Mine To Promise: Small town secret baby romance.(Southern Wedding Book 6) (Southern Weddings)
Mine To Promise: Chapter 18

“Okay, when are you going to FaceTime me?” my father asks me, or more like, it sounds like he’s a child. “I didn’t talk to her last night because your mother hogged the phone call.”

“I’m getting to the house now. How about you call me back in ten minutes?” I say to him, and he just smiles and hangs up.

I shake my head getting out of the car and walking toward her building’s front door. It’s been a week since I found out I was a father and in that week my life has done a one-eighty. I lived out of a suitcase, more or less, now I have a house with clothes hanging in the closet. I have furniture delivered daily, thanks to my mother and my aunts. I just finished Avery’s room and tomorrow I’m going to invite them over to see it.

I pull open the door and start walking up the steps to her apartment. Every single night I show up for dinner and the three of us eat as if we’ve always done it. I even went out to buy a car seat so I can go and get her from school. I haven’t actually gone, but I’m working up to it. Today I get to take her to the fair and she is so excited.

I knock on the door and hear the sound of feet approaching it. I squat down to see her when she opens the door. Her eyes light up when she sees me. “It’s my dad!” she shouts over her shoulder.

“Hello,” I greet her, opening my arms for her, and she literally launches herself into them. I kiss her neck as she hugs me, and the phone rings in my back pocket. “That’s for you,” I say, pulling the phone out of my pocket and seeing my father’s name trying to FaceTime me.

“I said ten minutes,” I scold when his face comes onto the screen and he scowls at me, “it’s been two.”

“Where is she?” he asks me, and I turn the phone so she can see him. “There she is, my princess.”

“Hi.” She waves her hand, then stops and waves it like they taught her at our dinner. It was crazy and out of control, but it was one of the best nights ever. When my uncles introduced themselves, she turned to me and said, “This is my dad.” I don’t know what else was said, because all I could do was stare at her in awe. The dinner went on way too long, and I felt really guilty when Addison missed her class. I made it up to her last night when I let her do her homework while I took Avery out after dinner to get ice cream.

“I’m going to the fair,” she tells my father, taking the phone and walking into the house with it. Another thing, my parents talk to her every single day. Without fail they call and FaceTime her.

“Who is she on the phone with?” Addison asks when she steps out of her bedroom wearing light-blue jean shorts and a white cropped tank top, and my cock drains all the blood from my head. Her long hair is loose and over one shoulder. “Um, hello?” she says, looking at me, and all I can do is gawk at her.

“What… sorry?” I ask her, trying to clear my brain. “What did you ask?”

“Who is she on the phone with?” She points at Avery.

“I’m on the phone with GILF,” Avery states, then shakes her head. “Grand-père,” she says the two words that are supposed to be grandfather in French.

“What did I say about using that word?” I hear Addison and close my eyes. “Also, can I have a word with you?” She looks at me, and I feel like I’m in trouble as she turns and heads into Avery’s room.

I follow her, and the whole time, my eyes are on her ass that goes side to side, with the bottom of her hair swaying. “I got this today.” She points at the bed, at the massive box sitting on it. “What is this, you ask?” Addison doesn’t even wait for me to answer. “It’s a care package from your parents.” I’m about to gush when she holds up her hand. “She got an iPhone and an iPad.” She picks up the two items. “And then she got earrings that I’m going to pretend are not diamonds, but I know better. They sent this by courier. Who sends diamond earrings by courier?”

“Um,” I start to say, “I’m sure they had a tracking number.”

“Stefano,” she snarls between clenched teeth, “she’s four and has an iPhone.”

“I don’t know what to say.” I put my hands on my hips. “What’s the going age for a phone these days?”

“Momma,” Avery calls, coming into the room, “Glammy needs to talk to you.”

“Ask her,” I whisper to Addison, who glares at me, and fuck, do I want to throw her down and kiss the fuck out of her.

“Hi,” she greets, taking the phone. “We got your box. It’s too much.”

“Oh, nonsense,” my mother says. “We sent her the iPad and phone so we can FaceTime her or she can FaceTime us.” I shake my head and put my hands up because I don’t know what to say. My mother talks to Addison for a couple more minutes before she hangs up and we head out to go to the fair.

The drive there takes less time than it does to replace parking. I go around and around in circles on the gravel, trying to get a spot. It’s jam-packed, and I finally replace one that looks like it’s in the middle of trees. I get Avery out of the car and then hold her hand as we walk through the parking lot toward the fair.

Avery squeals her delight as we get closer and closer to the noise, where tickets are being sold at a white hut. “What do you usually get?” I ask Addison, who is fishing into her back pocket for her money.

“I get tickets,” Avery says, “but only for rides.”

I don’t even know what she means, so when I get to the counter, I look at the girl, who asks me if I want tickets or a bracelet. I look over at Addison, who is looking at Avery and telling her something. “What’s the difference?”

“Bracelet gets you on all the rides unlimited times, and the tickets are—” she explains to me.

