“Marlee wants to come visit.”
“Just let me know when.”
“Can she stay here? She wants to come see Rylee.”
“Yeah but you don’t need to ask me that and she wants to see more than just Rylee.”
True, her goal was to work herself into the same space as Taven. Since he’d followed her back on social media, in her mind they were basically married.
“Consider it multitasking. Did you talk to Rylee?”
He started signing again.
“Not in depth, but I did tell her that if she hears things about me spending money to keep her, it’s only because I want her to be somewhere she’s happy.”
“What did she say?”
“She asked if that meant she could stay here with me and I told her yes. Then she asked if you could stay too and I told her if that’s what you wanted.”
“That was it?”
“Pretty much. She told me she didn’t want me to spend all my money to let her live with me, but she wanted to stay. I told her I would spend every penny I had to keep her with me. Shesmiled big as hell, hugged me, then started telling me about the father-daughter dance at school.”
“She asked you to take her?”
“Hell no.”A smile eased onto his face.“She was more like ‘so when we go to the dance, Somee can find me a purple dress and you don’t have to wear a purple suit but you can if you want because it will match my dress.’ She damn sure wasn’t giving me an option about taking her. In her mind, that was a done deal.”
He smiled so proudly that it warmed my heart. Ryland would undoubtedly cherish and embrace all of these moments. He loved his sister just that much, which meant a purple suit would be paired with whatever dress Rylee wore.
“I told you things are simple with kids. We’re the ones who complicate stuff.”
“How about you let me complicate some stuff for you?” I was granted a kiss on my neck, down my shoulder, then back up to my jaw before my hands started moving.
“Aren’t you supposed to be working out?”
“I’m working on something.”
His hips lifted, pressing his dick against my ass, so I looped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist as he lifted from the bench, taking me with him. When he started toward the door, I grinned, because that was a clear sign that we were done.
First workout over, time for round two with a lot less clothes…
Chapter 23
Ryland
Me: What time you leaving?
MyPrettyAssBaby: Getting dressed now, so in like twenty minutes.
Me: Let me see.
MyPrettyAssBaby: See what?
Me: What you’re wearing.
MyPrettyAssBaby: No
Iswiped out the text thread and initiated a video call. She loved testing my patience.