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“I know. They’re pretty excited,” I explained. “Your aunt Brooke wants to do things with you before she has to go back to the East Coast.”
Maya let out a little-girl sigh. “I love having family. And I have so much of it now. I love Aunt Brooke, Uncle Liam, and Uncle Seth. They’re super cool.”
I smirked. “Because they let you eat cookies right before dinner?”
Brooke had given Maya a plate of cookies at the reception, and then Skye had wondered why our kid hadn’t eaten her dinner. But I had known why. I probably should have told Maya’s mother about the cookies, but I hadn’t. Aunts were allowed to spoil their nieces once in a while. And Brooke and Liam would be headed back to the East Coast soon, so it wouldn’t happen often.
My daughter looked at me earnestly. “Not just that, Dad. I think they really care about me like family should.”
My chest ached because Maya had been deprived of family for so long. “They do,” I assured her. “All of your new family does.”
“Where are you taking Mom?” she asked. “She never gets to go anywhere.”
“It’s a surprise,” I explained. “And I’m trying to take care of the problem of her not going anywhere. Even grownups need a break once in a while.”
“Do you think it will make her happy?”
It nearly killed me that even my daughter had been able to sense some of her mother’s past trauma.
I nodded. “I hope so, Princess.”
“She’s getting better now. But she used to be sad. She tried to hide it, but I could tell. Mom tried to do everything to make me happy, but I always knew something was wrong when we lived with Marco.”
Out of the mouths of babes.
Maybe it was just an observation, but Maya couldn’t be more spot on with her simplistic theories.
I bounced her up and then caught her again, making her squeal like the child she was. “I promise I’ll do everything in my power to make you both happy from now on,” I vowed.
She shrugged her small shoulders. “I’m already happy. I have you and all the rest of my family. Really, I was never unhappy. I just wanted to go and do more things when I was younger, but Mom was always a good mother.”
“Was she?” I asked.
My daughter nodded. “The best.”
It was pretty amazing how well Skye really had shielded Maya from everything ugly when her daughter was younger. She didn’t hesitate to love or trust. Maybe she had sensed that something bad was happening, but she’d never been caught in the middle of any of that. If Maya had any issues, she wouldn’t have been able to accept people into her life so readily.
“So you don’t mind that we’re going to take separate little vacations once in a while?” I asked Maya.
“Nope!” she said immediately. “Can I tell you a secret?”
I nodded, hoping it was nothing bad.
“I hope you and Mom decide to get married. I know you don’t have to for us to be a family. But it would be so cool,” she said hopefully. “Then we could all be Sinclairs.”
“Do you want my last name?” I asked huskily. “Do you want to be a Sinclair?”
She thought for a moment before she said, “Only if Mom does, too. I have Mom’s last name, and I don’t want to hurt her feelings.”
Maya’s comment made me more proud than it hurt that she didn’t automatically want to be a Sinclair. It told me how loyal she was to her mother, how much she loved the woman who had raised her alone for so long.
“Then I guess I’ll just have to convince you both to change your names,” I said as I grinned at her.
“I just really want us all to be happy,” Maya answered.
I hugged her close. “I want that, too, Princess. Very much.”
“You seem a little sad, too,” she observed. “Not like Mom, but kind of not totally happy, either.”
Damned if my kid wasn’t completely in tune and sensitive to other people’s moods. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
“I’m happy that I have you,” I told her.
“But you want us to be a family, too, I think.”
“I think you’re right, smarty-pants,” I said as I tickled her.
“Dad, stop!” she said with a giggle.
“Stopping,” I promised as I quickly moved my hand.
Note to self: my daughter can only take so much tickling.
“Can I come here while you’re gone to play the new piano?” she asked hesitantly.
“Of course, Princess. This is your home. I’ll make sure you have a key in your backpack.”
Maya had been diligent about playing the piano every day between her lessons, and I wasn’t just being a proud father when I said she was talented.
It hadn’t taken her long to pick up the basics, and she was now working on full songs.
Yeah. Maybe I had said that I wasn’t going to teach her, but I was right there with her every time she practiced to answer whatever questions I could for her.
I tried hard not to be an overprotective, indulgent father, but it was difficult not to want to make up for some of the time I’d missed in her life.
“Thanks,” she said with relief. “Someday, I want to play as good as you do, and as good as Uncle Seth plays the guitar.”
“Keep practicing and you’ll be better than we are,” I assured her.
“Mom says that I get all of my musical talent from the Sinclairs, because she can’t even hold a tune,” Maya mentioned.
A female voice came from near the stairs. “I think somebody is telling all my secrets,” Skye said as she breezed into the kitchen.
“Nah,” Maya denied. “It’s just nonsecret stuff.”
I put my daughter down as Skye handed Maya her backpack.
“You should have everything you need in there for several days,” Skye told her. “Be good for your aunt Brooke and Uncle Liam, okay?”
“I will. I hope you have as much fun as I’m going to,” Maya said confidently.
“She definitely will,” I said, my voice husky.
I stared directly into Skye’s beautiful green eyes. The glint of fear was still there, but she did smile. And that excited grin slammed me in the chest like a hard swing from a baseball bat.
I guessed a smile would work . . . for now.
CHAPTER 19
SKYE
“You have a private jet?” I asked with surprise as Aiden took the road to the airport.
“We all got the idea from Eli,” he answered. “That guy has more planes than United Airlines. So Noah, Seth, and I all pitched in and we share one. It’s technically the Sinclair jet. I can’t say we’ve used it much, but it’s going to come in handy right now. And it will help when Seth and I have to travel more in the future. He has visions of going international, and knowing Seth, I’m sure he will. And I’ll have to travel occasionally to meet with sources.”
I was so excited to learn what we were doing, but I was curious about what he was envisioning for his future, too. “Do you think you’ll have to travel a lot?”
“In the beginning, yeah. First, I need to get the processing facilities built, but then I will need to set up people and places around the world to source the seafood we can’t bring in here.”
