“I’ve got good food there. And wine.”
“If you don’t leave, I’m calling CPS.”
“Then they can find a way to confirm my story,” he said.
“I’m not going with you,” I said.
“It’ll be a lot of fun.”
“Uncle Ryan’s apartment is fun,” Zoey said.
“And he’s got a chef that can make you anything,” Benjamin said.
“Will you come with us, Miss Gentry?” Hunter asked. “We could watch a movie!”
“And cuddle,” Ryan said with a smirk.
My eyes flashed over to him as I held the children tighter to me.
“Leave now, or I’m calling CPS,” I said.
Three
Ryan
The phone call wasn’t shocking to me in the slightest. But it did have me worried. My older sister, Valentina, had always struggled with substance abuse. Pills from her company. Over-the-counter medication she put into her vodka tonics as a topper. She was a partier like I was until her kids came along. She got clean for a while, to grow them and raise them through their infancy. But once the oldest hit school, things went downhill from there. The company took off after years of fighting in the trenches and her partying ways came back. Big celebrations at the company and rewarding herself with weekend trips to Bora Bora. Her substance abuse issues c
ame back heavier than ever, and now she was in the hospital.
But this time, the court had intervened. Stripping her of her rights to her children and granting me temporary custody.
Me. Custody of three fucking kids.
I loved my niece and my two nephews, but I wasn’t a damn father figure. Hell, most people would argue I was headed down Valentina’s same track. Partying all the damn time and drinking when it became too much. It wasn’t true, of course. I wasn't throwing back pills and topping off my whiskey sours with a Nyquil punch, but I did enjoy a good time.
And no one could have a good time with three little kids around.
I’d tried to look after the kids as best as I could. Especially Zoey. Benjamin and Hunter got a glimpse of their sober mother, but Zoey never did. Valentina tried her best to stay sober when she got pregnant with my niece, but the moment she popped her out it was back to her partying ways. Formula-feeding Zoey so she could keep her Nyquil-vodkas in her life.
I was very protective of my niece.
Watching the kids hadn’t always been easy. I got on Valentina a lot about stepping up and being a mother. I always tried to convince her that her partying days were over. Weekend trips were no longer a thing because she chose to have a family. And it would always spark a fight between us. She would accuse me of trying to manipulate her because she was a woman and I would accuse her of being selfish for neglecting the family she willingly created.
Her divorce didn’t do much for her state-of-mind, especially when the deadbeat man she’d attached herself to willingly gave up his rights to his three children.
That was when she made me their godfather. She claimed, in the last sober state I ever saw her in, that I was the only man she trusted with her kids. So when the court’s intervened and found that paperwork, I was the logical choice.
Except my life was nowhere near tailored to take on three kids.
When I got to the hospital and saw Valentina hooked up to a bunch of machines, I knew what was going to happen to her. They were going to force her through withdrawals before getting her the psychological help she needed. Which meant she would need a doctor to clear her mental state before she got her children back. I had no idea how the hell I was going to take care of three children full-time, but I knew I was their only hope. I knew I was the only man in their life, period, and I couldn’t rob them of that because I lived a bachelor life.
So, I signed the paperwork at the hospital and went to go get the kids from school.
“CPS, huh?” I asked with a grin. “Go ahead. You’ll see I’m the only one in a position to pick up the kids right now.”
“I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.”
“When you call CPS, they will. And I don’t believe I caught your name.”