Page 43 of Claimed By the Don

“We took today off,” she explains, “to have a special day together.”

“Because of the bad guy,” he says seriously. She nods.

“Let’s get home so you can have a bath and go to bed,” I say. Liam reacts about like I would have at that age if I had to leave a fun place to go take a bath.

He cries and hides his head in Daisy’s shoulder while she whispers to him. He sniffles and hiccups and whines that hewants to stay. He finally settles down while I stand there feeling useless. I don’t think telling him we’ll come back sometime is going to help and if I go get him another pretzel, I’m pretty sure Daisy will throw something at me.

We get him back into the car and start the drive home. After about five minutes, I glance into the back seat.

“Wow, he’s out,” I say.

“Yep, that’s what happens when he plays hard.”

“Where do you get the energy?” I ask.

She chuckles. “Some days I don’t know.”

“Thank you for this. For the whole day together,” I tell her. “He’s so fun. And smart. He knows all kinds of stuff about frogs that I didn’t know.”

“Reptiles and amphibians were a big thing last year for him. We read a lot of library books and watched this one kid show about dinosaurs a bunch.

“He really is a great kid,” I say, pride swelling in my chest.

“He really is,” she agrees with a smile.”

“I love you,” I say.

I lace my fingers through hers. She leans her head on my arm and falls asleep almost as fast as Liam did. It’s a peaceful drive home, and I keep looking back, seeing his sleeping face, his head drooping against the window. When we reach her mom’s house, I park and Daisy wakes up, apologizes for falling asleep and puts her shoes back on. I get Liam out of the car and carry him inside.

“You want me to wake him up so you can give him a bath?” I ask in a whisper. She shakes her head.

“I’ll get up early and we’ll do a bath in the morning,” she says.

I follow her to the bedroom and put him down on the bed. He stretches a little and then curls up on his side. Daisy covers him up and I reach out, touch his sweaty hair for a second, reeling from the force of emotion that hits me. How much I love this kid, how much I love his mom too.

We tiptoe out of the room, and I say hi to Mrs. Cooper who’s working at her laptop on the couch.

Daisy walks me to the porch, and I take her in my arms. “You better get some sleep yourself. He’s going to wake up and have twenty million more questions to ask in the morning,” I say. She nods.

“This was nice, better than nice,” she murmurs. “Thank you. I’m sorry I didn’t—”

“No more sorrys,” I tell her. “We’re going forward. We’re going to be a family and that is what matters.”

Reluctant, she nods. I kiss her full lower lip and then her top lip. “Good night. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

When I leave her on the porch, I go to the office. I have business to take care of late into the night because I took the day off. No regrets about it, but I have a lot to keep on top of. I set up meetings and plan a memorial for my dad so people can pay their respects. I return emails, I make my assistant a long list for tomorrow and give detailed instructions to Josh and Malcolm. I’m done around midnight and go sleep for six solid hours.

In the morning, I make a deal on some real estate and return calls and emails. By ten I’ve closed on another deal and message Daisy about meeting up after school to go to the park. I’ll pick her up at Snip, I tell her, and we can go get Liam together. She agrees.

While I wait outside Snip for her to be finished, I message my assistant again and get confirmation that everything’s on track. I’ve got good people like her and Josh and Malcolm working for me who I can delegate to and trust them not to screw up.

Daisy steps out of the salon and I see her look around. I roll down my window. “Over here,” I call out.

“What are you driving? Where’s the truck?” she says, bewildered.

“I didn’t have a place for a booster seat,” I explain. “Much less a car seat for a baby too. It was time to upgrade.”

Daisy looks around inside the new SUV. I can tell she likes it, that she’s pleased but a little worried too.

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