Page 70 of Pretend it’s Forever

I shook my head, loving the way that the girls already clung to him. It had worried me beyond all measure of what I was going to say to them when I had thought Carson and I were over. Let alone what I would have been forced to do if he had been killed. I shuddered, trying not to think about that.

The doorbell rang, pulling me from my thoughts, and I realized that my mother had shown up early.

“I told the family group chat that you were alive,” I whispered against him as he gave me an odd look.

“I can face your mother, Princess,” he teased.

This time I didn’t correct him on the term. When I opened the door, my mother was there, concern in her gaze, and yet not a single lick of tension.

“Sophia. I know I’m early, but I didn’t know if you would need me.”

“Carson’s in the kitchen cooking breakfast for us. You’re welcome to join.”

I braced myself for judgment, but instead my mother just smiled wide, moved forward, and held me close. It took me a moment, but then I was holding her back, nearly letting the tears fall.

“He makes you smile. I love him already.” A pause. “Just like you do.”

I froze, my hands shaking. “How did you know I loved him?”

“A mother knows. Sometimes it takes a kick in the ass, but we figure it out.”

With that startling revelation, I threw my head back and laughed, then hooked my arm with hers before we headed into the kitchen.

“Mr. Woods,” my mother said.

“Hello there, Ms. Constance. You’re welcome to call me Carson.”

I love that he called my mother that rather than using either of her last names. While I used Cage to be close to my siblings, not my father, my mother had her own issues with her name. I had a feeling she would stick with Dixon for herself, but keep the connection to the Cages, a name she had never taken legally, for her own children. There wasn’t anything a mother wouldn’t do, and it had taken me a long time to realize that.

“It’s good to see you here. And look at you, little girls, already covered in syrup.”

I shook my head as my mother and I began to clean up the girls, and Carson just shrugged. “I’m learning here.”

“I’m still learning something new every day,” my mother said, and just like that, things settled.

I hadn’t expected this, and yet I loved it.

“You better be good for my baby girl,” my mother whispered as she walked past Carson, and as I opened my mouth to say something, Carson shook his head and squeezed my mother’s shoulder.

“I will do my best to be worthy. I promise.”

Was it any wonder that I loved this man?

By the time we finished breakfast and cleaned up, Carson already had a car service waiting for him. “Well, I need to go deal with coming back from the dead, I guess.” I shivered, hating the humor in his tone, because I knew he was coping the best way he could.

“I’ll see you soon?”

“Count on it. I mean, your mother likes me but I’m going to have to go through the gauntlet with everyone else.”

I laughed and silently agreed.

My mother left soon after. I would be dropping the girls off at daycare, and Mother would be picking them up. She liked to have breakfast with us, and I had truly appreciated her being here.

After I got the girls settled in their playroom, I went to my room to finish getting ready, knowing I had a long day ahead. I was already behind with everything that had happened with Carson, but it was all worth it.

Because he was here.

There were so many unanswered questions, and I knew we had to plan our future. I didn’t know what would happen next, or how quickly things would roll into the next phase, but all that mattered was that I trusted him.