Happily Ever After: A Day in the Life of the HEA (Rook and Ronin #3.5) by J.A. Huss Read Free Book Online Page B

I’m missing out on their childhood. And we’re not having any more kids, so this is it. Starling is six now, so it feels like I have such a long time to enjoy them later. But it feels like Sparrow was just turning six and now she’s dancing in The Nutcracker and getting modeling offers, and talking about becoming a veterinarian.
    How does the time fly by so fast?
    I ponder that in mostly silence as I watch Kate watch the kids. I watch Starling too, but she’s just messing around, waiting for Ford to be done so he can take her down that terrain run. I can ski, but I’m not great at it like Ford is. I manage, and really, I only come to the slopes to drink in the bar or hit the hot springs with Rook after we’re done.
    But fuck it. When all those kids are done and Starling is looking at Ford like he’s the god of skiing, I suck it up and join them.
    I fall on my ass, my face, twist an ankle going over the bars, try a three-sixty and eat snow, then a one-eighty and decide I should be wearing a helmet if I want to live through this little experiment.
    But I realize something as we go down that hill over and over again, until the lights come on and I remember I have another daughter who wants my attention tonight.
    I realize I’ve fucked up. I’m missing it. I work too much and play too little.
    And I’m going to change that this year. I’m going to partake. I’m going to be invested. I’m going to enjoy it.
     
     

Chapter Eleven
     

    “Well?” Kate asks, as all the girls jump out of the car and run up to the house. “Did you have fun today, Daddy?”
    I give her a sly look, but she shoots me one back. “You don’t need to Daddy me, Duchess. I had fun.”
    “I knew it.” She laughs. “I knew you’d enjoy it. So you’re gonna give a few of them a spot in the regular class, right?”
    “Hey, don’t get ahead of yourself. I told them I’d consider it. And I will. But I need to talk it over with your mom. See what she thinks about this.”
    “Well, I think,” Kate says as she opens her door and starts to get out of the car, “that you stopped producing shows last year because you’re bored. So why not do this, Dad? These kids are good. You should make a documentary about them. About skiing. Do something artsy for a while, you know? Just relax a little and have fun.”
    She pauses after her little daughter speech and gives me a warm smile.
    “Maybe, Katie. Maybe I will.”
    And then she nods and gets out, closing her door behind her.
    But the door opens again and Ronin gets in. “Hey, man,” Ronin says, rubbing his hands together to warm them up. “Do you think I work too much?”
    “What?”
    “Work too much. Rook thinks I work too much, and I have to admit, I never thought I did until she brought it up this morning. And then when I realized Starling was doing all this ski stuff, and I had no idea about any of it, it dawned on me that she might be right. Do you think I work too much?”
    “We all work too much, Ronin. That’s the kind of guys we are. Spencer would be at his shop seven days a week if he didn’t have the garage at home to keep him busy. Your film festival is just starting to really gain international attention. And I took my family to New Zealand to film every January for almost a decade. We love our jobs, what can we say?”
    “Yeah, but we live in town. I live four blocks from my work. And I had no idea Starling was so interested in skiing, let alone so good at it.”
    I shrug. “Do you want me to help you feel guilty, Ronin? Because I’d be more than happy to do that for you.”
    He ignores my dig. “And do you think I’m unreasonable about not wanting Sparrow to model? I mean, you saw my life. You saw what happened to Rook. What if Sparrow’s good at it? What if they like her? What if she gets more jobs? She says she wants to be a veterinarian now, but what if those offers come in and she sees the fame, and the money, and the travel?”
    “Hmm.” I can see his point.