Page 104 of Keeping Penny

“I’m good, sweetheart. Thanks.”

She stared at him for a beat, as if seeing the truth in his eyes, but she only nodded. “Okay. Grilled cheese sandwiches all right for lunch?”

“Only if you add pickles.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Seriously?”

“Yup. It’s good. Trust me.”

“I do,” she said with no hesitation. “But pickles?”

“And ranch.”

“Okay, that I can get behind,” she teased.

“Kylo-Pyro!” Bowie yelled before hurling herself at him.

Thankfully, Penny caught her and said, “Bowie! His leg!”

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” she said a little guiltily. “I forgot. I was just so excited to be home with you again!”

And that right there was just another reason why Pyro loved the little girl so much.

“Did you get me a present from the store?” he teased.

“Yes!” she exclaimed, running back into the kitchen and feeling around in the bags Obi-Wan hadn’t unpacked yet.

Bowie was back in a heartbeat, and she held out the present she’d gotten for him with a huge smile on her face. “It reminded me of the boat. And you said it was your favorite.”

“It” was a Twix bar. Admittingly, Pyro hadn’t been around kids much, but the fact that after everything Bowie had experienced since she and her mom had been rescued off that roof in Gabon, she could still remember the simple joy of sharing her candy bar with him, made his heart swell in his chest.

“The perfect gift, thank you, Bowie-Bear.”

“You’re welcome. Do you want to eat it now?”

“After lunch, Bowie,” Penny lightly scolded.

The little girl frowned but nodded. She climbed up onto the couch and leaned into Pyro’s good side as Penny went into the kitchen to make sandwiches for lunch.

Pyro closed his eyes and sighed. The last couple of months had been intense. He never would’ve thought a routine mission would end up with him falling in love and getting a ready-made family in the process. But he was extremely grateful it had.

* * *

That night, after Bowie was tucked into bed and sound asleep, and after Penny had helped Pyro to bed and made sure he was as comfortable as he could get—pillows under his leg, water on the table next to the bed, and over-the-counter pain pills in his belly—she snuggled up against him, her head on his chest and her arm over his stomach.

“Your visit with the guys went okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. You want to know what we talked about?”

To Pyro’s surprise, she shook her head. “No. I don’t want or need details. Tex said he was taking care of things and he’ll never come after us again. He wasn’t lying, right?”

“No.”

“Then I’m good. I’ve never felt as free as I do in this moment. Ever since John died, I’ve been stressed. About Bowie, about having enough food, a roof over our head, about paying the men who came to our door, about everything. Then coming here was a whole new set of stressors. A lot of good happened, but Bowie was starting school for the first time, I was moving in with a stranger…Colvin was still hanging over my head. And now, all that is just gone. I have a safe home, my baby has friends and she’s blossoming, I have a job I enjoy and no one is taking everything I earn. And I have friends, true friends, for the first time in my life.

“And then there’s you. I wasn’t expecting you, Pyro. I didn’t want another man in my life, especially considering how the last one turned out. But now, I can’t imagine living without you. As much as I appreciate and love you for being willing to protect Bowie with your life, I’m still not happy about that. Because I couldn’t go on without either of you. You’re as important to me as my daughter. I don’t know how it happened so fast, but it did.”

“Penny,” Pyro said softly, overwhelmed with everything she was saying.