I made Rowan slink away in the middle of the night. He had another meeting with his attorney in the morning anyway and we were hoping it would be the last one. So, after much deliberation on his part, he gave me a kiss, snuck into Miles’s room to give him a kiss, and left. Hours later when I crawled out of bed, I found myself standing in front of a very sad-looking Miles, who was sitting there just staring at his waffles.

“What’s wrong?”

He brought his gaze to mine. “When is Rowan coming back?”

“What?” I set my mug down and gave him my full attention.

“When is he coming back? I miss him.”

“Soon, babe. Very soon.” I looked at his untouched plate. “Do you want more syrup?”

He shook his head. “Rowan puts whipped cream on them.”

“I’ll get you whipped cream then.” I pulled it out of the fridge, stacked the waffles, and sprayed whipped cream on them. He moped some more. I sighed. “What?”

“He makes faces.”

“Miles.” I exhaled, setting the can down. “You’re eating chocolate chip waffles. Most kids your age would kill to be eating this right now.”

“I just miss him,” he said in a small voice, his bottom lip quivering as he looked at me. My shoulders fell. I walked around the counter and over to him, pulling him into a hug.

“I miss him too.”

“Is Rowan going to be my daddy?”

“You mean if he moves in?”

Miles nodded against me.

“Miles.” I pulled back to look at his face. “Rowan is your daddy.”

“My real daddy?”

“Yes. What do you think about that?”

“I like it.” He smiled.

I cut up his waffles and followed his instructions on how Rowan prepared them for him—adding chocolate syrup and more whipped cream. I was surprised Rowan would allow this breakfast for Miles. It looked like something he wouldn’t go near.

“So, I take it you like Rowan.”

“I like him a lot.” He stuffed an oversized bite into this mouth.

“Would you like to change your last name and be Miles Frederick Hawthorne?”

He glanced up, brows pulling in slightly. “What’s Hawthorb?”

“Hawthorne. Ha-th-orne,” I said. “It’s Rowan’s last name and since he’s your daddy, it can be your last name as well.”

His lips pursed as he seemingly mulled it over. Finally, he nodded. “I like it.”

“Good.”

“What’s your last name?”

“Monte.”

“Not Hawthorbe?”

“Hawthorne,” I said. “And no.”

“Why not?”

“Because Rowan and I aren’t married.”

“I’m not married.”

I sighed heavily and explained the difference between marriage and being born into a name. Miles wasn’t impressed.

“When is Uncle Freddie coming home?”

“This week.” I smiled wide at that.

Freddie had a long way to go, but he was making progress. He’d start rehab four days a week, but at least they were letting him come home. Dad had been staying in Freddie’s apartment and Mom in Celia’s. My grandmother left for upstate earlier in the week. She’d wanted to plan a birthday party for me once Freddie was discharged, but I asked her to leave it alone. I wasn’t sure how Freddie would feel about a three-hour drive right now and I wasn’t really in the mood to celebrate anyway.

At Prim, I met with my team and went over the status on the furniture for the hotel. Everything seemed to be running smoothly until Ryan called me into his office to tell me Natasha and he got into a disagreement and she wouldn’t sign the contract to provide the fabrics. I sat across from him and let him get the whole thing off his chest, trying my best not to reach over the desk to strangle him.

“All you had to do was smile, go over the papers with her, and have her sign them,” I said. “Instead, you chased away what could potentially be our best fabric maker out there. And the cheapest. What the hell, Ryan?”

“She’s a royal—”

“Don’t you fucking dare.” I glared at him. “If you’re going to call her a bitch, you might as well go ahead and call yourself one, too, because you’re acting like one.”

He balked. “Is everyone on their period right now?”

“Oh, lovely.” I scoffed. “Let’s bring that into the equation.”

“I don’t understand,” he said, lowering his voice. He truly looked clueless. “I told her the skirt she was wearing was nice and she went off on me.”

“How did you say it?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Nice skirt.”

“Like that? In that tone?” I was missing something. He sounded bored.

“I looked at it.” He stood. “Stand up so I can show you.” I did, waiting for him to continue. His eyes traveled the length of me slowly, provocatively, and then he sat, gave me another once-over, and in a low, husky voice said, “Nice skirt.”

I blinked and slowly sat again. Had I not been stupid obsessing over Rowan and the way he made me feel when he looked at me, I would’ve totally been turned on. “You’ve got to be kidding,” I said.

“No, and then she told me she had a serious boyfriend and that I should be ashamed of myself for objectifying women just because they’re wearing a form-fitting skirt,” he said, throwing his hands up. “What the fuck?”

“Maybe avoid commenting on a woman’s wardrobe, especially if you’re going to do it like you want to bend her over your desk.”

His eyes widened slightly. “I didn’t mean to imply that.”

“But you did.”

“Jesus Christ. I have never in the thirty-four years of my life had a woman get offended over something like that,” he said. “I have three sisters! I would never—”

“I’ll talk to Natasha and fix this,” I said as I stood. “Hopefully. I’ll keep you posted. If not, we’ll use the blues from Hawthorne. They’re providing us with the rest of the colors.”

Ryan smiled. “What’s going on with Hawthorne?”

“None of your business.” I walked over to the door.

