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“Are you now.” Gerald’s green eyes glinted in what could only be described as a distinctly unfriendly fashion. “And what makes you think that I would be open to any kind of proposition from you?”

Vesuvius was gearing himself up to respond to that when there was a small commotion behind Aeryn’s father.

And that was when he saw her for the very first time.

A tiny little girl, unsteady on her feet, staggering toward the door with her hands in the air and a wide, damp smile on her face. Her dark hair was in pigtails. Her eyes were green like her mother’s.

And Vesuvius felt as if every breath he’d ever had or would ever have left his body.

He forgot what he was doing there. He forgot why he’d come or really where he was. It was as if every part of him was suddenly switched on in a brand-new way.

This was Faith. This was his child.

He brushed past the old man at the door without realizing what he was doing. And the next thing he knew, he was down on his knees on the floor in the Bridgers’s front hall while Faith toddled straight for him.

“Gerald, who is it?” came a woman’s voice, and then an older version of Aeryn came into view. She too recognized Vesuvius on sight, and stopped short.

But he didn’t have time for them. He couldn’t spare them more than a glance.

Because the little girl came toward him, rocked a bit on her feet, and then sat down fast, on her bottom.

“Oopsie,” she said.

“Oopsie,” he replied, as if she had quoted the finest poetry to him.

And he was not the least embarrassed to find moisture on his face when the little girl laughed with delight. When his little girl reached out her hands, and touched his face as if she recognized him too, when he knew she couldn’t.

It was like magic.

He had no idea how long they stayed like that. But eventually Faith climbed to her feet again, using his body to help her stand, and then toddled off.

And Vesuvius found himself kneeling on the floor of Aeryn’s parents’ house, his face a map of his emotions, while both of them watched him like a monster had burst through their front door and was now…something else, there on the rug.

“I’ll be honest with you,” Gerald Bridgers said after a moment. “I’ve had more than one entertaining daydream that involved killing you with my bare hands. But after watching you with our little girl…”

“I’m glad you came to meet your daughter,” Aeryn’s mother, Phoebe, added. She sounded choked up. “I think Aeryn would be pleased. Does she know you’re here?”

“No,” he said. He ran a hand over his face, not at all surprised to find it damp. “But it’s not nefarious. Here is the proposition I’d like to make you.”

And that was how, an hour later, he delivered the Christmas that Aeryn wanted most, directly to her door.

He and Marcus had packed the SUV full of the presents beneath the Bridgers’s tree, what appeared to be the entire contents of Phoebe’s kitchen, and the three of them besides.

“What did you do?” Aeryn asked him when she opened the front door, but she was smiling ear to ear. She hugged her parents in turn, then swept Faith up in her arms, kissing her all over her little face.

The little girl giggled happily, and after a moment Aeryn looked over her head to Vesuvius.

“You met Faith,” she said softly.

“I did,” he replied, and had to swallow before he got choked up again. “And Aeryn. She will never spend another day of her life not knowing me.”

Aeryn’s eyes got bright. “That’s as it should be.”

And then Christmas morning, Bridgers family-style, was on.

Aeryn and her mother started in the kitchen and soon the house was filled with what Vesuvius learned later were sweet rolls. As far as he could tell, Phoebe had been baking for weeks. She filled the long table with tins and dishes, while Gerald gruffly requested that Vesuvius help him pile all the gifts beneath Aeryn’s tree, and entertain the already wildly overstimulated baby while they did it.

And then Vesuvius sat there, something like enchanted, as these people who spent most of their time together, seemed to deeply enjoy spending even more of it together today.