Ember In The Heart

And he realized … his father was having a conversation with his daughter.

Foster hadn’t been there for her first word and now she was speaking in sentences.

He hadn’t been there for her first crawl or her first step.

While he loved his parents and knew they loved him, he’d vowed that he’d have a closer, more hands-on relationship with his kids. And he was already failing.

In that moment, everything changed.

Carolyn wanted to finish school so he asked to take Georgie more. They split their time with her down the middle. He was in a great situation to be able to afford a nanny while he worked.

But he wasn’t in a situation where he could disappoint his father again.

Something he had to remind himself constantly as he followed G and Ember down onto the busy beach.

How had he gotten himself into this?

Oh right, he had a hard time saying no to his daughter at the moment. And this Saturday, as if she knew a new nanny was on the horizon, she’d begged him to ask Ember to spend the day at the beach with them. And she’d done it in front of Ember so there was no way out of it.

He eyed the way Ember’s summer dress molded to her ass and had to admit he was looking forward to seeing her in her bikini in bright daylight. Her warm laughter floated back to him on the breeze followed by his daughter’s adorable giggles.

Something overwhelming filled his chest watching them as they found a spot to settle onto. As G helped Ember to stretch out towels on the sand, he stumbled a little at the sight.

G had inherited his dark hair and eyes which dominated Carolyn’s fair coloring and it was the first time he realized that it would be easy for people to confuse G for Ember’s kid.

They had the same dark eyes and hair.

And a bond that was beginning to worry him.

Once the new nanny arrived, Ember would probably disappear from G’s life.

Fuck.

“Come on, slow coach,” Ember called out to him, grinning, her eyes hidden behind huge pink and blue sunglasses that G immediately decided she wanted too. Ember, having already predicted that might happen, had brought a child’s pair from the stock she had at her store.

G wore hers, too, making them look even more alike.

Unnerved, Foster attempted to shrug off his strange emotions and helped them set up.

“Water?” Ember asked them, patting the top of their cool box.

“I want to swim!” G announced.

“I’ll take her.” Foster jumped to his feet, eager for distance from his neighbor. He already wore long swim shorts but he pulled off his T-shirt for the upcoming foray into the ocean. Glancing down at Ember, Foster caught her ogling his stomach. There was a gym at the office and he and Colt always had an hour of workout slotted into their daily schedule. It showed in his six pack and he was suddenly very glad for his hard work because Ember looked close to drooling.

He smirked and she looked away. “I’ll uh … I’ll just watch our stuff.”

“Em, my dress.” G went to their neighbor for help. Instead of him. Hmm.

But Ember deftly untied the little straps to reveal G’s purple swim dress underneath. “I brought a hair tie to keep your hair dry.”

He watched as his daughter stood patiently while Ember gathered her thick hair into a cute little bun thing on top of her head.

“All set.” Ember blew raspberries on G’s neck, making her erupt into giggles again.

His heart fucking melted.

“Come on, angel.” His voice sounded gruff to his ears as he took G’s hand and led her down to the water.

As it turned out, Ember in a bikini in broad daylight was a glorious thing to see. She was lying sunbathing, her olive skin turning a dark gold. Her green bikini looked amazing against her skin tone.

Hell, everything about her looked amazing.

Grinning mischievously at him, G lifted a finger to her lips to silence him and he smiled. Then she tiptoed over to Ember and began shaking her swim dress so all the sea water on it sprayed across their neighbor’s bare skin.

Squeaking in surprise, Ember shot up, shoving her sunglasses into her hair. “You little—” she launched at G, pulling her into her arms so she could tickle her. Foster laughed as his daughter’s infectious cackles filled the beach, drawing amused gazes from families nearby.

“Since I’m all wet now anyway,” Ember jumped to her feet, ruffling G’s messy bun, “I might as well take a dip in the water.”

Foster, gaze hidden behind his dark sunglasses, took the opportunity to really look at her.

He wanted to feel her soft body against his, to kiss his way up those lethally long legs, to pleasure her and hear her husky moans fill his bedroom, to taste her nipples and squeeze her gorgeous, full tits in his hands as he pumped into—