Page 102 of Fierce-Dane

“No,” he snapped this time. “I’m not. First, she has things she has to figure out and get straightened. I’m giving her the space to do that, but she knows she can call me. Second of all, I don’t do that with my children. Maybe you do, but I don’t. And third, I never ask you what you’re doing when you’ve got the kids unless you volunteer it. Even then, I don’t make comments on it.”

Mel pursed her lips. “I can see a change in you. I think the kids are going to notice it.”

“Then I’ll deal with it if that happens, but I’ve noticed nothing when I’ve had them since I told them about Sloane two weeks ago. Tiffani even asks questions about Sloane, as she knows she can. Does she ask you things about Ethan?”

He knew that was low, but he was losing his patience. After seeing what his kids had and how little Shiloh did, he knew there were more important things in the world to focus on.

“No,” Mel said. “But she’s a girl and won’t care that much about Ethan.”

“I’d think she would since she has made comments in the past that you are spending time with Ethan and not her when she’s here. But let’s talk about Tyler. Doesheask about Ethan? You know, boy to man?”

“No,” Mel said shortly. “He talks about you in front of Ethan.”

Now they were getting somewhere. “Is Tiffani talking about Sloane in front of you?”

“I know she met Sloane and you didn’t tell me that,” Mel said, crossing her arms.

“Nope. Not going there and not getting into an argument over it. She met her long before I did. She was with my mother and Chloe. Did she also tell you that she is the one who had the idea to give me the gift card there and why?”

Mel’s lips thinned out and he knew damn well that happened.

That is what was pissing his ex off.

That even when the kids were with their mother they talked about him.

“It doesn’t matter,” Mel said.

“No,” he said. “It doesn’t. The kids haven’t met her as my girlfriend. I’m letting them get warmed up to it. You had to know the day would come I would find someone, or did you think I’d stay single forever?”

“Of course I didn’t think that,” Mel said.

“Could have fooled me,” he said.

Mel couldn’t say another word because the door opened and both kids were there with their bags on their shoulders and their suits on.

Guess they were ready to go.

“I want to swim,” Tyler said. Both kids were running off the porch towards his car.

“Come back and give your mother a kiss and hug,” he said. He’d keep the comment back that his kids must not have an issue with him since they were in a hurry to go. Enough that they weren’t even saying bye to their mother.

When they got to Chloe’s twenty minutes later, his kidswere out the door of his SUV and running toward the back gate. His parents’ car was in the driveway and he wasn’t expecting that.

It wasn’t even ten in the morning at this point and he felt bad he was just coming over rather than going home first.

But Chloe knew what was going on with Sloane. He’d talked to her since she helped get Trent so fast by talking to Megan.

He was guessing that his sister had filled his parents in.

Both of his kids ran over to get the sunscreen, then came back with it while they took their clothes off and got down to their swimsuits.

He sprayed them and they went to the kiddie pool where Royce was in with Willow. “Don’t splash the baby,” he yelled.

“We won’t,” Tyler said.

“Fill us in,” his mother said when he walked over to sit at the table with his sister and parents.

He told them everything that had happened. Some of the emotional things that bothered him and he knew did Sloane.