Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 174632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
“Come here, baby girl, and get your punishment,” Jack commanded.
“I donts want to! Maggie is a good girl. Tell him, Papa!”
“Hmm, I’m not sure. Did Maggie have a nap?” Jameson asked.
“Yes!” she cried.
“Did she have all of her bottle?”
“Yes! Well, most of it. I was full from lunch!”
“You ate three bites of your sandwich for lunch,” Ian said as he walked in, giving her a look of disapproval.
“Daddy! That’s not nice. No tattling or you’ll be put in the naughty corner.”
Jameson turned to find her waggling her finger at Ian adorably.
Fuck. Everything she did was adorable. It would be all too easy to just give in to her. To give her everything she asked for.
But that wasn’t necessarily what she needed.
Today had been hard for her. And he’d hated leaving her. But knowing that Ian and Jack were here for her had allowed him to go.
Ian knew just how to get her into Little headspace. How to make her feel secure enough to regress further.
Jack could make her laugh and smile. He was fun. But he also knew how to enforce boundaries.
“Hmm, Maggie isn’t sounding like a good girl to me,” he said. “And now she’s teasing one of her Daddies. I think that means she’s been a bit naughty.” He nodded to Ian, who picked her up and threw her toward Jack who caught her.
She squealed. “No, Daddy Jokes! No!”
Daddy Jokes.
That was seriously cute.
Jack dropped her down so she had her legs around his waist. “Daddy Jokes?”
“You don’t like it?” she asked. “It’s like Jack. But Jokes because you’re always so funny.”
“Like it.” Jack shook his head. “No. Actually, baby girl, I love it.” He kissed her lightly and she hugged him tight.
Ian nodded at him and the two of them left them alone, moving into the kitchen. Ian grabbed him a beer and Jameson watched him finish making dinner.
“Everything okay at the hospital?” Ian asked him.
“Yes.”
Ian shot him a knowing look.
“Just a really sick patient.”
“You know we’re here if you need to talk, yeah?” Ian said.
Jameson nodded, feeling that tightness in his chest easing. This was what he’d missed. Leaning on others. Having them turn to him if they needed something. That feeling of family.
He’d never have had this with Elizabeth. He realized that now. She wouldn’t have understood why he needed Ian and Jack.
“I let Jack look into Elizabeth’s life.”
“What? Really?” Ian turned away from the stove. “Why now?”
He shrugged. “I never wanted any sort of revenge, but after seeing her in London, I just wanted some closure.”
“What did he find?”
“That she’s fucking miserable.”
Ian spat out the mouthful of beer he’d just taken. “Yeah?”
“Oh yeah. Her husband caught her cheating and started divorce proceedings. She gets nothing because there was a prenup. That’s why she was latching on to that guy we saw her with. He’s loaded. But apparently, he’s dumped her too. Oh, and she lost her job a while ago because she was accused of bullying. She’s on the bones of her ass.”
“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.”
Jameson couldn’t agree more.
“I love this, you know,” he confessed quietly. “I missed it. Missed the two of you so much, and now we have Maggie. She completes us.”
“We missed you too, brother. This was always the way it was meant to be. The three of us and her. A family.”
Family.
68
“Where are we going, Daddy Jokes?” she asked as Jack helped her get dressed into thick tights and a loose dress that ended mid-thigh and had long sleeves.
She guessed they weren’t going to the beach. But you never knew what Jack was going to do. He was always up for an adventure. She didn’t know what she’d do without him. He was always doing the unexpected and making her laugh.
He joined her every day for yoga and meditation. Surprisingly, Jameson often came too. He wasn’t a big fan of meditation, but he was actually quite good at yoga.
Jack grabbed her bright yellow jacket from the closet as well as a black and white striped hat and matching gloves.
She chewed her lip. They were going somewhere cold.
That was . . . weird.
He stuffed everything into a backpack and then grabbed her boots. “Sit down, baby, and I’ll put your boots on you.”
She sat on the chair in her nursery and he kneeled to slip her boots on.
“Are you sure you won’t give me a clue, Daddy?” she asked as he held out his hand.
He helped pull her up so she stood, then kept hold of her hand as he led her down the stairs and outside.
When they got to his truck, instead of opening up the front passenger seat, he opened the back door.
“Is someone else coming, Daddy?” she asked, looking around.
“Nope.”
“Um. Then why does I have to get into the back?” She peered in, her mouth dropping open. “And what is that?”