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“Ces!”
Xavier caught me just before I slumped onto the top stair.
“What the fuck just happened?” he sputtered, checking me up and down. For bruises? I wasn’t sure “ Are you all right?”
“I’m—this—look at this!”
I flipped my phone around to show him a text message notification from my bank containing a receipt of funds.
Xavier glanced at it, then back at me. “What’s that?”
“It’s from my bank. Someone just put over two hundred thousand dollars into my account!”
His big shoulders relaxed. “Oh, that,” he said flippantly, almost immediately getting up when he was sure I was stable. “I was wondering if you’d noticed, or if you just didn’t care.”
I was having a hard time speaking. I barely even noticed that he was still only clad in boxer briefs that left absolutely nothing to the imagination.
“Xavi.” I made a wild grab for his arm before he could walk away. “Did you do this?”
He shrugged. “Few days ago, yeah. Must’ve just gone through.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me about it?”
He just rolled his eyes. “Well, I owe you about five years of child support. Consider that a start, yeah?”
I gasped. “Xavi, that’s more than I make in a single year. Or…four, actually!”
He nodded, unfazed. Then he frowned. Finally catching the concern on my face, he squatted down and sat next to me at the top of the stairs.
“Ces, for the last four years, you’ve been raising our daughter alone.”
“Yes, but…that was my fault.”
“It wasn’t only your fault. And anyway, I owe you a lot more than that,” he said. “Look at you. Look at where you are. I know your brother’s done a lot for the two of you, but can you honestly say you want to sleep at the top of a stairwell for the rest of your life?”
He gestured behind him to the humble area where we’d just spent the night together. I followed his hand. Honestly, I sort of looked at the space in a new light, considering everything we’d just done. That said…
I swallowed. “Of—well, of course not. But—”
“Good. Because I don’t fancy spending another night in your single. I love you, babe, but I couldn’t feel my feet when I woke up this morning.”
I giggled. “I think your shoulders take up almost the entire thing too.”
“Exactly.”
We both chuckled, then, but his smile faded quickly.
“I want my family in a place where we can all stay together.” He tipped his head, looking for all the world like a nervous young man getting ready to ask a girl he liked to the movies. “What do you say?”
I frowned. “I…I’m not sure what you’re asking here.”
“It’s not rocket science, Ces. If I stay in New York, will you and Sof move in with me?”
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. I had too many questions. Where exactly would he want to live? How would we handle things like rent and rooms and furniture, not to mention the absurd amount of money sitting in my bank account? Xavier clearly wanted to take care of me and Sofia, but there was something about the arrangement that made me slightly uncomfortable. I wasn’t anyone’s kept woman.
To his credit, he managed to wait patiently while I thought things through. His eyes, though, were large, earnest, and oceanic.
But before I could answer, his phone rang.
