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Oakley pats his lap and grins at Addy. “Come here, sweetheart. Let Mom go help Adam.”
Not needing to be told again, the toddler dives toward her dad, giggling like crazy when he grabs her and sets her on his lap.
Ava stands and grins at me. “My office?”
“Sure.”
“Have fun gossiping. I expect to be updated on everything after,” Oakley shouts when we disappear down the hallway.
Ava snorts. “He’s just as bad as a teenage girl.”
“I don’t know, the boys seem to be worse gossips than any girl I knew growing up.”
“Good point.”
Ava’s office door is open, so we walk right inside. There’s no need to turn the light on with the amount of sun shining through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows.
I sit on the cream leather couch and stare out at the uninterrupted view of their acreage and the peace within it. Their closest neighbour is a half-hour drive away, leaving them the privacy they deserve after so many years under the media’s thumb.
Ava sits beside me, curling her legs beneath her. She’s watching me expectantly, and I chuckle.
“What do you want to know first?”
“How was dinner?”
I scrub a hand over my jaw, thinking of how to word what I’m thinking without just blurting out the first thing that comes to mind. There’s only one thing I can focus on right now.
Ah, fuck it.
“I love her.”
Ava sucks a breath between her teeth. Something sharp pricks my chest when her bottom lip quivers and her eyes mist over.
“Don’t cry, O,” I plead.
She leans toward me and shoves at my arm. “Don’t tell me not to cry, you asshole. You should have known this would happen when you decided to tell me that.”
“You’re right. I just . . . I can’t not say it, you know? I’m so full of it that I feel like I could explode at any time. I want to tell everyone,” I admit. Ava nods in understanding. “She’s it for me. I’m sure of it.”
“Oh, Adam,” she whispers. Her eyes shine with more than just tears. Pride, happiness, love. So many emotions swirl together to create that shine.
“I didn’t think I was going to tell her so soon, but I did. She was talking about quitting WIT, and it just burst out of me. The thought of her leaving—I never want to feel that panic again.”
“What did she say back?”
My pulse lurches. “That she loves me too.”
Ava curses. “And here I go. Hand me the tissue box on the table behind you, please.” I do, and she starts ripping them out before wiping under her eyes. “What happens next? Please don’t tell me you’re going to take things slow because I’m not sure you can get much slower. It’s been months already.”
“There’s still a lot to figure out. We didn’t have time to talk about what happens next,” I say.
“Why not?”
I lean forward with my elbows on my thighs and look at her. “Her mom is sick. Scarlett is trying to figure out how to help her, and I need to find a way to make her feel comfortable with working for me still. I also need to talk to Cooper. Beth too.”
“Work is easy. Let Banks handle payroll. Have her stay at WIT, but don’t be her boss. It’s about time Banks took on more responsibility anyway.”
“You think it will be that easy? She’ll still see WIT as my company, therefore making her my employee,” I say.
