Page 27 of Broken Chains

Peyton had insisted on sitting me down and working out a schedule for Eve. I felt like I was taking advantage of her generosity, but she was a tough woman to say no to. She was adamant that I didn’t need to pay for Eve’s childcare. As it was, Eve’s grandparents kept her Thursday through Friday. I worked at least half a day on Saturdays and Peyton didn’t go in until three. The boys covered if there was any crossover. I had off on Sundays and she had off on Mondays. That only left me with Tuesday and Wednesday that I had to put Eve in daycare, for half a day each. Peyton worked the breakfast shift through the worst of lunch and insisted on picking Eve up around one o’clock.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t really help me out, and there was no one I trusted my daughter with more than Peyton. That didn’t stop the guilt I felt for using her like that. Still, it was nice to have someone I could truly rely on. Being a single dad was a lonely life.

Even though it was my day off, I headed over to the house to get some work done. Brady was moving his stuff in and my wolf was unsettled over it. I didn’t know what to do. I put Eve down for a nap and got to work finalizing the last few things in the kitchen. I had torn out most of the original cabinetry and put in all new. I’d also added a gourmet island. I’d made Peyton promise not to go in there until it was done. I couldn’t wait to see the surprise on her face.

I hadn’t had the money to just buy her all new cabinets, but I was good about picking up scraps being thrown out from other job sites. With those, along with a few refurbished cabinets from the original kitchen, I’d pulled off an amazing custom kitchen, built and designed specifically for Peyton. I was a little nervous showing her. It hadn’t been in the plans at all, but something told me that was okay.

I managed to finish up the last pieces before she got home that afternoon. Eve was still asleep, and Brady was making another run to get the last of his things. I met her at the door and took her bag from her, setting it on the makeshift table in the dining room. Then I stood behind her and covered her eyes with my hands.

“What are you doing, Oliver?” she asked in a breathier-than-normal voice.

I realized the close proximity was turning me on, but I tried to ignore that, and slowly walked her to the kitchen.

“Just keep your eyes closed,” I told her.

When I had her in place in the middle of the room, I removed my hands.

“Okay, you can look now.”

She opened her eyes and gasped. There were tears in her eyes and her hands covered her mouth as she looked around the room.

“How? When? You did this?”

I shrugged. “A chef needs a good, solid kitchen.”

She ran her hands along the cabinets lovingly, opening and inspecting each one. “I obsess about kitchen cabinets and I’d never seen anything like these before. What brand is this? They’re gorgeous.”

My wolf wagged his tail happily in my head at her praise.

“They’re a little of this, a little of that. Mostly just scrap wood from a few job sites,” I admitted, hoping she was okay with that.

Peyton stared at me like I had two heads. “Oliver, you’re telling me you custom-designed and built these yourself?”

I shrugged. “The old ones weren’t in very good condition and it’s the kitchen. Isn’t that like your mecca?”

“Wait, that’s not the stove that came with the house,” she said, noticing the industrial stove and oven I rescued from the dump on a restaurant revamp I’d worked on.

“Thought you’d need more than that with all the cooking you like to do.”

“Oliver, this is a six-thousand-dollar restaurant-grade stove. You can’t spend that kind of money on me!”

“First, I had no idea it cost that much. Second, there was a kitchen fire in some fancy restaurant in town. Nothing wrong with the appliances, but they took the insurance company for all they could get and replaced everything. This thing was headed to the dump. It just needed a little elbow grease to clean it. Otherwise, it was in perfect working order,” I assured her.

She surprised me when she threw her arms around my neck and pressed her body against mine. I stiffened at first, then hugged her back. Holding her in my arms felt so right, I didn’t ever want to let her go.

I held her for longer than I should, before I awkwardly cleared my throat. “So you like it?”

“It’s the most perfect, beautiful kitchen I’ve ever seen. Thank you.”

A throat cleared behind us, but Peyton was slow to let me go. When she finally did she was wiping tears from her eyes.

“Alright, Mom and Dad, cut that shit out or take it to a bedroom,” Brady teased as Peyton blushed and I growled at him. Then he grinned at her. “He’s been working his ass off to finish this. Does alright work, huh?”

“It’s perfect,” she repeated softly.

“Well, I hope this means I finally get some of that amazing cooking Kenneth’s always bragging about,” Brady said. I shot him a scowl.

“I was just stopping in long enough to change. I’m going into the city to look at furniture today, but I’ll pick up groceries on my way home and cook dinner tonight.”

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