Entangled (The Accidental Billionaires, #2)(21)

He looked frustrated as he answered, “If I had only gotten that letter. I would have been there.”

I put a hand lightly on his forearm. “I know.”

And honestly, I did know that now. Seeing my daughter with her father made me recognize just how serious Aiden was about family, and how readily he’d always taken on whatever responsibility he felt he needed to shoulder.

If he’d known, he would have been there. I’d just been too disappointed and hurt to realize it when I’d been eighteen.

I glanced at the clock. “I have to go. I need to go close up at the café.”

He looked at me, his expression confused. “Now? It’s late.”

“I always close. All of my staff is part time. Most of them are college students. I don’t have anybody who knows how to close things down.”

“You can’t be there alone,” he said stubbornly. “It’s late, and it’s not safe.”

I stood up. “Aiden, this is Citrus Beach. And it’s not tourist season. It’s pretty quiet after dark.”

He rose. “It’s a big-enough city to have our share of crime.”

He was right. Citrus Beach was growing, and bad things did happen here occasionally. Honestly, I didn’t love being in the café at night after all the employees had departed. There was money to count, and accounting to do. So it made me uneasy. But I’d kind of gotten used to it.

“I’ll be fine,” I told him.

“You’ll be great, because I’m coming with you,” he stated stubbornly. “And tomorrow we’ll look at hiring you a manager. You said you wanted the restaurant to be more. So make it more, but don’t plan on ever being alone there again at night. It’s not safe.”

I wanted to say something. I really did. But the fact that he was actually concerned about me kind of overrode my indignation about him telling me what I could and couldn’t do.

Nobody had ever cared whether I was safe or not.

And the warmth that flooded my body because someone cared felt so damn good.

“You don’t need to go,” I argued weakly.

He swiped his keys from the end table. “I’m going,” he said in a voice that said he wasn’t compromising. “And you better start thinking about what you want the café to be. Maybe we could just close it down while it’s getting remodeled rather than hire right now.”

“Aiden, I can’t do that. That’s my livelihood.”

“You don’t need it,” he said firmly. “I’m a damn billionaire, Skye. I can take care of you and Maya.”

“Taking care of me wasn’t part of the deal,” I retorted. “And I want you to get to know Maya. I’m not here so you can take over the expenses.”

“I’m making it part of the deal.” Aiden moved so he was blocking my way to the front door. “You need to take a break. I’m not saying that you need to stop being Maya’s mother. But you need to take care of yourself. I can see how damn tired you are, and I hate the fact that all of the responsibility of raising Maya has fallen on you without help from anybody.”

“I’ve never complained about that,” I argued.

“I’m complaining for you, then,” he rumbled. “You need a goddamn break, and I’m here now. Maybe I wasn’t before, and I regret that. But now that I’m around to watch over both of you, I’m not going to let you work yourself to death.”

I knew I should be telling him I’d do whatever I wanted. But if he pushed the issue, he’d win anyway. “We’ll need to compromise.”

“I’m open to that, as long as you stop working almost every hour of every day. You need to put yourself in a creative position instead of being responsible for all the day-to-day stuff.”

I sighed. “I’d love to see the Weston Café become the in place to eat instead of a greasy-spoon diner. But it needs to be more on trend. Healthier, fresher food. Vegetarian options. And a décor that makes people feel good and want to come back again.”

“You can change everything, Skye. Completely remodel and reinvent the entire restaurant,” he urged.

I wanted that so much. “I’d have to do a significant investment.”

“You got it,” he replied immediately.

“Aiden, you don’t need to do that.”

“I want to,” he insisted.

I tilted my head to search his face. He wasn’t lying. He really did want to help me, for some reason I couldn’t put a finger on. “We need a written agreement. You can become a partner.”

He moved forward until I could feel the warmth of his breath on my face. “You and I are going to be permanent partners. We’re getting married.”

I swore that my heart nearly stopped as I saw his tenacious expression. “We haven’t agreed on that yet,” I answered breathlessly.

“We will,” he vowed. “I’ll be good to both of you, Skye.”

For a moment, he reminded me of the old Aiden, my big, buff, obstinate fisherman that I’d loved so damn much. The only person in the world who had ever wanted to protect me from all of the bad things that could happen to me.

He’s not that man anymore.

I kept trying to convince myself that the Aiden I knew was gone. But really, he hadn’t changed all that much.