I don’t even let her finish. “I’ll take three bracelets,” I tell her and hand her my black credit card. She rings it up and then hands me my card with a paper to sign.

“There is an ATM beside the games that don’t take cards,” she tells me as she hands me the three bracelets.

“Here,” I offer, handing the bracelets to Addison, and Avery gasps.

“We got the bracelets,” she says and I just look at her. “We never get the bracelets.” I look at Addison, who ignores looking at me as she puts the bracelet on Avery.

“Shall we go in?” I say as I put my card back in my pocket. We walk in and turn to the left, where people are all cramped together as they play games to win big stuffed animals. Squealing is going on as I look around at the different games.

“We don’t play games because it’s too much money,” Avery explains to me. My head whips to look over at Addison, and she looks like she wants to crawl into a hole.

“It’s just that—” she says, and it clicks. She couldn’t afford to do this, which is why she never bought the bracelets.

I swallow down the lump in my throat and ignore the sinking of my heart. “Well, today is a special day, so you tell me what you want to do.”

Avery doesn’t know what to say. All she does is look at Addison. “Let’s go play that game.” I point over to the first game I see with people sitting down and shooting water from a gun into a clown’s nose.

“Okay,” Addison says as she takes a deep inhale and we walk toward the seats.

“Stefano,” she says my name and I just shake my head.

“No,” I snap, a bit harsher than I want it to be. I walk to Addison and lean down and whisper in her ear. “Let me do this,” I say softly when her breath hitches. “Please, for her.”

“Okay,” Addison relents to me, and I don’t tell her that tomorrow we are going to sit down and have the big awkward talk. Now is not the time. Instead, I slide my hand into hers, and our fingers slip into each other’s as Avery holds her other hand, pulling her to the game.

“We need two,” I state, holding up my hand once we get closer. “Sit,” I urge Addison as I point at one of the empty seats, then sit down and put Avery on my lap. “You hold this,” I tell her of the silver gun in my hand.

The guy comes over, and I pull a twenty-dollar bill from my back pocket. “Here.” I hand it to him. “I don’t know how many times that is, but keep it,” I tell him, and he smirks and then looks at Avery.

He doesn’t even wait for the rest of the seats to fill up before he starts the game. I put my hands on hers as I point at the nose. “And go!” he shouts to the two of us before other people sit down.

She presses down, and I wait for the water to come out before moving it to the clown’s nose. The guy starts to talk, but all I can focus on is the little fucking duck moving up to the top of the bell. I’ve never wanted to win anything as much as this before in my life. Avery is so focused on the water going into the nose, she doesn’t even hear the bell ringing, and when she does, she looks up and sees the red siren on top of us.

“We won!” Avery hollers, jumping up and clapping her hands. The guy comes over and smiles at us.

“We have a winner!” he announces. “You can choose anything from the bottom row.” He points at the small animals on the bottom.

“How many for the one on top?” I point at the huge ones hanging.

“Takes about twenty times,” he says to me.

“Okay, let’s do it again,” I tell him. It takes us about thirty times since people come and fuck up my plan, but after about an hour, Avery stands there as the guy hands her the biggest stuffy they have. Her eyes light up so much that I would have paid double the hundred it cost me.

“Momma,” she says, “I got a big one.”

“I see,” Addison murmurs as she wipes the tear away from her eye with a huge smile.

“This is the bestest day ever,” Avery chirps to me as she puts her hand in mine and we walk over to the rides. We spend all day and end up eating lunch and dinner there. We even sit on the grass to wait for the fireworks starting at ten. She sits next to me with the big bear as her backrest.

I put her on my shoulders when we get up and head to the car because she’s tired and her feet are going to fall off, according to her. She gets into her car seat, and I’m not even in drive by the time she falls asleep. The car ride is quiet as Addison puts her head back on the rest. When I pull up to the house, I look over at her. “You get the bear. I’ll get Avery.”

She nods at me and we literally drag our feet up to the third floor. I walk in and head straight to her room. Placing her on the bed, I take off her shoes and socks. She doesn’t even stir when I put her pj’s on her.

“She’s out for the count,” I say when I walk back out seeing Addison drinking a glass of water by the counter. The only light on in the house is the one beside the couch. “I’ll get going.” I point at the door, even though I don’t want to go.

Addison follows me to the door and I open it right before I turn back and see her. “Thank you,” she says, standing by the door as I step outside, “for today.” Her hand comes up to hold the handle of the door. “She is never going to forget it.”

I turn to face her. “It was my pleasure,” I reply softly to her. “It was one of the best days I’ve had in a long, long time. Actually, every single time I’m with you guys, it’s the best time of the day.”

She looks down, not sure what to say, and I know I should leave. My head is saying one thing, but my heart is the one in charge here. I take steps toward her to close the distance. She looks up at me. “The only thing that would make this day even more perfect,” I say to her, my head bending, “is kissing you.” It’s the last thing I say because my lips are crushed to hers.