“I heard you may be moving in together soon.”

“What?” I whipped around to face him. “He said that?”

“Where else would I get that sort of information?”

“I swear, men gossip more than women do,” I muttered, walking out of his office.

“Please send Natasha flowers on my behalf,” he shouted.

“I’m not your secretary,” I shouted back.

“Ask Chloe to.”

“I’m not your secretary either,” Chloe shouted back.

He was sitting behind his desk, sleeves rolled up, exposing his muscular forearms as he signed a paper. When he looked up at me, a smile that warmed me all over lit up his expression.

“Hey, baby.”

“Hey.” I smiled, closing the door behind me and making my way around his desk. He pushed his chair away, pulled me on top of his legs, and cupped my face to give me an unrushed, soft kiss that had my pulse skyrocketing by the time I pulled back.

“How was Miles this morning?”

“Sad.” I adjusted my position and wrapped my arms around his neck, resting my head on his chest.

“Why sad?” His hand ran a comforting line down the length of my spine.

“He wants Rowan to make his waffles, Rowan to do this, Rowan to do that,” I said. “He misses his daddy.”

Rowan grinned. “He said that?”

“He did.”

“He called me his dad?”

“He did.” I couldn’t help my own smile.

“You told him?” He urged me to sit up so he could see my face and I obliged, grinning as I did so.

“Really?”

I nodded before he put both hands on my face and pulled me into another kiss. “We’re going out to celebrate.”

I laughed. “Where? It’s a school night.”

He reached over me and clicked his mouse, opening his calendar. I glanced at it with him. All his meetings seemed to be on there. Today’s date had two things: Email Enrique and meeting with Sprite. My gaze slid to his.

“Meeting with Sprite? Seriously, Rowan?” I shook my head. “That doesn’t sound professional.”

He kissed my shoulder. “Who cares? I’m the only one who looks at this.”

“You need a secretary,” I said, looking at all of the meetings. How did he keep track of these?

“I have one. Rosa’s on maternity leave. She comes back in a few weeks.”

“You couldn’t get a temp in the meantime?”

“Not like Rosa. I don’t trust anyone else around my stuff.” His eyes twinkled. “Unless you’re available.”

I laughed outright. “You can’t afford me.”

“Probably not.” He chuckled and leaned against the back of the chair. I stood, grabbed my sketchbook, and sat at the table that was on the far side of his office. “Why don’t you just sketch directly on the tablet?”

I made a face. “I hate technology for stuff like that.”

“Seriously?” He joined me, seeming to take up all of my space. “You don’t have a tablet you sketch in?”

“Yeah, but I’d rather do the first few drafts on paper. I feel like I find more mistakes when I can’t erase them. It’s weird.”

He made me sketch on the tablet anyway and I did only because no one had used it before and I could see he was dying for someone to try it.

“You’re so good,” he said with a sense of awe in his voice that made my cheeks warm.

As I sketched, I told him about the Ryan thing, adding, “So, yeah, you should probably talk to your friend.”

“Fucking Ryan.”

“I know.”

“We were so fucking close,” he said. “I need to buy that company.”

I stopped sketching. “You’re joking.”

“Of course, I’m not. How much money could she possibly want? I’ve seen their factory,” he said. “Natasha’s, Ana in Guatemala, Blanca in Nicaragua. They must have a price.”

“Why not buy big shipments from them?” I asked. “Help them grow their companies instead of going in there like a damn invading army and taking over.”

He stayed quiet for a long moment. When I realized he wasn’t going to say anything else, I went back to the sketches. I made a few designs. One with tiny spaceships, another with small wolves, a third with owls.

“I can keep going,” I said, setting the pencil down. “But you get the idea. Do you have any ideas for the logo?”

“Fairy wings.”

“Be serious.” I laughed, slapping his arm playfully. He caught my hand.

“I am serious.”

“You know you can’t call it Sprite, right? That’s taken by a pretty big company.”

“Really?” He lifted my hand to his mouth and bit it lightly. “I wasn’t aware.”

“When are you going to tell me about what happened with the lawyer?”

“Everything’s done and being processed.” His eyes hadn’t stopped glimmering with happiness since I got there, which in turn made me happy.

“Do you want to come with me to pick up Miles?”

“Hell yes.”

When we got there and Miles spotted us, he took off in a run, opening his arms wide. Rowan crouched and caught him in a hug, enveloping him in his arms. I waved at the teacher as we started to walk away. Rowan hadn’t let go of Miles.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he said into his hair. Miles pulled back long enough for me to give him a kiss. He looked at Rowan.

“I thought you left because I made you mad.”

“What? No way,” Rowan said. “Nothing you do could make me angry enough to ever leave you. I just wanted to keep you safe while I took care of some things.”

“From the lady at school?”

Rowan stayed quiet for a beat, looking over at me. I shrugged. “That was part of it, but now I can come hang out with you whenever you want.”

“Are you going to move in?”

Rowan chuckled. “We’ll have to see what your mom says.”

“Mommy doesn’t make waffles like you, or dinner.”

“Be gentle with Mommy. She has a lot on her plate,” Rowan said, wrapping an arm around my shoulder as we walked. I’d never felt so happy in my life than I was in that moment.