Page 129 of Marcus

Cella might miss her chance, and she didn’t want to do that. It wasn’t just her that had been waiting for a chance to have this man back.

“Call Tiff,” she said. “Say goodnight.”

He leaned back a bit, his gaze softening from the heat that had been there just a moment before. She shrugged at his unspoken question. Yeah, it was a total fucking cockblock, but they could get back to this moment. Soon, her daughter would be asleep and Cella had promised she would try her best to get Marcus to call.

“She’s asked about you every chance she had,” Cella said, “and she knew I was coming to see you today—I didn’t realize there was something missing in her life, even if we all did the best to give it to her, until she started acting like she might have found it.”

A dad, she didn’t say.

Thing was, Cella couldn’t say that.

Neither could Marcus.

Only one little girl could say that—even if everyone around her saw the questions and behavior for exactly what it was when it came to Marcus—it was only for her to say. Just Tiffany.

“Yeah.”

His simple yeah said it all. His understanding in a word.

He grinned.

She smiled back.

“Of course,” he added, “let’s get her on the phone, and say goodnight to her.”

This man?

He truly was perfect.

For her.

“And then we’ll pick this up where we left off, hmm?” Marcus asked.

“You know it.”

A lot like them.

This wasn’t a restart. Not from the beginning. They were just picking back up where they left off.

One Year Later

“Ma has a surprise,” Tiffany blurted out in the back seat.

Marcus’s gaze lifted to the rearview mirror to find the girl in the back seat currently red-faced where she sat in her booster seat. Her sense of embarrassment was cute, really. Car drives, but especially long ones, were always fun when it came to Tiffany because she never stopped talking from the moment they got on the road. It kept him entertained and awake, anyway.

“Does she?” he asked.

“Not supposed to tell.”

He pressed his lips together, desperately trying to hide the smile forming. Tiffany was a lot of things, and each of those were special to him. He loved everything that made up this sweet child, and more. One of the things she couldn’t seem to do, however?

Keep a secret.

It would be cute.

If someone meant for their secrets to be told.

“Do you feel better now that you told me she has a surprise?” he asked.