Page 78 of The Biker Needs A Nanny

Merry Christmas, sweetheart.

I love you with all my heart,

Grace.

P.S. Please hug the girls goodbye for me. I’ll miss you all every day.

There’s a small black box tied with a gold ribbon and a tag that says,to Lucky from Grace.

I pull the ribbon off and open it.

Nestled in a satin lining is a bracelet. I read the inscription on the three silver bands around the three braided leather cord.

Ella.

Poppy.

Grace.

The three most important people in my life. And now one of them is gone.

I’m losing another woman I love.

Everything drains out of me, and I drop to the bed. All I can do is stare at the floor and breathe in and out.

Ella and Poppy bop into the room.

“Santa comes tonight!” Poppy says with a giggle.

Ella slows and stares at me, then looks to the bathroom.

“Daddy, where’s Grace? She wasn’t in her room, and all her things are gone.”

“She had to leave, honey,” I say softly.

Her lower lip trembles. “She can’t leave. It’s Christmas.”

“I know, baby.”

“You have to go after her. You have to bring her back. Santa comes tonight.”

“I don’t know where she went.” The memory of her sitting at the table, looking at apartments in Florida flashes before my eyes.

“She promised she wouldn’t leave us,” Poppy says.

I don’t know how to answer her.

“You have to find her, Daddy,” Ella insists, and something inside me breaks.

“Ella, she’s gone. She left us. I can’t make her stay if she wants to leave,” I snap and throw a pillow across the room. I’m angry at Grace, not Ella, but she doesn’t understand that and runs from the room in tears.

I drag a hand through my hair, and come to my feet. “Baby, I’m sorry.”

Before I reach the stairs to follow Ella, there’s a knock on the front door, and I rush to it, hoping it’s Grace, but when I yank it open, I only find the guy from the pawn shop here to deliver the ring.

He holds up the bag and a clipboard. “Mr. Hartwell?”

“Yeah. That’s me.”

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