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Blake grabs the remote from me and presses the buttons. “Only if I get to choose the movie.”
I groan. “I don’t know, Blake. Hailee can’t watch the kinds of movies you’re int—”
He selects a movie without us even having to say anything, making Hailee beam in excitement. “Beauty and the Beast… it’s the one with Hermione in it, Mom. Can we?” Hailee chimes excitedly.
Surprise filters through me as I stare at him with my mouth open. “I would never have pictured you as a closet Disney freak?”
““Tale as Old as Time,” Zoey, c’mon… we doing this?” he asks as Hailee bounces beside him.
“Yesss!” Hailee beams, jumping up from the sofa as soon as the music starts and begins dancing around the living room.
“I guess we’re doing this,” I state, nestling into the sofa, grabbing a cupcake while side-eyeing Blake. He strokes Mr. Muggles, and I shake my head.
Billionaire by day, Disney fanboy by night.
Who would have thought?
CHAPTER EIGHT
Blake
Hailee is in her element as she sings along to the Disney movie tunes.
I can’t help but smile while watching Zoey, trying not to mouth the words to the songs under her breath. It’s so fucking adorable. I’ve never pictured myself as a family man, and I’m unsure why. I guess I’ve been so focused on work that this whole thing—the kid dancing around the living room, the pet sitting on my lap with a good woman beside me—was never something I aimed or strived for.
But sitting here, taking all this in—fuck, I could get used to this.
The credits for the movie begin to roll, and I have to admit, when I came over tonight, I wasn’t sure what the night would entail. I knew Hailee was adorable, and I knew she would melt my heart, but I didn’t know she would capture it in such a short time. This kid—she’s something else. She doesn’t deserve the shit her father throws at her. Hailee’s smart beyond her years, maybe a little precocious and even has a certain sassiness, but this vulnerability she has reminds me she’s only seven.
Hailee climbs back onto the sofa beside me and cuddles into my side. “So, Blake, who’s your favorite character?”
I smirk. “It’s gotta be Chip, right?”
She giggles, nodding emphatically. “He’s so cute! I wish we had a talking teacup.”
“The thing I want you to take away from that movie, Hailee, is when you’re old enough to start being interested in boys, like say when you’re in your… I don’t know? Like mid-forties…” Zoey bursts out laughing as I continue, “Men like Gaston are a clear red flag. Do you know what a red flag is?”
Hailee smiles at me. “That’s a bad thing. So men like Gaston are bad?”
“Yeah,realbad. Don’teverdate a guy like Gaston. Ever.I willnotapprove, and I will send him running from this house quicker than you could yell at me for scaring off your hot date.”
Zoey tries to hide her giggle, but I can see her smiling as she fights back her laugh. Hailee, on the other hand, is taking this all in and nodding. “So that means you’re sticking around then because if I can’t date until I am forty, that’s like a hundred years until I can actually date, which means you have to basically move in to make sure you’re here to protect me when the time comes in the future…right?”
Widening my eyes, I glance over my shoulder at Zoey, who looks at me smugly like she knows I walked right into that one. Making Hailee hopeful that her mother and I will end up together is not something I want to mistakenly do.
I have to tread carefully here.
“I think for now, your mom and I are trying to get this fake dating thing off the ground. So moving in together is not in the cards right now. But if you start bringing Gastons home, we might need to revisit that option.”
Hailee snorts out a laugh. “Ew, I’m not going to be bringing boys home. Boys are gross.”
“Exactly, wearegross. And you should keep away from us until you’re sixty.”
Hailee folds her arms over her chest, letting out a huff. “I thought it was forty?”
I raise my brow at her. “I thought boys were gross?”
She smirks. “They are! But you know… no one likes having their options limited.”
