Ty woke to an aching hard-on and something warm and soft in his arms. Jodi. Why yes, please, and thank you very much, he thought as his hand snaked up to cup her bare breast. His hips pressed closer to her heat, his morning wood rapidly swelling even more.

Jodi murmured, shifting slightly, arching her back. Hell yes, that was just the sign he needed.

He pinched her nipple lightly and ran his lips down her shoulder, working his hips harder as she gasped.

“You awake?” he asked, his voice all kinds of raspy and hot.

“Mmm,” she moaned in response, thrusting back against him with her perfect ass.

He trailed his fingers from her breast to her clit, very grateful they’d both fallen asleep stark naked. When he reached that warm, soft heaven, he couldn’t help but groan at how wet she was.

“Jesus,” he growled.

“No, it’s all you,” she answered.

He chuckled before sliding a finger inside her and rendering her speechless.

“That’s what you get for being sassy,” he whispered in her ear. She ground against his hand and gave a small cry.

He leisurely worked her over, sliding fingers in and out, licking skin here and there, his own erection pressing harder and fuller against her ass until she finally begged for him

“God, are you ever going to fuck me?” she gasped.

“You’re impatient,” he whispered, circling her clit so slowly, she groaned in frustration.

“I need to come or I’m going to die right here in this bed, and then Katie won’t have a mom anymore.”

“Fine,” he said dramatically. “You’re a demanding woman.”

She sighed happily as he wrapped an arm under her thigh and lifted it before thrusting his cock so far inside her, he wasn’t sure he’d ever come back out.

“Better?” he whispered as he started to move.

Her little cries and pants were the only answer he got for a few minutes until she was screaming his name as she clenched around him, her entire body bowed in pleasure as he pressed into her hard, unwilling to move and miss feeling every wave of her ecstasy. When she started to come down, he pumped again, hard and fast, and it took only a few thrusts before he was coming too, hot shards of pleasure up and down his body. He grunted and rode out the pure fucking bliss until he was wrung dry.

He eased out of her and rolled onto his back, still panting, and so boneless he wasn’t sure he could have stood if he’d had to.

Jodi wiggled her way up against him, her head on his shoulder, one arm slung across his abs. He could feel her breasts pressed to his side and knew already he was going to want to take her again very soon.

“Wow,” she said, yawning. “Is it possible that it gets better every time? At some point, we have to top out, right?”

“I vote we keep trying until we do—see just how spectacular we can be. We must be close to setting records at this point.”

“What, like world’s hottest sex?” She giggled. “Do they have that in the Guinness Book of World Records?”

“If they don’t, they should. We’d win.” He squeezed her waist, making her squirm.

“Mm,” she answered. “For sure.”

They dozed for another half hour until Ty had to get up to pick up Katie from her sleepover.

“We should talk about what we want to do with her schedule from now on,” he said as he poured himself a glass of orange juice in Jodi’s quaint kitchen. “If you’re ready to have some sleepovers, I don’t mind. But I’m also wondering if you want to start getting her from school on ballet days and doing that whole thing. It would give me a few more hours to get paperwork done so I didn’t have to work on the weekends as much. Lynn does it sometimes, but I know she wouldn’t miss it if she didn’t have to.”

“That’s Tuesdays and Thursdays?” she asked from her perch on the counter, where Ty had placed her because he liked looking at her bare legs dangling off the edge of the countertop.

He stepped between those long beauties, running a hand up one of her calves. “Yeah, would that work with your client schedule?”

She nodded. “Yes, it’s perfect. I’ve been leaving all my late afternoons open so I could see her whenever you wanted, but if I’m going to have Tuesdays and Thursdays regularly, maybe I could start scheduling some later appointments on Mondays and Wednesdays. I think I have the demand to do that.”

He watched her face, glowing with the ideas she had for how to balance being a mom with being a successful business owner. It flooded him with pride. And hope. This was going to work. Him, Jodi, Katie. They were going to work, and maybe, sometime in the not so distant future, this little house would be Jodi’s office, but her home could be the ranch with him and Katie. Even a month ago, that might have seemed like an impossible dream, but now he was convinced it was something to strive for.

“I think that’s a great idea. Maybe we could ask Lynn to do after-school duty on Mondays and Wednesdays, you’ll do Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I’ll stop work early on Fridays, pick her up and just do some father-daughter time. We’ve always played it loose, Lynn and I just figuring it out each day—sometimes we’d get Cade or Vaughn to fill in, but now that she’s getting older, going to school all day, and having her own activities, it would probably be better to set a schedule. She’ll know who to expect each day, and the rest of us can arrange our jobs around a predictable calendar.”

“I would love that,” Jodi answered, kissing him on the cheek.

“Good. Now, I have to run and pick her up. What’s your day look like?”

“I have some research to do for a new client who starts on Monday, and then I want to visit another who’s had to go into a nursing home.”

Ty saw the sadness wash over her eyes. “Is it tough having elderly patients?” he asked, leaning into her and caressing her arm.

She seemed to consider it for a moment. “It can be sad, but I really love knowing I made their quality of life better, even if it’s just for a little while. In nursing, you don’t always feel like you had a real impact. You’re often caught up in the rigid routine of giving meds, and following schedules. This is more rewarding. I can really listen to what people need and do things that make them feel better for days at a time instead of hours.”

