Fire and Ice: Rekindled (The Fire and Ice Series Book 2) (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Nine Months Later

Kellan

I tiptoed back into the bedroom, careful to avoid the
floorboard that never fails to creak when stepped upon. I cautiously and
quietly shut the door behind me and locked it. Turning around, I found Hailey
smiling at me, looking to me expectantly.

"Well?" she asked with a hopeful gleam in her
eyes.

I gave her the thumbs up, saying, "He's out cold, we're
good...for now."

She squirmed anxiously on the bed, and I leapt onto the
mattress, landing next her as she began to giggle. "Shh," I held my
finger up to my lips. "If he hears you,
you're
making him breakfast-
so good luck with that."

Hailey cocked a brow, retorting, "Fine, you can brush
his teeth- good luck with
that
."

She had me there; Andrew hated getting his teeth brushed and
put up a good fight every time he saw either of us reach for the toothpaste.
You'd be surprised how strong a 2-year-old kid can be. It's like wrestling with
a two hundred pound man.

Breakfast is fun...not. He's whiney in the morning, so
generally shoots down every option we offer him, which starts off with a
plethora of cereals, then onto fruit; we rattle of a buffet of hearty cooked
items- pancakes (which Hailey always burns), eggs, bacon, etc. Inevitably, he
ends up picking cereal, which is what we offered him in the first place. And
believe me, we've tried reverse psychology, starting with things we know he
won't pick to begin with, and ending at cereal; the kid really is too smart for
his own age. He'll be three in a few months, and I have no idea what to expect.
Andrew definitely keeps us on our toes. I absolutely give Leila props for being
a single mother and raising him on her own before I'd stepped up to the plate.

He generally stays with us from Friday to Sunday night. It
sure as hell wasn't an easy transition for any of us at the beginning. In all
fairness, Leila had a right to be angry with me. But once I'd owned up to her,
and suggested we act like adults, leaving the courts out of our personal lives,
and come to a mutual agreement on our own, though skeptical at first, she
finally set her anger aside in order to do what was best for Andrew; what was
best for all of us.

Hailey and I had committed to being with each other, and I
had committed to being the best father I could be for Andrew. Hailey and I
wanted to spend as much time as we could with him, not only to make up for lost
time, but also to give Leila a well-earned break from the difficulties of
single parenting.

I proposed we share visitation (Me having him 3 days, Leila
having him 4 days, and every other week we'd switch). I assumed this would be
favorable to her, but her look of dissention when I had thrown the seemingly
fair proposal on the table, thinking she would enjoy the time each week to
decompress, was a clear indication she wasn't about to let that happen.

Seems mama bears are particularly protective of their young;
a concept I can absolutely grasp now that we've been down this road.

She had several valid points:

I hadn't even met Andrew, though I was dying to, but she
preferred we come to a solid agreement before we were all suddenly catapulted
into each other's lives.

I had not even held a baby, or a small child at any point in
my life that I could remember. I'd never even babysat before. The practice was
even a bit foreign to Hailey, though women tend to have some sort of innate
sense when it comes to childcare.

Leila had been caring for Andrew from the moment he'd been
born, with minimal help from family, and when she worked, she had a trustworthy
friend come over and sit with him. Since she worked nights, Andrew was already
asleep before she would leave for work, and she was home before he woke in the
morning. Her friend would sleep over, and basically had the job of peeking in
on him to make sure he was still breathing, and ensuring she'd rescue him if
the apartment building suddenly caught on fire. I'm not even sure Andrew knew
the woman existed. Leila wasn't about to let the equivalent of a stranger swoop
in and take her child away for a few days a week, simply for the sake of
getting some down time. Though there are plenty of things I could say against
Leila, her love for her child trumps them all.

Hailey and I both worked at the bar six days a week; usually
putting in at least 14-16 hour days. Sundays we closed earlier, so we got a bit
of a reprieve. An effective owner is a present owner. We close at 2 a.m. and
until we get the bar cleaned up and closed for the night, we fall into bed
around 3-4 a.m. and get up anywhere from 9-10 a.m. to do it all over again the
next day.

Andrew is up almost every morning by 7 a.m. and goes to bed
for the night around 8 p.m. There was no way I'd be able to survive on three
hours of sleep a night, even if it was only a few days a week.

Leila's hours afforded her the opportunity to spend his
waking hours with him, put him to bed before she had to be at work with the
band, hire a sitter to watch him while she was working, and still hit the sack
by midnight. Not that she ever got to 'sleep' in, but at least she wasn't
dragging ass all day.

If I had him part-time, I may as well not have had him at
all; I'd be running on fumes with just a couple of hours of sleep, and I
couldn't very well set up a playroom in my office and lock him in there for the
day. A bar is no place for a kid to be.

So clearly, we were all going to have to shift some things
around to make this work for everyone involved.

Leila offered to let me have Andrew one day a week for a
trial period of three months, providing I take the day off work. She suggested,
if all went well, after the three month trial period, I could have him stay
with me two days a week, with the same provisions, and then assuming Andrew
became adjusted to the new living environment, after six months, she would
allow me to have him three days a week. That was her final offer, take it or
leave it.

So, I took it. Her only stipulation: I was to take Andrew on
one of her nights off, so she could finally, after more than two years of
dedicating herself solely to Andrew, relax, clean, shop, read a book with a
glass of wine...whatever- she simply wanted one day a week to herself. I
couldn't blame her for that. We settled on Sunday, since the band didn't play
Sunday nights. And we eventually settled on taking Andrew from mid-day Friday
to Sunday night, to avoid shuffling him back and forth on random days of the
week. Though he spent his days at either one house or the other, we both wanted
him to have as much routine in his life as possible.

