Family Bonds- Ava and Seth (Amore Island Book 5), Natalie Ann [world of reading TXT] 📗

“Then, yes, we are,” Seth said.

“So you hug and kiss and hold hands?” Adele asked.

Ava cleared her throat and waited for Seth to answer. “Would that bother you to see?”

“No. Can you kiss her now?”

Seth laughed. “I can if Ava wants me to.”

Ava moved her chair and leaned over and gave Seth a kiss on the lips and Adele clapped. “Yay. Daddy’s got a girlfriend.”

And that was one way to stop her frustration over her family’s interference today.

22

Slow Is No Fun

“Calm down, Adele,” Seth said as his daughter was dancing around the room.

“I can’t. I’m excited to meet Ava’s family. It’s your girlfriend. So, what does that make them to me?”

He tried not to roll his eyes but was glad that Adele was taking this so well and not upset that her father had another woman in his life. A woman that he feared Adele might think was replacing not only her mother, but her also.

He was prepared to make sure she understood everything and that she came first and no one could ever replace her mother. It was a massive fear he had. Could he balance this? Could he do right by both Adele and Ava?

Instead, Adele was asking him questions he didn’t have a lot of answers for. Just like always.

“It just makes them Ava’s family. They aren’t related to us.”

“Oh,” she said. “Not unless you got married, right?”

He cleared his throat and was thrilled that Ava wasn’t here for this conversation. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. We are all taking things slow.”

“Slow is no fun, Daddy.”

He was saved by a knock and the front door opening with Ava walking in. “Am I too early?”

“Perfect timing,” he said.

“Kiss, Ava,” Adele said. “You’re supposed to kiss her when she comes in the door.”

His shoulders dropped, but he moved over with a grin on his face. “I’m being told a lot lately what I’m supposed to be doing and asked questions I don’t have answers for.”

Ava grinned but went up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss. “I won’t tell you what to do today, I promise.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “Happy now, Adele?”

“I am.” Adele moved to Ava, “Can I have a kiss too?”

He looked at Ava and saw her smile broaden even more. He really wouldn’t have imagined this in a million years.

“Of course you can.” Adele went into Ava’s arms for a hug and a kiss on the top of her head like he did so often. “Are you ready to go and meet my family?”

“I am,” Adele said. “Daddy said I could bring my swimsuit because they are on the beach and I’ve got toys too.”

“They are on the beach and it’s a beautiful day out. If I know my mother, she probably picked up a few toys to have there too. She might even start digging in the sand with you and building sandcastles.”

“Yay. I love the beach and don’t get to play on it much.”

“No, I’m not getting a house on the water, Adele,” he said firmly. Every summer this came up.

“I’ll just play at Grandma’s when she comes back.”

They made their way to his car. It was easier for him to drive than to move over the booster seat for Adele to Ava’s car.

It was less than ten minutes and they were pulling in front of a beautiful two-story cottage-style home. “This doesn’t look that old,” he said.

“No. My parents had it built about twenty years ago or so. They’d had another place that was in my father’s family we stayed at a lot before that, but they wanted their own home that they’d retire to.”

“It looks to be a good size.”

“It is. Much smaller than the house in Boston, but perfect for them. I’d say it’s probably about twenty five hundred square feet. Plenty enough room to have space but still feel cozy.”

They went in the front door. He looked around and noticed that the house was modern and definitely newer than twenty years old telling him that updates might be made often. They made their way to the back of the house and through a pair of glass doors to a deck where the rest of the family was sitting. They were the last to arrive.

“Hi, everyone,” Adele shouted. “My name is Adele and my daddy is Seth and he’s Ava’s boyfriend.”

Everyone started to laugh while he felt his face fill with heat. “Try to tone it down a bit, sweetie.” She was almost dancing around. He was overjoyed with her enthusiasm, but this was almost overkill and he just didn’t know what could be going on in his daughter’s head.

“Well, hello there.” He was guessing it was Ava’s mother since they looked so much alike. “I’m Lacy Mills and this is my husband, Michael. We are Ava’s parents.”

“You’re a doctor,” Adele said to Ava’s father. “Ava told me so. And so are you two. And you’re twins.”

He’d never had a problem telling Hudson and Carson apart. They weren’t identical, but you could tell they were twins.

“I’m Hudson.”

“And I’m Carson.”

“You work in the ER and you look at bones,” Adele said. There were smiles on everyone’s faces, including his own and he started to realize what his daughter was missing in life by not having another family other than him and his mother.

He didn’t see Adam often, but even then, Adam was single. Adele had some step cousins on Ellen’s side that were younger than her, but she’d never met them. He only knew because he’d seen it on a Christmas card more than having a conversation.

Part of him wanted to reach out to Ellen’s family but then realized they could do the same. And it seemed as if Adele could gain another family here if things worked out.

“She is a little pistol.”

Ava looked at her father who’d said that to her as he was walking back on the deck. Her mother was indeed down playing with Ava in the sand, her brothers joining