” She tries to whisper to me but her voice is nothing like a whisper.
“I do,” I whisper back to her. “Should we do chocolate chip pancakes?” I ask her, making her eyes go big, and she smirks at me as she nods her head. Side by side we make breakfast, well, she helps make the pancakes. I do the stove but she does help with setting the table. I can’t even put into words how I feel sitting down at the table with them.
After breakfast, we go out into the yard where I show her the tree house my parents bought for her. She runs toward the tree house, her hair flying behind her, yelling that it says her name on it.
Addison and I follow her, the both of us not sure what to say. “This is incredible,” Addison finally says, looking at me.
“Not as incredible as her mother,” I mumble, but I know she hears me because her cheeks get a touch pink, “or that kiss we had last night.”
She’s about to say something when Avery comes running out and grabs her hand, pulling her toward the tree house. I stand here as she shows her everything in the house. When the clouds start to roll in, Addison tells her it’s time to go. Avery isn’t the only one who groans about that. I walk them to their car and Avery pouts the whole time. “Be good and I’ll come and see you tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay, but don’t go in my house,” Avery tells me of her tree house and it makes me laugh.
I close the door to the car, standing in front of Addison. “Thank you for today,” she says as she wrings her hands together nervously.
“You’re more than welcome.” I try to draw it out longer. “You are also more than welcome to stay for dinner and even breakfast.” I wink at her and she just shakes her head laughing. “Did you take the check?”
“Stefano,” she groans my name and all I can do is smirk at her as I close the distance between us.
“I like hearing you say my name,” I tell her, then lean in even more, “but I love hearing you moan it more.”
She pushes my chest away as she laughs even harder. “Goodbye,” she says, opening the driver’s door.
“No kiss?” I question, right before she closes the door and the back window opens.
“I’ll kiss you,” Avery says to me, and yup, totally done for. My heart explodes in my chest as I stick my head in the window and kiss her cheek and then her neck. “That tickles.” She squeezes her neck closed.
“Call me when you get home,” I tell her and watch her drive away. I stand here until I can’t see her anymore and then go back into my house. Walking inside, I see the check still on the table and shake my head. “Stubborn woman,” I mumble before I make my way to the kitchen, put things away, and clean up before grabbing my laptop. I get lost in my work and only when my phone rings do I look up.
I see that it’s Avery FaceTiming me. “Hello,” I greet once her face fills my phone.
“Hello, Dad,” she says. She doesn’t really call me Dad or Daddy often, but when she does it warms my soul. “I’m going to bed.”
“Going to bed?” I gasp before I turn my head to see it’s after seven. “Did you eat dinner?”
“Yes, Momma made grilled cheese,” she tells me and I smile. “Momma, Dad is on the phone.”
“What phone?” I hear Addison ask from somewhere in her apartment.
“Mine,” she states, walking to her mother. I see she is getting dressed, I get a glimpse of her leg and her lace panties before she squeals and grabs the phone from Avery.
Her face fills the phone. “And this is why it’s not a good idea for a four-year-old to have a phone,” she hisses.
“I mean, she could have called me with your phone.” I make the argument, and all she does is glare at me. “Go put our girl to bed and call me back,” I tell her and she’s about to say something to me. “I like that color of lace,” I declare. All that earns me is her teeth grinding together.
“Say good night to your father.” She hands the phone to Avery.
“Good night, Father,” Avery says, “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I say softly and then the phone goes dead. I wait thirty minutes before I call her number.
“Hello,” she mumbles and then I press the FaceTime button. “Why are you FaceTiming me?” she asks me but accepts and her face fills the screen.
“What are you doing?” I ask her, seeing she is on the couch.
