Page 41 of Penalty Kill

I chuckled. “Announcers say that all the time, too. It’s not just me trash talking.”

“Uh huh.” She walked through the house until I recognized the playroom. “Guys, your dad’s on the phone.”

They both dropped the Legos they were building and rushed to sit on either side of her.

“Hi Dad!” Milo waved.

“Daddy, did you get our cards?” Finn asked.

“Yeah, thank you so much. Those made me so happy.” It was the sweetest thing, opening them on the plane. They’d never done anything like that for me before Sydney came, and I’d never admit it out loud, but it made me tear up a bit. “Olli said thank you too.”

Finn beamed and whispered something to Sydney. She nodded and he faced me. “We swam in the pool yesterday with Eli and Jackson, and guess what, Dad!”

“What?”

“I swam all the way across the pool without my floaties!” he boasted.

“Whoa! Great job.” I couldn’t believe I missed that. It was disappointing, but a cost of the job. I was just grateful they trusted Sydney enough to take risks.

Sydney smiled down at him with the same pride I felt. “I was right there next to him, but he was so brave.”

“That’s amazing. They had swim lessons last summer and learned to swim on their own, but they wanted to keep their floaties anyway.”

“And I went down the big slide by myself!” Milo added, not wanting to be left out.

“You did?” He normally asked me or at least Finn to go with him. He was pretty fearless, but every time he got to the top of that slide, he froze.

“Yeah.” He seemed to puff out his chest. “Sydney said we should get swim trunks with our faces on them since we’re superheroes now too.”

I laughed as Sydney looked down at him with what I was pretty sure was love in her eyes. The boys managed to worm their way into her heart. I shouldn’t have been too surprised. They were pretty good at winning people over. I couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit jealous though. It was amazing how much she cared about them, and as a father that was an incredible blessing. I just wished she lit up like that when she saw me.

“Are you being good for Sydney?”

They both nodded.

“Thank you. I miss you guys.”

“I miss you too, Daddy,” Milo said.

“Love you, Daddy.” Finn smiled once more at me before disappearing. Milo followed, and Sydney sighed.

“Sorry. Legos win.”

“They are a lot more interesting than me.”

She smiled, and it made the edges of her eyes crinkle. I wanted to trace the lines with my fingers.

Whoa. I shook that thought away.

“I don’t think so,” she teased.

“Well, at least one person at home still cares about me.” I smiled. I was pretty sure this was flirting.

She tilted her head, making her honey-colored hair fall over her shoulder like a waterfall. “There’s at least two of us at any point in time.”

I chuckled. “Well, thanks. That makes me feel a lot better.”

“I try. So I invited Emma over, and Addison came too. I really like them. I hope you don’t mind.”