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Emery and I have been dating for an entire month now and honestly, I couldn’t imagine things going any better between us. I’m not exactly sure we’ve been moving slow though. Truth is, we just move at our natural pace. That just so happens to mean that she joins us for dinner nearly every night. She helps with Ava around the house, and most nights end with us coming together. Some nights she goes home. Others, she stays with me. Honestly, I’d love it if she stayed with me every night, but I’m not going to push it.
It’s unbelievable how much easier raising a child is when you’re not doing it all on your own. That’s something I must have forgotten. Ava absolutely loves having Emery around. Emery helps with dinner, cleaning up around the house, she helps get Ava to bed, and she even takes little day trips with us.
“I have to ask you something.”
She sits beside me on the couch after we put Ava to bed. “Shoot. What’s up?”
I give her my full attention. “I have a workshop to attend in Florida next weekend. I have to do these things every so often and usually, I leave Ava with my mom while I’m gone. But I thought that, maybe this time, you and Ava could come with me. You could keep an eye on her during the day while I’m gone and then in the evenings, we could treat it like it’s a little family vacation. What do you think?”
She smiles up at me. “You want me to come with you to Florida for a weekend?”
I nod.
She presses her lips to mine. “I’d love to.”
* * *
“Hey, how was work today?” Emery asks when I walk into our hotel room.
I collapse onto the bed with my arms out at my side.
She climbs onto the bed and giggles. “That bad, huh?”
My hands find her hips and I pull her on top of me, moving my mouth to hers.
“Lincoln, Ava is just in the other room.” She pushes against my chest as she slides off of me, taking her place at my side once again. “So what was so bad about your day?”
I take a deep breath. “It was just boring as shit. I basically just sat in a chair all day trying not to fall asleep.”
She smiles. “And how’d you manage to stay awake?”
“I started thinking about you. But then I had to stop that too because…well.” I grab her hand, moving it to my groin where she can feel my excitement.
She yanks her hand away, not wanting Ava to walk into the room and see us. “You’re going to have to control yourself until someone’s bedtime.”
A long breath leaves my lips as I move my hands beneath my head. “How did you two spend the day?”
“We had breakfast and then spent some time on the beach. Then we came up and had lunch. After swimming and eating, she took a nap. She just woke up a little while ago. Then we got cleaned up and we’ve just been waiting for you to get here so we can go out and have some dinner.”
“Daddy!” Ava comes running into the room.
I sit up just as she dives on me. She knocks the wind out of me, but I catch her.
“Hi, princess. How was your day?”
She smiles, blue eyes sparkling. “We went to the beach!”
I chuckle and nod.
“I played in the sand. We tried to build a sandcastle but Emy doesn’t know how. It kept falling over.” She frowns, making us both laugh.
“Tell you what. How about after dinner, the three of us go back to the beach and I’ll help you build a sand castle. Does that sound good?”
She smiles wide and nods her head.
I laugh as she slides off my knee. “Alright, go watch some TV or play while I get ready for dinner.”
She runs off.