“I’m proud of you,” he said simply. Because he was. “Have dinner with Katie and me tonight?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“Good. We’ll pick you up at six. We’ll go to a place Katie loves in Monterrey.”

Yes, Ty thought as he walked out of Jodi’s house and got in his truck, he’d give it a few weeks, let everyone adjust, but this house was meant to be an office. Jodi, on the other hand, was meant to be at the ranch. With him. With their daughter. With the family that had been waiting for her for five long years, even if they hadn’t known it at the time.

* * *

It was three forty on Tuesday afternoon when Ty got the call. He’d left his phone on silent while he was meeting with the ranch’s new advertising firm in Monterrey, so by the time he climbed into the truck and switched it back on, ready to drive home, he’d missed three calls and the fourth was ringing.

“Hello?” he answered, something in his gut telling him this wasn’t going to be a good call.

“Hi, Ty,” a woman’s voice on the other end said. “This is Carol Riley, Katie’s teacher.”

His heart raced that way parents’ do when they hear the school on the other end of the phone. “Yeah, of course, hi.”

“So, there must have been some misunderstanding about Katie’s pickup schedule today. She said her mom was supposed to get her and take her to ballet, but Jodi hasn’t been by…” The teacher’s voice faded away as a buzzing sound built in Ty’s ears. He sat, frozen still in the driver’s seat of his pickup, panic racing through him at the speed of light. He couldn’t possibly process all the things jumbling in his head. But his protective instincts took charge. Sparing Katie became his only conscious thought.

“Oh man,” he said to the teacher. “I am so incredibly sorry. This is all my fault. I got my days all mixed up—today’s Tuesday, right? I told Katie the schedule for Thursday. I’ve been off all day and went to the wrong meetings myself at work.”

“It’s fine.” The teacher’s voice relaxed about ten degrees. “I was supposed to leave here ten minutes ago, but I can wait for you to come get her.”

“Yeah, I’m dashing between meetings—” He looked at the clock in his truck. Even at life-threatening speeds, he couldn’t get to Katie’s school in under thirty minutes. “I’ll have Lynn come grab her,” he finished. “She’s closer right now than I am.”

“That sounds great. Thank you,” the teacher said.

“Sure, and thank you for staying with her. I’m really sorry about this. We’re still adjusting to have more people in the schedule, and I need to pay more attention.”

“No problem, I’ll let her know, and we’ll see Lynn soon.”

Ty called Lynn and arranged for her to get Katie from school, then ended the call and immediately punched the button for Jodi’s number.

When voice mail picked up, he swore in frustration.

“Hey, it’s me,” he said after the tone. “You didn’t pick up Katie. It’s okay, I have Lynn going to grab her, but I’m worried. Please tell me what’s going on so I know everything’s okay.”

He disconnected, sent a text with the same message, then began the drive back to Big Sur, breaking the speed limit, his heart racing the entire time.

By the time he reached the ranch at four twenty, he’d progressed from fearful to terrified with a dash of angry. Where the hell was Jodi and why wasn’t she calling him back? She was punctual to a fault, always returned his calls within an hour tops, and had claimed to be so excited about picking Katie up and going to dance practice.

Before he got out of the truck, Lynn was there, waiting to talk to him in hushed tones.

“She’s watching a movie and eating chocolate ice cream,” she said as he climbed out of the cab. “She’s trying to be tough, but she’s worried and confused. She doesn’t buy the excuse you got your days mixed up.”

“Yeah,” Ty said as he slammed the door, his button-down shirt that he’d worn for the business meeting itching the hell out of him. “I said that to save face with the teacher. I didn’t want her to think Jodi had flaked, but honestly, I’m getting worried.”

“I’ve tried calling her twice,” Lynn said.

“Yeah, and I have too. Texted, left messages. Nothing.”

“Do you think she’s all right?”

He pressed his lips together, his brow furrowing in frustration. “I don’t know what to think. But when I gave her those joint custody papers on Friday, she got pretty freaked out. Expressed a lot of concern she might not be ready or would make a mistake.”

Lynn looked at him, her eyes sad. “I really thought she’d gotten past all that.”

He sighed heavily. “I did too. But I’m telling you, if she hasn’t, there’s nothing more I can do. I can’t have someone in Katie’s life who flakes on her, no matter what the reasons. She needs to be surrounded by reliable people who will show up when they say they will, and take care of her like she needs them to.”

“She might have been in an accident, though, had some emergency that’s keeping her from getting to us.”

He nodded, a sick lump forming in his gut. “Maybe. But given her track record, I can’t dismiss the possibility she’s just panicked and taken off.”

Lynn shook her head. “Poor Katie,” she said, tears filling her eyes. “She’ll be devastated.”

“Which is why we won’t say anything until we know for sure. We’ll just go with ‘Mom had a work thing’ and leave it at that. Should at least buy us a few hours. In the meantime, after I talk to Katie, I’ll go to Jodi’s house and try to find her.”

Lynn nodded. “Okay. And maybe I can see if Becca can come over and play. That should help distract her for a while.”

They agreed on their plan, and Ty walked into the house to face his daughter, all the while his head and heart heavy with the pain of the most crushing disappointment he’d ever faced. And the fear that the woman he was coming to love could never love him and his daughter the same way.