Page 138 of Safe With You

Mila’s voice carried down the hallway.

“What?”

“Are we leaving?”

“In a minute.”

“You said that already!”

I leaned closer to the mirror and carefully ran the clippers along the other side of my beard. “And somehow it’s still true.”

She appeared in the doorway a few seconds later, already dressed in denim shorts and a yellow T-shirt, her curls pulled into two puffs that had looked considerably neater when I’d done them twenty minutes ago.

One of them was already leaning to the side.

I pointed toward it. “What happened?”

Mila reached up and touched the wrong puff. “What?”

“Your hair.”

She frowned at herself in the mirror. “Nothing.”

“It wasn’t doing that when you left me.”

She turned her head from side to side, inspecting my work like she hadn’t spent the last twenty minutes rolling around on her bed with a stuffed dragon.

“I like it.”

“That’s not the point.”

“I like it, Daddy.”

I stared at her reflection.

She smiled at mine.

There wasn’t much I could do with that.

“Go get your shoes.”

She disappeared down the hallway again, and I shook my head before turning my attention back to the mirror.

The beard was even enough. My hair was still low, waves laid the way I wanted them, and the gray T-shirt I’d thrown on fit well enough that I didn’t need to change it. We were going to Tasha’s house, not somewhere that required much more than being clean and presentable.

I unplugged the clippers.

My phone vibrated against the counter before I could leave.

For some reason, I knew who it was before I looked.

Important question.

I picked up the phone.

Why do I feel like it isn’t important?

The typing bubble appeared almost immediately.