Page 91 of Signature Of You

“Why does he want to see me? I just told you I never signed a contract. He can’t sue me for something I didn’t agree to which he knows. That can only mean he wants her and he can’t have Gracie. I won’t let him.”

She was on her feet pacing and I stood pulling her to me. “He’s not getting Gracie.”

“That’s not a promise you can make.” She pushed away from me. “Oh god, I really messed up. I kept her a secret all this time and now he knows.”

“He knows that she exists. We can’t do anything about that but that doesn’t mean she has to belong to him.”

She can be mine.

What am I thinking?

“But she might,” Cadence whispered, almost as if she were afraid of the possibility. “All these years I’ve hated them for that night. I’ve been able to move past it but it’s still there like a raging storm. Like waves violently crashing against the shore. She’s the only reason why those waves haven’t taken me under.” She choked out a harsh laugh. “And there are days when I don’t feel like I’m enough, you know. I feel like I’m cheating her because she deserves to have it all and to be loved by her mother and her father…” She shook her head, closing her eyes. “But if it’s one of them, then I just can’t. I won’t. I’m glad she’ll be without, even on the days when I feel like I’m not enough.”

Shit.

“You’re enough, Cadence. Shit, have you seen her because I damn sure have. That little girl isn’t lacking. She’s so full of everything good and she’s got enough to share.”

Another choked cry crawled up her throat and barely escaped. “She’s mine.”

I understood those two words and the depth of what she was communicating.

Hers to love.

Hers to protect.

I was on her before the moment passed, driven by the thickness of emotions hanging heavily in the moment. “I need to ask you something and before you answer, I want you to really consider what I’m asking. It’s deeper than just a simple yes or no…”

Her eyes lifted and fastened with mine. There was a level of doubt already lingering that I needed to push past. This was important. “Do you trust me to fix this for you?”

Her brows pinched with unease. There were questions on the tip of her tongue but she held back and settled on, “You can’t fix this. Not if…”

“I can but you have to tell me now if you trust me to do so. You can’t ask me how and you can’t have any regret once it’s done. If it means she’s yours and no one else can demand to be a part of her life, then that’s all the matters, right?”

“Are you going to do something to him?”

I would.

Considered it.

Too much to lose to be that reckless.

But…

“No…” I smirked. “Should I be concerned that you think I would?”

She quickly shook her head and bit back a smile. Fuck, that smile was my undoing. “I don’t know what you’re capable of.”

“I’m sure you have a pretty solid understanding of my capabilities and I plan on reminding you of a few of those after you answer my question…” I pulled her into me and my fingers tipped her face, angling it up while I bent mine down. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes.”

“Then don’t worry about anything because I got you.”

&

The next morning I stood in the doorway of the room Cadence shared with Gracie. She’d ended up in her daughter’s bed after she left mine. I would have preferred waking up to her and not just the memories of what it felt like having her tangled in my sheets and the scent of her on my pillow but I understood.

Things were already more than fucking complicated and bringing Gracie into what she refused to accept as a possibility wasn’t going to help matters.

---