Page 71 of His for the Holiday

“Yeah, I did. Mostly because it’s not Christmas.” He grinned. “I’ll sing with you if you want me to, though. We could make up our own Thanksgiving songs.”

“You’d do that?” she asked.

He shrugged. “The neighbors might complain because I sound like a cat being skinned when I sing, but sure. We can even practice tonight. The games arcade where we’re going has a karaoke booth.”

“Yeees!” she exclaimed excitedly, grinning so wide her cheeks had to be hurting at this point. “I want to. I want to.”

We parked, and before I could even say a word to him about how much I appreciated all this, Winnie grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the games arcade. The boys caught up and converged around them. He laughed, picked Sawyer up to fly like Superman above his head, and led them into the packed kids’ area.

My mom came to stand next to me while we waited for our table, her gaze locked on Hawk and the kids. “He’s good with Winnie. With all of them, really, but he’s certainly going out of his way with her.”

“He is,” I agreed, smiling. I watched them until they disappeared into the karaoke booth. “We should go sit down and order the ice cream. The kids are still riding the high now, but they’re going to crash soon. I’d like to be home when that happens.”

Mom chuckled. “Dad and Henry are already on it.”

When I looked toward where she was pointing, I saw that the two men had already snagged a booth and were giving our order to a server while Emery wound her way through the crowd to her brother. She disappeared into the karaoke booth with them and emerged a few minutes later, her cheeks flushed with laughter. She led them all back to the table like the Pied Piper.

As we all sat down, Dad and Henry abruptly cut off the intense conversation they’d been having and Dad turned to look at Hawk. “Your dad tells me you’re good with turkey fryers?”

“I, uh, I’ve had some experience with ours,” he said, not unfriendly but clearly puzzled by the question as he looked back at my dad. “Why?”

“Well, it’s our family tradition and I might need a bit of help setting it up tonight.”

“You got it.” Hawk grinned before he tucked into his ice cream. He ended up coming home with us instead of going with his sister and dad.

As soon as we got to our house, Dad marched Hawk outside and Mom turned to smile at me. “Why don’t you let Winnie sleep in the big house tonight? She’ll enjoy it and it’ll give you and Hawk some time to talk.”

“Thank you.” I glanced at Winnie, who was nodding before I’d even asked her. I chuckled and reached out to ruffle her hair, motioning toward the stairs with my free hand. “Alright, then. Let’s go. Time to hop in bed.”

Winnie grumbled a little bit but came upstairs with me and let me get her settled in my old bedroom, which she was slowly but surely claiming as her own. She even had pajamas and some clothes in the cupboards and her toys were neatly packed away on the shelves against the walls.

After she’d brushed her teeth and we’d washed the makeup off her face, she cuddled into the bed, staring up at me with huge but tired eyes. I stroked her hair out of her face, giving her a sad smile, and I bent over to kiss her forehead.

“I’m sorry he didn’t show tonight, Win,” I murmured, desperately trying to hide the emotion in my voice. “I know how important it was to you. I’m going to talk to him about it, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed quietly, averting her gaze and fiddling with her fingers on top of the covers for a moment before she looked at me again. “Hawk showed up, though. I’m glad he was there. He said I did really well.”

“You did do really well, but Hawk would’ve been there and loved it even if you forgot all your lines and ran offstage halfway through. He’s a good friend that way.” I looked into her eyes, wishing so hard that I could give her everything she needed and that she’d forget about Calen’s approval completely, but in the end, I knew that wasn’t possible. “Always remember how special you are, sweetheart. Daddy not showing up has nothing to do with you. You are amazing, and precious, and so loved. He’s just…”

God, I’m tired of making excuses for that man.

“He’s just Daddy?” she finished for me.

I sighed and nodded, bending over again to kiss her good night. “That’s right. He’s just Daddy, but I’m always going to be there for you, okay? I love you, baby. Sleep well.”

“Love you too, Mommy.” She hugged me tight, holding me and unknowingly putting all the pieces of my heart that had shattered tonight back together.

I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve her, but I would take all the pain Calen was causing us now over and over again if it meant I got to have my daughter in every lifetime and every parallel universe.

No matter what he did, I would be in the front row for her.

Always.

As long as she knew that, she and I would be okay. I just needed to keep reminding myself of that until one day I could actually start believing it regardless of whether Calen decided to drop in on us again.