Ember In The Heart

Swallowing back his anger, he lifted G into his arms and turned to look out the window. Her bedroom had a large window with white-painted shutters that looked down over their quiet neighborhood. The house was one of the largest on the street, really too big for just the two of them, but it was in a great area and like the Bonet’s, their house came with a pool. Georgie loved a pool.

“You can watch the world go by from up here,” he said. “I could put a window seat in so we can sit and read together. That sound good?”

G nodded but her attention was focused elsewhere. Following her gaze, he tried not to tense because his daughter was sensitive and she’d feel the change in him.

But she watched the Bonet sisters. Colt and his fiancé and her younger sisters were still chatting on his driveway. Foster couldn’t help himself. His eyes automatically found Ember Bonet.

Now that he was gone, she’d come alive, gesturing with her elegant hands as the others listened to whatever story she told them. Colt and her sisters burst into laughter and Foster wished the window was open so he could hear what she was saying.

He couldn’t believe his best friend, his business partner, omitted the fact that the house he’d bought was next door to the Bonet’s. When he’d viewed the place the first time there were no signs of the three of five sisters who lived there. The second time he viewed it with Colt, again no sign of them, and the bastard didn’t say a word.

What was he up to?

Was it because he knew Foster wouldn’t buy the house if he’d known Ember lived next door?

And not because he’d insulted her behind her back and she’d overheard and slighted him in return … but because he was pretty sure Colt could tell how attracted he was to the second eldest Bonet.

From the moment they’d locked eyes at Colt’s engagement party, Foster felt drawn to her. It wasn’t like a normal kind of attraction he felt toward a beautiful woman either. It was … it was like she had some kind of magnetism about her. He’d found himself searching the party the entire night for glimpses of her, feeling something alarmingly like jealousy as he watched man after man invite her onto the dance floor.

He could tell she loved to dance.

And laugh.

She laughed a lot.

Full of joy.

And self-confidence.

It was an alluring combination.

And at eleven years his senior, single, never been married, a “lowly” Bonet who worked at a profession his father did not respect, Ember was as far removed from the kind of woman Foster was expected to date, and eventually marry, as anyone could be.

Foster couldn’t disappoint his family again.

Georgie depended on her grandparents more than ever and a rift between them might mean she’d lose them. Moreover, while his business had taken off, there were no guarantees in life … except for the huge inheritance he was due that would guarantee his daughter’s future. An inheritance his father would have no problem cutting him out of if he didn’t fall in line.

Dragging his gaze from Ember, trying to shove out thoughts of her flashing, warm dark eyes and lush mouth, he said to G, “Why don’t we leave everyone to get on with the house and you and I go out for ice cream?”

G looked up at him with big, sad, dark eyes that caused the ache in his chest to flare again. “Can I get rainbow sprinkles?”

“Only if I can?” he teased as he nodded at the ladies organizing G’s room. They’d stopped dressing the four poster to watch father and daughter walk by.

G snuggled her head against his chest. “Okay, Daddy.”

Her forlorn tone broke his fucking heart.

Later that night, G was conked out on her new bed after a day of Foster, Colt and Jade trying to cheer her up. The engaged pair had decided to join them on their trek for ice cream and ice cream had led to dinner and a walk along the pier. It was clear to them all that the new house really brought it home to G that her mom was gone. That she and her dad were starting a whole new life without her.

It would have been easier to keep his place in the city, cut the commute to work down, but he wanted to make up for Carolyn’s defection and yanking his kid out of school to move to the city now that her mom didn’t live in the coastal town anymore, would have been selfish. Plus, Colt was moving here for Jade so that meant he and G would have friends nearby.

Foster stared around the large master bedroom that looked down over the backyard of his place and the Bonet’s. The room was huge and not completely unpacked yet. The team would return in the morning to finish up. There were still rooms in the house that required furnishing but he’d leave that up to his mom. She lived for that stuff.