“It was her ‘special snack’,” I reminded her. “She helped find all the stuff on the list.”
“Whatever!” Tria rolled to her back and rolled her eyes at the same time. “It took me two hours to get her to go to bed while you were at the gym last weekend.”
“Well, once I’m in school, you won’t have to worry about that,” I reminded her.
Tria sighed, and her hand came up and traced over the side of my face.
“You sure you want to?”
I shrugged.
“I always meant to go to college,” I told her. “I was always supposed to run the business.”
“But you don’t want to,” she said.
I shrugged again.
“It’s not that I don’t want to; I do. I just don’t know about running the whole damn thing. R
yan’s better at it, and he enjoys it. I also know he can’t really do it all himself. Sometime Dad and Michael are going to want to retire, and no matter what I say, Dad insists it’s all going to me.”
Tria nodded. She’d been witness to those conversations plenty of times.
“My next option is to just turn around and sign it all over to Ryan the day it’s given to me, but I can’t really do that to Dad. So, I have to do something.”
“Business school,” Tria stated dryly. “You could have had a UFC contract.”
“I wasn’t going to do that to you,” I said quietly. I reached over and tucked her hair behind her head, which brushed the bit of cookie dough onto her shoulder. “Not to you, not to Katie. Besides, I’m closing in on thirty-five. There’s no way I can keep fighting into my forties.”
“You like making rings.”
“I do,” I said with a nod. “Ryan and I have talked a little bit about maybe keeping him on the finance side and me on the operations side. I could be more involved in the day-to-day shit then—focus on jewelry making.”
It was Tria’s turn to sigh as she snuggled up against me, and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. With her nose against my chest, I kissed the top of her head.
“I just want you happy,” she said softly.
“I have you, don’t I?”
She nodded.
“And Katie?”
Another nod.
“Working on another one as often as possible?”
A giggle and a nod.
“Then I’m happy.”
“Daddy?”
I quickly grabbed the blanket to be sure it was strategically placed around us.
“Whatcha need, Artichoke?” I asked as I looked over to the opening bedroom door.
“I had a scary dream, and I woke up,” Katie said as she padded over to the edge of the bed.