Page 18 of Daddy's Little Mama Bear

"He's my neighbor for one. I have a daughter as well with my ex-husband. My daughter comes first," Janie said. "He also doesn't want someone who has a daughter with another man. What man wants that?"

"Bullshit!" Kyle said. "I call bullshit all over that. Sure, your daughter comes first but you also need to put yourself first every once in a while."

"I agree with him," Echo said.

"You haven't been with someone in a year since you got divorced. But even when you were married, you weren't really with him. I know you didn't love your ex-husband," Kyle said, giving her a pointed look.

Janie looked at him in shock. Did he really just say that? She honestly didn't think that any of them would remember that she had gotten divorced last year. She hadn't made a big deal out ofit. Just briefly mentioned it in case she wasn't able to attend for a little bit as she sorted everything out.

Even when she was married, she still had to have a babysitter come over. Her husband really didn't want anything to do with Eleanor. That was a red flag and she had thought about divorcing him when he told her he didn't want the baby.

Then she found him cheating and that was the last straw. She wasn't going to be married to a cheater. The girl he cheated with was barely legal. She was sick of it and her husband didn't fight her on the divorce.

"That doesn't mean anything. Eleanor is only two. She's in the stage of life where she needs me constantly," Janie said. "I need to focus on her."

Elsha placed her hand on Janie's shoulder. "You do know you don't have to do everything by yourself. We're here for you and so are a lot of the Doms."

"You can open up some and lean on people. We're not going to leave you when things get tough. You know that," Echo said. "All of us were there for you when you were going through your divorce."

Janie shook her head. "I don't want to burden anyone with anything. it's not fair when you guys didn't sign up for it," she said. "It's not your problem, it's mine."

Kirk sat up and gave her a pointed look. "Sure, we didn't sign up for it originally, but we want to help you. We wouldn't be telling you this if we didn't want to help. We do it because we care about you."

"We want you to be happy," Tucker said. "You deserve it after your divorce. I know you have Eleanor, but that shouldn't hold you back. The right guy wants both of you."

Janie kept quiet as she pondered their words. She knew that they wanted to be there for her, but that didn't mean she didn't feel guilty about it. Asking for help isn't her strong suit. Sheended up always feeling guilty about it. Worried that they were only doing it because they felt like they had to not because they wanted to.

"You've done a lot for us," Echo said. "You're always there when we need to talk to someone. Giving advice when needed or a shoulder to cry on."

"We want to give that back," Kyle said.

"Just try? We know it's not going to happen over night, but try. We would love to help," Elsha softly spoke.

Janie sighed and looked at all of them. "Okay, I'll try."

"Thank you," they all said.

Kyle sat up straighter and looked behind her. "Daddy incoming," he said.

Before Janie could look back, she heard his voice.

"Janie," Mac said. She didn't look behind her to see him. She didn't want to talk to him right now. "Could I steal Janie away for a couple of minutes to talk to her?" he asked.

"Sure," Echo said.

Janie turned around and glared at him. "I don't want to talk right now."

"Please, I would really like to talk to you."

Janie let out a sigh. She really didn't want to talk to him right now, but he had asked nicely. This was supposed to be her time to relax and have a good time. She didn't want to have any serious conversations right now.

"I think you should go talk to him," Echo whispered to her. "He asked nicely and I know you want to talk to him. Hear him out and what he has to say."

She did but at the same time she didn't. She didn't come here to talk to him. Janie came here to hang out with her friends and relax. This was not relaxing. Janie took a deep breath in and turned around.

"You have two minutes," she said. She cringed inside as she said that. It sounded a lot harsher than she meant it to be. But she didn't want it to drag on.

"Janie," Echo said. "That's not what I meant."

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