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“You will?”
He nodded. “I just have one condition.”
Her entire body stiffened. “What?”
He sat on the couch and patted his lap. “You have to give me a kiss. A big, wet, sloppy kiss.”
Laughter erupted from her as he pulled her down on his lap. She wiggled like crazy, trying to escape. He began to tickle her. That made her laugh louder and wiggle harder.
They lost themselves in a heated kiss.
“You’re not yelling at Daddy,” Mia complained. “You’re kissing him.”
Nik turned to look over the back of the couch at their little girl. He shook his head. “No. I was tickling your mommy.” A slow grin grew on his mouth. “Now it’s your turn.”
Mia screamed and laughed at the same time. She ran from the room. Nik jumped over the back of the couch and chased her.
Chloe relaxed for a moment. At least she was getting her bakery back. If things didn’t work out with Nik, she would have her business and her daughter. Just not her heart. It would be smashed to bits.
Somehow, she promised herself, she would survive life without him.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
For a while, everything was good.
Then the other shoe dropped.
Nik took off before dawn one morning and flew back to Vegas. Business, he said. He had an emergency meeting with an important group. She hadn’t listened to his whole explanation. The biggest thing weighing on her mind was Mia and his promise to go with her to the zoo. Her entire class was going. It was her first field trip. More than anything, she had wanted her daddy to go with her.
Nik promised he would be back in time.
He promised before he left, once on a call from the plane, and twice while in Vegas. Every time he called he had another excuse why he was taking longer than he intended. But he continued to promise.
Chloe had to deal with a heartbroken child, and her anger at Nik burned out of control. Part of her wanted to tell him to stay in Vegas. Deep down her inner voice screamed. “I will never forgive him for this!”
She went on the trip with Mia and tried to make her forget about her father’s broken promise. Mia enjoyed seeing the animals despite Nik’s absence, but she brought him up frequently. There was a touch of sadness in Mia’s eyes that made Chloe’s stomach muscles clench until they hurt.
When he didn’t return by bedtime, Mia went to sleep with tears in her eyes.
In a tired voice, her little girl asked, “Is Daddy ever coming home?”
Chloe’s anger burned so brightly that it threatened to turn everything around her to ashes. She couldn’t remember a solitary good thing about Nik. Only the bad. He was arrogant, bossy, and manipulative like his mother. Now he was taking them for granted, thinking they would be there no matter how many promises he broke.
He had told Chloe to stay at his house while he was gone; she took Mia back home instead. They belonged in the little house from her childhood. Maybe she hadn’t had a father growing up, but her mother had showered her with love. Being in the little house reminded Chloe that she was an independent woman and didn’t need a man in her life.
He knocked on the door at midnight, and she rushed to answer it before he woke up Mia. She closed her robe securely and made a knot in the sash to keep it closed. When she opened the door, her heart skipped a beat. He looked tired, but still gorgeous.
“Why are you here?” he asked. “I thought you were spending the night at my house.”
“I never agreed to that.”
He sighed and raked a hand through his thick, dark hair. “Why does everything have to a battle with you? It makes more sense for you and Mia to stay in the bigger house. Rent this one out if you don’t want to sell it.”
“This is my house. I’m not giving it up.”
“It doesn’t make any sense for us to have two houses.”
“It does if we aren’t together.” She pushed him back onto the porch and joined him there. She closed the door softly behind her. “I don’t want to wake Mia, so we’re going to finish this discussion out here.”
