Page 41 of The Maxwell Brothers
“Daddy, it’s six o’clock. Can we call Mommy?” Paisley asked, eyes wide.
I sobered up instantly, feeling as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice over me. Monday evening was when we called Nora.
“Yes. Call her from your phone.”
“I’ll be downstairs,” Lexi said, looking between the two of us. “I’ll start dinner.”
“You don’t have to do that, Lexi. I’ll take care of it after the phone call. It won’t last long.” It never did. Nora rarely seemed interested in details of Paisley’s life.
“Okay, then. I’ll wait downstairs and leave you two alone.”
After Lexi left, I FaceTimed Nora’s number. The call was for Paisley, not me, so I wasn’t in the picture, but I did hover around while they spoke. It was a force of habit. I wanted to keep my daughter safe from everyone, including her mother.
“Hey, Mommy,” Paisley said when the camera turned on.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Nora said. “What’s that behind you?”
“It’s a twinkle light, Mommy. Lexi and I put it up today. She’s helping me turn my room into a princess room, and Daddy said I could have pink walls.”
“Sounds like you get along well with Lexi,” Nora commented. Since Lexi had been in our lives, Paisley had mentioned her to her mother a few times.
“Yes. She’s very friendly, and she’s so pretty, Mommy. She has long dark hair, and she’s teaching me how to braid it.”
“Good for you,” Nora said. Her eyes were already glazing over on the screen.
For fuck’s sake.She had ten minutes with our daughter every few weeks. Couldn’t she at least focus on her now?
“Nora, Paisley wants to tell you about her weekend,” I said in a tone laced with warning.
She immediately trained her gaze on the camera. “How was your weekend, honey?” she asked.
My insides twisted. She always asked open questions so Paisley could talk by herself, and Nora would only have to answer with a yes or no or smile in the right places. It fucking gutted me, because my daughter deserved more. Every child deserved attentive parents who doted on them, who wanted them. Paisley was so young when Nora left, so I didn’t think she knew how a relationship with her mother could be, but soon she would be a teenager, and she was observant.
She’d already asked me if I didn’t want to date, for God’s sake.
The phone call ended a few short minutes later, less than ten minutes total. I forced a smile on my face when I looked at Paisley. “Want to go down for dinner, pumpkin?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
Annoyance coursed through me as I led Paisley downstairs, and also guilt.
The second I stepped into the kitchen, the negative emotions vanished into thin air. Lexi was dancing around the island. Her braid had come undone, and she was swinging her hips and mouthing along to the lyrics of the song she’d put on her phone.
Paisley shrieked with laughter, going straight to her. “You can dance. Please teach me, Lexi. Dad can’t do it.”
Her eyes widened, and then she blushed instantly, looking from Paisley to me. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, scrambling to pause the music. “I thought you’d be upstairs for a while.”
“No, we’re here. It’s done,” I said, rounding the corner and walking up to her. I wasn’t going to be able to forget the image of her hips swinging any time soon. Everything about her was branded in my mind. The way she danced, the way she smiled, the delicious way she blushed when I even looked at her.
“You two do your thing while I make dinner,” I said.
Paisley grinned, clapping her hands. Lexi turned the volume up, moving her body to the rhythm. Fucking hell, I had to look away from Lexi or I was liable to walk up to her and kiss her senseless right in front of my daughter.
Dinner wasn’t complex enough to keep my attention from wandering to Lexi. I made mac and cheese with chunks of ham. It was ready in fifteen minutes. The girls weren’t showing signs of slowing down even when I set the table.
Wait a second.They were looking at each other with meaningful glances. I immediately recognized Paisley’s expression. It was the same one she had when she and Tyler threw firecrackers.
When they both looked back at me, I cocked a brow.
