Page 17 of Mine To Keep (Southern Wedding)

“She was just a baby,” she huffs, and I can even see her rolling her eyes at me. Just like she did when Meadow was a baby and would cry nonstop, and she would just leave her crying.

“Yes, a baby who is now grown up and looking to start school soon,” I let her know. “You’ve spent a whole six days with her in four years… six days. I have food in the fridge that has been there longer.” My finger taps on the desk. “And just so we are clear on how this will go. You can stay where you are because coming back here isn’t going to change anything. I have full and complete custody of her. You signed the papers. If you want, I can have my lawyer send you a copy.”

“I know what I signed, Caine,” she snaps. “I was hoping we could talk things through.”

“Talk things through? It’s been four years.” I laugh at her. “All the talking should have been done.”

“When can I see Meadow?” She ignores me again. “I have a flight back tomorrow morning.”

I chuckle. “Well, I guess we’ll have to do it next time. You were invited to her birthday party last month,” I remind her.

“I already had plans,” she huffs. “I asked you to change the date.”

“I can’t change the date my daughter was born,” I tell her.

“Daddy.” I hear Meadow calling me from the living room.

“I have to go,” I tell her, pushing my chair away from the desk. “Good talking to you. Safe flight home.” I hang up the phone and get up, walking to the family room.

“What’s up, baby girl?” I ask as I round the couch and sit next to her.

“Will you watch television with me?” she asks, and I smile before leaning in and feeling her head, which feels a lot less hot than it did this morning.

“How are you feeling?” I ask. “Do you want something to drink?”

“Water,” she answers. I get up and walk over to the fridge to grab her water bottle. After filling it with two cubes of ice and then water, I walk back over and hand it to her. She opens the top and the plastic straw pops up as she takes little sips of water before handing it back to me. “Thanks, Daddy.” She turns on her side toward the television.

“You’re welcome, baby girl,” I tell her as she watches television. Her eyes are getting heavier, and I know that within ten minutes, she’ll be asleep again. Only when she is sleeping do I slowly get off the couch and walk back into my office, leaving the door open.

Flipping open the folder, I look down seeing the Post-it with all of Grace’s notes. I have to give it to her, she’s very thorough. My mind goes straight back to when I opened the door and saw her standing there. She is fucking gorgeous. There isn’t another word I can think of and even that word doesn’t do her justice. I shake my head to stop thinking about her, looking at my phone and wondering if she made it back to the office safely.

Grabbing my phone, I call her office phone line to see if she picks up. It rings three times before she picks up. “Caine Griffin’s office, this is Grace. How may I help you?”

You can get on your knees and swallow my cock, my head screams, and I have to shut my eyes, hoping like fuck my mouth doesn’t say the words. “Hey, it’s me, Caine.”

“Oh, good, this saves me a phone call. I was on the phone with Dyrex about your appointment tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” I respond to her.

“They called and asked if they can shift it to Thursday instead. They are currently out of town and their travel schedule got shifted.” I’m about to ask her if she checked my schedule. “I’ve just finished going through your schedule for Thursday, and the only thing you had on there was the meeting with Sofia. So, if it’s okay by you, I can switch them around.”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” I agree. “Thank you for checking.”

“Just doing my job,” she says. “Let me know if you need anything.” She is direct.

“Will do,” I reply and hang up the phone before I ask her if she’s okay and if something is bothering her.

I spend the whole day trying to think of different reasons to call her, but nothing is a good enough reason, and the next day when my alarm rings, I spring out of bed, anxious to get to work. “Daddy,” Meadow calls me from her room, “am I going to daycare today?” I slip on shorts before I go to her bedroom.

“That depends,” I say, putting my hand on her head. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” she states, and her forehead is cool.

“Then you are going to daycare,” I tell her even though I had Mrs. Potter on standby to come and watch her. “Get dressed, and I’ll get breakfast started.”

“Okay.” She turns over until she slides off her queen-sized bed. “I’m going to wear shorts.” I nod, watching her pick out her pink shorts with a matching top. When she’s got her outfit picked, I walk back to my room, go to the bathroom, wash my face, and fix my hair before getting dressed and walking downstairs. Forty-five minutes later, I’m parking my car in the parking lot at work. A quick look around and I don’t spot her SUV. After getting out and grabbing my coffee, I walk over to the elevator, pressing the button.

I look at my watch and see that it’s almost eight forty-five. Screeching tires make me turn my head to see her SUV pulling into a parking space closest to the elevator instead of in her normal spot. She rushes out of her SUV, and she doesn’t even notice I’m here, so I take a second to take her in. She’s wearing blue pants that are tight as fuck but go loose at her knee, with a white satin button-down top. I don’t even bother looking at her shoes because I see that she’s wearing sunglasses. She finally looks up and sees me. “Shit,” she mutters. “Busted.”

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