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“You’re not going to leave again?” she demanded.
He looked at me. Smiled. “I don’t plan to, but that isnae up to me.”
We went home together, and I turned the thought over in my mind. There was no doubt what I wanted—for him to be with us always. But yet again, he’d put our needs first by never assuming.
A couple of hours later, Valentine drove out to fetch dinner from the village pub where we’d shared our first kiss what felt like forever ago, and I sat Tobi down on the couch.
“There’s something we need to talk about. Some things I discovered about your father’s family and his business.”
Swinging her legs, she waited patiently for me to go on.
“You know your dad was Greg Winchester?”
“Aye, Mom. He was old and now he’s dead.”
“He is. I went to see your stepbrothers again today.” I introduced the new word. Vanissa had always insisted onbrothers, and now I knew why.
Tobi twisted her hands in her lap. “I don’t want to go back to see them again.”
“You won’t have to. I promise. But as the only child of Greg, you inherit his house and his business.”
“Not Greg or Simon?”
“They might get a share, but I think it’ll be just you. What that means right now is that I’ll take care of it all. When you turn eighteen, you can decide what to do with it.”
My daughter would have the world as her oyster. She’d never worry about money like Mom and I had done. Or move in with people she didn’t like just to have a roof over her head.
Tobi bounced up. “Okay. Avery asked if Valentine’s going to be my da. Is he?”
I blinked, sideswiped by the question. “Um, well…”
“If you married him, he would.”
God, if only. My lip trembled, but I clamped my jaw. “Normally people are together longer than a few weeks before they have conversations like that. What would you think about it if I did?”
“I’d love it! I want him to live here.”
“Why don’t we decide that when we’re ready to ask?”
Luckily, she accepted my answer, and not long after, Valentine arrived back. We ate together at the kitchen table like the decision had already been made, Tobi stealing Valentine’s food and him pretending to sneak bites of hers.
This was happiness. I was sure already, even if I’d take my time to ask.
After we’d demolished the food, Tobi grabbed her reading book from her bag, and I poked around in the cupboards for dessert options.
“Want something sweet?” I asked Valentine.
“This right here, forever. Isn’t that right, Ma?” With his hands behind his head, he addressed my mother’s picture.
My heart panged. “I meant food.”
“Aye, that, too. Feed me and breed me.”
I gawked and shot a look to make sure Tobi hadn’t heard, but she was still out of the room. “Don’t say things like that.”
“Why not? Ye want it?”
I managed a nod. I’d begun to pine for another baby.
