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“Why? It’s a surprise for him,” I said, handing her a piece of Lego.

“It’s okay. I didn’t tell him.” She shrugged and smiled at me. “Are you upset?”

I shook my head.

“No, Soph. I’m not upset. How about we put this away and get some dinner ready?”

“Can we have grilled cheese?”

“You had that for lunch.”

“I know, but I love it.”

“Grilled cheese it is!”

I spent the rest of the evening on Sophie duty. I was exhausted by the time she crawled into bed, but she wanted me to read from her dinosaur encyclopedia instead of a story, so we dove in and I learned everything I needed to know about the Cretaceous period while she fought sleep.

Finally, she had drifted off, and I made my way to the kitchen to make a tea and do more writing, but when I walked in, I noticed a yellow sticky note on my keyboard. I walked over and peeled it off. Everett’s handwriting staring up at me.

I’d be more than happy to fact-check the scene you wrote for accuracy.

A wave of heat ran through me from head to toe. I looked toward the hallway and could see the light under the door of his study. I walked closer and listened to the murmur of his voice as he talked on the phone.

Instead of following up on his offer, I went back to the kitchen closed my laptop, made a cup of tea, and retired to my bedroom.

Chapter Eight

Everett

“Mr. Stone?” Are you still with us?”

“I’m here,” I said, removing my glasses and rubbing my eyes. After all the work we’d put into this project, they suddenly wanted to renegotiate terms for the third time. I wasn’t in the mood for games. I was tired.

“Tell them the terms are final. If they want to renegotiate, then they can renegotiate with my legal team in January. I’m done wasting my time. They need this deal far more than I do.”

The line went quiet. Mark cleared his throat. “Everett, this is a four-hundred-million-dollar acquisition.”

“Then they should stop playing games. I’ll call them myself on Monday. Goodnight.”

I hung up and closed my laptop, and sat there for a few minutes with my eyes closed. I was about to get up and head upstairs to bed when I heard Sophie’s voice in the hallway, followed by Ember’s. I glanced at the clock to see that it was a little after eleven.

I opened my office door and noticed the light on in the living room. Frowning, I walked over and leaned against the doorframe, my eyes trailing over Ember’s pajama-clad body.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing. Sophie had a nightmare.” Ember said, getting her settled on the couch with her blanket and her stuffed dinosaur.

“Oh. Well, Soph, remember what we talked about. We chase the bad dream away and we go back to sleep in our bed.”

“I know, Daddy, but it was a bad one.” She looked up at me with wide eyes and patted the cushion beside her. “Sit with me and Ember. She said if it would help, we could watch a movie for a bit.”

I glanced at Ember, who shrugged her shoulders. “Figured it might help to calm her down and get her mind off the bad dream. I was going to have her crawl into bed with me, but she insisted on coming down here,” she shrugged.

I should have said no and told her to go back to bed. I had an early morning, a slew of emails to answer, and reports to review, and now an acquisition to save.

“What movie are you going to watch?”

“Hocus Pocus!” Sophie yelled, her eyes lighting up.