A Redo (Sterling Shore 6)

Her head snaps up, and much to my surprise, she bursts out laughing. She shakes her head while pulling me to her, and I don’t hesitate to push my lips against hers. But she breaks the kiss, muttering something about her morning breath. Like I give a damn. She’s crying over Christmas. Morning breath is the last thing on my mind.

“I can’t do that, but thank you. I’ve applied to some private practices, but they’re harder to get into. And don’t volunteer to strong-arm someone. But it does feel good that you’d be willing to, even though I can’t let you. I’ll… deal with it. It’s part of life.”

I really hate feeling like a dick. If I had been there for her… If I had helped raise Angel… If I had been around to change things… So much could have been different.

“Your jaw is tense,” Allie says, gently stroking my face and bringing my gaze down to her shimmering green eyes that are still wet with a few fresh tears. “Don’t do that. I know what you’re thinking. What’s done is done. Don’t start letting regret eat you up because it’ll destroy us before we get started.”

She’s in my head. Not surprising. I swear she seems to know me better than most of my friends, except for Tag and Rye.

“I hate this. I don’t like seeing you cry when I can fix the problem. Let me get you a job. Or quit completely and just stay home with Angel. With the back child support I owe you, you could easily—”

She surprises me by kissing me and climbing on top of me. I don’t fight her when she moves the sheet out from between us, putting us skin to skin.

“Shut up,” she whispers, smiling against my lips. “You’re making me like you too much too soon. I don’t need your money. And I like paying my own way. Now kiss me, because tomorrow you’re going to Aspen without me, and I won’t see you for another week.”

Her lip trembles, but I know it’s because she realizes she’ll have to spend another week without Angel. To hell with that. She won’t let me fix her job situation, but I can fix Christmas, damn it.

She sinks down on me, trying to distract me before I can speak, and I swear my eyes cross as my cock slides all the way in until I’m fully seated inside her. When my hands go to her hips, words become replaced by pants and moans, and I help her set a rhythm that has us both forgetting reality even exists.

***

WREN

As I walk into the lodge, Kade greets me, clapping me on the shoulder and quickly filling me in on how much better Angel is at skiing than poor, hopeless Raya.

“Skiing is stupid,” Raya grumbles, pouting.

Angel beams at me as she runs and throws her arms around my neck, and I scoop her up, hugging her tightly. “Where’s Mommy?” she asks against my ear.

“She’s at home. She has to work. But I’m ready to take you home tomorrow if you want to go see her. We’ll surprise her for Christmas Eve tomorrow if you want. I know she doesn’t want to miss Christmas with you.”

She gawks at me like I’m an idiot, and I have no idea why.

“I have to spend Christmas with her. Can we leave now?”

Good. I thought she wanted to stay, and I had no idea what I was going to do with that other than fly back and kidnap Allie.

“We can’t leave now, but we can leave first thing in the morning. We’re going to take my private jet.”

Her eyes get big, and her smile grows huge. “I like flying.”

I laugh while nodding. “Well, I’m about to take you up to Uncle Paul’s cabin. You can get dressed, and I’ll take you out to dinner. Just you and me. Then you can help me wrap your mom’s and Aunt Bella’s presents.”

Again, her smile flashes, and seems perfectly happy. I think I’m getting the hang of this. Finally.

“Like a daddy-daughter date?” she asks, and my chest tightens.

When I don’t respond—because I can’t—she adds, “Carrie says Dane takes her on daddy-daughter dates.”

I nod slowly. “Yeah,” I say hoarsely. “A daddy-daughter date is what we’ll call it.”

I put her down, and she immediately joins Carrie, who is sitting next to Rain. Raya smiles, propping up on Kade as I look for Mom.

“Mom not here?” I ask, hoping they don’t see how much Angel just affected me with something as simple as the word daddy. It’s not like she actually called me that.

“She’s around here somewhere,” Raya says, motioning to the hectic, massive lodge that is teeming with even more people than usual this time of year. “Please ask me about Erica.”

That’s random, but my blood still chills at the mention of her name. How could I have forgotten she’d be here? “Shit. I forgot about her. She hasn’t been up here and messing with Angel has she?”