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Wyatt jumped in. “And so when she returned, she had enough magic to take away his curse, and he finally became happy. He spent a lot of time with the fairy queen and his kids, until one day…”
Avery growled. “Don’t stop it there. You know Daddy’s going to ruin it.”
I waggled my eyebrows. “But that’s part of the fun. Predictable can be boring.”
“No, because every journey is different.”
As I stared at my daughter, I wondered where the little girl who went around pretending to be a pirate princess, out on the seas, waving her plastic sword around and making her stuffed animals sail her ship and fight her battles had gone.
People always said kids grew up fast, but it was only starting to really hit me how true that was.
“Dad?” Wyatt asked. I looked at my son, and he added, “Let’s finish the story. I’m tired.”
Even though I shouldn’t, I really fucking shouldn’t, I decided to make the story end how they wanted tonight. “Until one day the orc and fairy queen got married, joined forces to make the kingdom the strongest and kindest in the world for their children, and they lived happily ever after. The end.”
Avery jumped from her bed and tackled me with a hug, scaring the kittens again.
She whispered, “You didn’t ruin the story, Daddy. Thank you.”
As I hugged her little body and took comfort from her familiar warmth and scent, I wished I wouldn’t keep ruining the story of our actual lives.
But what they wanted and what I could give were two different things. I would do nearly anything for my kids, but I wouldn’t find some woman I could never love to be their mother and marry her for their sake alone. That wasn’t fucking fair to anyone.
However, I could find other ways to make them happy, ways that didn’t involve risking my heart, let alone my kids’ hearts.
So once I kissed them goodnight and went to my room, I sat in the overstuffed chair and decided I couldn’t let fear of my own weakness—my attraction to Emilia—stand in the way of giving them a small piece of happiness. I’d take them over to her place tomorrow, do my own check to ensure the area was safe, and then probably say they could spend their summer days there.
Maybe, if I was lucky, Emilia would constantly be busy with weddings, meetings, or other business-related stuff. Summer was the high season for her, just like it was for my family’s winery.
Yes, I’d probably never see her. Abby could keep me updated on what was going on. And in the end, it shouldn’t be that bad.
ChapterFour
Emilia
Me:Do you know where West and his kids are now?
Abby:Maybe. Are you going to spy on them?
Me: I just want to know if the kids will spend their days here or not.
Abby:You could text him.
Me:It could be days before he replies.
Abby:Only with you. Hmm.
Me:Focus, Abby. Where is he? The wedding starts soon.
Abby:He mentioned the rear pastureland. The one on the King side.
Me:See, was that hard?
Abby: I still think spying would be more fun. Who knows, maybe he belts out show tunes when no one is around but his kids. x 3
Me:Have you been eating those special gummies again?
The next day, when Abby had told me that West was with his kids in the rear pasture, I hadn’t expected to find him without a shirt, fixing one of the fence posts, with a light sheen of sweat coating his chest, back, and face.
