Page 34 of Tied and Tangled

“Life’s too short to live life on hold, Aiden,” she told me, way too wise for a woman her age. “I love you. I love you in a way I never thought was actually real. The kind of love I thought you only read about in books. But here we are, and now I know it’s real.”

“Then come back home with me and—" I couldn’t say another word as she shook her head. A knowing gleam in her stare let me know she wasn’t going to give in.

“Talk to them and come back to me.”

“But I love you,” I growled. Her eyes softened. Her big warm brown gaze locked with mine.

“Then prove it.” She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. Her lips lingered for a moment, but my head was too fucked up with everything she’d said that I didn’t react. I should have turned and kissed her. Reminded her who fucking owned her. Because she sure as fuck owned me.

But I didn’t.

Like an asshole, I silently watched my girl walk away and into the house, turning at the door with one last wave before disappearing inside.

Fuck. That didn’t go the way I’d thought it would. Had I really thought it would be so fucking easy?

* * *

Two sets of bright blue eyes stared back at me.

“What did you do?” Lake asked gently, and I watched her sister press her lips together not to laugh.

“I… said something not so nice,” I answered. I’d come home and worked in a haze as I served the girls dinner. As I’d watched them eat, trying to avoid questions about Aria, I knew there was no way I could wait.

Life’s too short to live it on hold. Aria had been more than right. My gaze drifted off to the Christmas tree we had set up together, the same one we’d made sweet sticky love under.

“Did you apologize?” River asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned to look at my daughters. River’s little head tilted to the side. Her blonde hair swayed back and forth with the movement.

“I did.” She scowled, and when she did, I knew exactly what I looked like when I did it.

“And she still didn’t come back?”

“The truth of it is…” I cleared my throat.

Over the years since I’d become a single dad, I hadn’t dated. I hadn’t brought any women of any kind around them. Hell, even my brother didn’t bring his girlfriend of the month around. Sure, I’d gone out to hook up and get laid. For six months when they were three, I even had a buddy with benefits until she met someone and ended things amicably. I’d just never wanted anyone to come in and get attached only to walk out on them again.

But now I realized what I’d done. I had basically forced Aria to do just that.

Talk to them and come back to me.Her voice replayed in my head. No. She hadn’t walked out. She just needed to know I would do the right thing.

I’d sat in front of her house for an hour thinking of what that was. I hadn’t gone to her with a plan. Hadn’t thought of more than apologizing. Which had only proven to me how fucking twisted up I was over Aria Martinez.Me.Aiden Stark, the man who lived and thrived off having a plan, didn’t have one.

I’d watched her other sisters arrive with overflowing bags of what looked like junk food and booze. They’d glared at me but hadn’t approached. As I watched all of them filter in one by one, trying to catch a glimpse of her at the window, I knew what I had to do.

Not only did I have to talk to my girls about their nanny and me, but I had to tell them what I wanted. For the future. For our family.

And I prayed my beautiful, sweet girls, who loved me as much as they did for some goddamn reason, would accept that plan. Because I wasn’t a team of one anymore. Funny how it had taken my time and almost losing Aria for me to realize it. I was one of four. Or I hoped it would be one of four if the girls accepted it.

“The truth of it, girls…” My heart felt like it thundered against my ribcage.

What if they didn’t like the idea of me with their beloved nanny?

What if they disapproved?

Only one way to find out, you sad sack! Man up!I chastised myself. I stared at my girls, two set of bright eyes set on me. “I love nanny Aria.”

“No, duh,” River remarked with sass, and Lake coughed away a giggle.

“We love her, too,” Lake chimed in with a shit-eating grin.We love her, too. Shit. They weren’t getting it. My brows bunched as I tried to figure out how to explain it.

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