Not that Leila wasn't giving up anything; she was allowing
someone to split her time with her child, when she'd been used to having him in
her life full time, and vice versa, but on my end, it was a major adjustment to
back away from the bar on two of our busiest nights of the week. In hindsight,
her idea of slowly progressing to three days a week was a wise choice. It gave
me time to train someone as a general manager; someone I could trust wouldn't
run my business into the ground while I was away from the bar.

 
I took stock of
the employees that were already working at the bar, I wanted someone who was
familiar with our policies, and had the best interest of my business in mind.
After analyzing and assessing the capabilities of the staff that were currently
employed at the time, and discussing the option with Hailey, she and I agreed
that Georgia would be the best fit. I had my doubts at first, and Hailey would
have been my first choice, but neither of us I wanted to miss out on time with
Andrew. Hailey was a part of my life, and needed to be a part of Andrew's as
well. Hailey assured me that Georgia wouldn't let us down, and she proved to be
right. Just as Hailey and I had slowly gained responsibly for Andrew, Georgia
was given time to adjust to her new position as well. Once that was a done deal,
Hailey and I were able to step away from our daily duties with confidence while
we spent time with Andrew.

We also made the decision to promote Joe to staff manager
and his first order of business was to find a shooter girl to replace Georgia,
a couple of part-time bar tenders to take some of the pressure off of himself,
and we honestly needed to add another waitress. Bringing in Ashes To Ashes as
our house band was probably the smartest decision I had made for the bar. Our
sales had nearly tripled since I'd taken it over. We had become the new hot
spot, and it didn't look like things were going to slow down anytime soon. To
my amazement, considering all the changes that had taken place over the last
several months, you'd think this place had been operating like a well-oiled
machine since opening day.

Hailey had completed her courses at the university, but
decided to forgo pursuing a career in psychology for the time being. The bar
was important to each of us, and not solely as a source of income. We had seen
each other for the first time in that bar, touched each other for the first
time, shared laughter and pain together, and with others that worked with us in
that bar. It was more than a business to us, it was like a second home.

Hailey's fingers skimmed through my hair, as I lay my head
in her lap, breaking me from my thoughts of the many changes that have taken
place in the last several months.

Looking to the bedside clock, then up to her eager eyes, I
said bluntly, "We've got fifteen minutes at best."

She nodded her understanding, and we both stripped in record
time. Indulging in some morning delight had become somewhat of a rarity, and
foreplay had gone straight out the window. Well, on weekends anyway.

I took a moment to peruse Hailey's decadent body,
essentially wasting precious time, but like a moth to a flame, she mesmerized
me. I don't think I'd ever get sick of this view.

She settled herself on her back, stared at me expectantly,
and ushered her hand in the universal sign for let's-get-on-with-it.

I shook my head back and forth, my heated gaze meeting her perplexed
one. I beckoned her to me, crooking my forefinger, and she willingly obliged my
command. She'd fast learned to appreciate the submissive side of herself, not
only putting her faith and trust into my hands, but savoring it.

To her relief, there were no canes, whips, or the likes
involved. I wanted her to submit to me, I wanted to dominate her; I didn't want
to mar the body I so desperately craved day and night. I could be a sadistic
fuck when I wanted to be, but I could never hurt her; I wasn't a monster for
Christ's sake. She was more than fine with some fuzzy handcuffs, blindfolding,
and more often than not, a reddened ass, I was beginning to suspect she would
purposely defy me, in order for the act to be warranted. I couldn't care less
at this point, her smart mouth was one of the first things I'd fallen in love
with, and we both seemed to enjoy the sting of a good spanking. I'd be a
fucking idiot to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Hailey sat up, got onto her hands and knees and began to
crawl towards me like a panther stalking its prey, all the while giving me her
best coy look, feigning innocence. It was all an act; she knew I was putty in
her hands when she looked at me in that way.

I quickly grabbed her under her arms, lifted us both to
stand from the mattress, and spun her to face away from me. The feeling of her
back pressed against my chest, as my hardened cock rested at her lower back,
had me aching for release. I took a precious few moments to sweep her long
locks over her shoulder and savor the flavor of her sweet skin as I trailed my
tongue along her neck. She moaned her appreciation and stood still as a statue,
as I'd instructed her to do many times before, unless told otherwise.

I skimmed my fingers down her ribs as I sat on the edge of
the bed. Resting my hands in the dip of her waist, I abruptly tightened my grip
and pulled to her to me, lowering her hot, wet, pussy onto my dick. She gasped,
and we sat still for a brief moment as I reached around and began to massage
her clit gently. She propped her hands on her knees and her head fell forward
as I wrapped my other arm around her and began to lift her up and down my
shaft. We groaned in unison with every thrust and I soon felt the familiar
tightening and throbbing around my cock. The temperature around my dick spiked
and I knew she was ready- thank fuck, because there was no way I was going to
last much longer.

Rather than crying out my name, she panted through her
orgasm, and I buried my face in her neck to muffle the sound of my own. In the
past, I had always figured after people had children, they rarely had sex...I
mean you can't just let kids listen to the equivalent of a porno emitting
through the bedroom door. It's now dawned on me that they simply learn to hold
it in; and trust me, it takes practice.

I held Hailey to me, pulling her into me as close as I
could, and moved my hands up to fondle her breasts as she came down from her
high.

I heard the door to the guest bedroom creak open. We'd
turned it into a Monsters, Inc. themed room, since Andrew seemed to enjoy
watching the movie on an endless loop. I'm sure I could quote nearly the entire
dialogue at this point. I had mere seconds before Andrew would bark out my name
and summon me to immediately appear before him.