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Rosalie stuck her bottom lip out for a second and looked to Kade as if to get a veto, but he nodded toward the swings. “Go on, Spark. I’ll be there in a second to give you a push.”

When she was out of earshot, Angie crossed her arms and glanced toward the car. No doubt her husband, Chris, was there waiting for her. They would sit and wait for Kade’s two hours to be up, watching him like he was some sort of prisoner on leave for the day. “I heard Barcelona burned down.”

“Yeah,” he said, not in the mood to talk with her when the clock was already ticking for his visit.

“I’m sorry. That’s terrible.”

He sighed. “Why are we having small talk, Angie? This is my time with Rosalie. Get to the point.”

“You need to drop the custody case.”

He scoffed. “Good-bye, Angie.”

She reached out and grabbed his sleeve. “Wait, listen to me. I’m serious. It’s just going to go like it did last time and will waste my money and yours. And even if they do make some adjustment to the arrangement, you’re going to be doing Rosalie more harm than good by disrupting everything. Things are stable for her now. Every time she comes home from these visits, it takes me days to get her back on track. It confuses her and fills her with all these questions she doesn’t need to be worrying about.”

Kade’s jaw clenched so hard, his teeth hurt. “What? Like why don’t I get to see my daddy more? Why can’t I go to his house?”

Angie’s gaze flicked over to where Rosalie was playing, her pixie-like features going hard.

“Those are valid questions, Angie. I’m her father. Just because you don’t want her to love me, doesn’t mean you get to make it so. You can’t just insert a replacement dad and expect me to disappear from her mind.”

She made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat. “God, it’s always about you, isn’t it? This is about winning to prove a point and punishing me for moving on. You wouldn’t even know what to do for Rosalie. You haven’t had to parent her since she was two. You get to just walk in for two hours every now and then and be fun times guy. Skip all the hard stuff. You don’t have to comfort her when she’s sick or clean up the vomit. You don’t have to make sure she gets to bed on time or deal with her crankiness when she doesn’t. Chris and I handle that.”

The trees around them seemed to turn from brown to red as fury leaked into Kade’s system. “Are you seriously throwing that in my face? I don’t handle it because you won’t let me.”

Her attention zeroed back on him, eyes narrowed. “When exactly would you fit in her bath and bedtime story? Before the threesome you have on the docket that night? Or maybe right after you chain some woman up in your bedroom?”

He gritted his teeth and tried to keep from shouting. He didn’t want Rosalie to know they were fighting. “That’s not my life anymore.”

Her lip curled. “Sure it isn’t.”

“Daddy! Push me!” Rosalie called. Her little legs were pumping but she wasn’t getting the swing going like she wanted.

“Be right there, Spark.” He spared Angie one last look. “I expect an extra ten minutes today since you’ve wasted my time.”

He didn’t wait for her response. There was no reason to. No matter what he said, Angie wasn’t going to listen. If he’d hoped for her to one day grant mercy or become reasonable on this topic, he was a fool. She knew that he’d lay his life down before he’d hurt Rosalie or expose her to anything she shouldn’t see. But ever since Angie had gotten remarried, Kade’s presence in Rosalie’s life had become a blemish on the picture perfect family image Angie wanted to create.

She’d come from divorced parents who’d remarried so many times and had so many combinations of step and half-siblings that Christmas had become a weeklong marathon just to visit all the different families. He knew how much she’d hated it both as a child and adult, so on some level, he understood why she was being so ruthless about this. But he no longer had patience for her fucked up view on things even if she’d come by it honestly. See a shrink and get over it. Don’t cut your child’s father out of her life just to make yourself feel better.

“Are you and mom fighting?” Rosalie asked when he made it over to the swing set.

He sighed and squatted down in front of her. “Nah, we were just talking.” Heatedly.

She tilted her head, considering him in that evaluating way only a seven-year-old could. “Did you ask her if I could come to your house? I want to see the room you told me about, and you could help me make those cupcakes like we did at your restaurant that time.”

His chest felt like a bale of hay had been dropped on it. “No, baby, we can’t go to my house.”

“Why not?”

Her big blue eyes flickered with sadness and a hint of betrayal—like he was the one who didn’t really want her there—and he had the sudden urge to swoop her up and just take her home, rules be damned. Show her the room he had designed for her. Tell her that he wanted her there more than anything in life. But through all of this, he’d worked hard not to show the strain. She didn’t need her parents

’ drama set on her little shoulders. “I’m hoping that will happen one day soon, Spark. But today we get the whole park to ourselves. And I brought you a special present for later.”

Her grin returned with extra wattage with the mention of a present. And she jumped off the swing and challenged him to an epic game of hopscotch. When he lost that, twice, and not on purpose, he brought out her gift—a sparkly purple pair of rollerblades and helmet. Kade spent the rest of his time with her trying to teach her how not to be a crash test dummy. He was only partly successful. And before he knew it, Angie was heading back over, calling to them that it was time to go.

Rosalie whined, but he knew she wouldn’t get too out of hand. She, unfortunately, knew the drill. She pulled off her rollerblades and helmet and walked them over to Kade. “Thanks for the skates, daddy. I love them so much.”

He squatted down to her level and ruffled her hair. “You don’t have to give them back, peanut. You can take them home.”


Tags: Roni Loren Loving on the Edge Erotic