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I can’t get enough of her.
“Can we look at stuff for my room now?” Rachel asks Maeve and holds up her iPad. “There aren’t a lot of places to shop on the island. Trust me, I checked.”
“You’re right,” Maeve says. “Ordering will be best. I have time, if your dad doesn’t care.”
“Knock yourselves out,” I reply and grin when Maeve sets her bag on top of Rachel’s dresser and sits on the bed with my daughter.
“Did someone hit you?” Rachel asks her quietly.
“No,” Maeve says with a laugh. “I’m just clumsy, and my sink sucks.”
“Oh, good. Because if someone hit you, my dad might kill them.”
I grin and back out of the bedroom, leaving them alone to shop online. My baby girl isn’t wrong. If someone had put their hands on Maeve, they would regret it.
I go ahead and get back in the car, zoom over to Maeve’s place, and walk through the unlocked front door and back to her kitchen with a small toolbox in hand.
It smells pretty ripe.
I flip the switch under the sink, but nothing happens.
It takes thirty minutes, some fiddling and cursing, but I finally get her disposal back in working order.
When I return to the new house and walk up to Rachel’s room, I find the two pointing at something on the screen and giggling.
“Oh, man, Dad would hate that,” Rachel says and holds her stomach as she laughs.
I lean on the doorjamb and watch them. My heart catches as Maeve glances at Rachel with affection and humor, and then pats my daughter on the shoulder.
I’ve never considered what it would look like to have someone else in our lives. Mostly because I had no problem raising Rachel alone. I didn’t need a woman to complete our family.
But seeing this woman, here in our home, laughing and talking with Rachel…it makes me yearn for something new.
Something unexpected.
Something damn sappy.
“Oh, hey,” Maeve says when she sees me.
“Where did you go?” Rachel asks. “We heard your car.”
“I ran back over to Maeve’s to fix her sink.”
“You did?” Maeve asks with round, green eyes. “You didn’t have to do that. It was so stinky.”
“I held my breath.” I shrug a shoulder and give her a wink. “It’s working now.”
“Well, thanks. How much do I owe you?”
I laugh and shake my head. “I think it’s a fair trade for your interior design services.”
“We found some cool stuff,” Rachel informs me. “I just need your credit card.”
I raise a brow, but Maeve continues.
“We didn’t go too crazy. I think you’ll like it. Oh, my phone’s ringing.” She pulls her cell out of her pocket and scoots off the bed. “I have to take this. I’ll be right back.”
She slips past me, and I walk over to sit on the bed with my daughter.
“I like her,” she says, staring at the doorway. “She’s really nice, and she’s easy to talk to. I told her some stuff. And, I have to apologize to you.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.” She swallows and stares down at her iPad. “I know I’ve been kind of difficult.”
“Kind of?”
“It’s just…Maeve says that it’s okay for me to screw up sometimes, but I have to apologize if I’ve hurt someone I love. So, I’m apologizing. Because I know I made you really mad. And kind of sad, too.”
“Yeah, I was kind of sad.” I brush my hand down her soft hair and wonder when my baby grew up. I lean over and kiss her temple. “Listen, this is a good move for us. A clean slate. You don’t hate it, right?”
“I thought I would,” she admits. “I wanted to hate it. But the house is awesome, and I like the water. And, someday, I’m getting that apartment above the garage.”
I smirk. “I knew you’d love that.”
“I’m nervous about school, but Maeve says it’ll be okay. That the kids here are pretty nice. And I have the whole summer to get used to it here, and meet some people.”
“You had quite a lot to say in the short time I was gone.”
She smiles and then looks up when Maeve comes back to the doorway.
“Sorry, guys,” Maeve says. “I had to talk a client off the ledge. It happens sometimes.”
Rachel’s stomach growls next to me, catching my attention.
“Are you two hungry?”
“Uh, yeah. I’m going to die of starvation,” Rachel says.
“I could eat,” Maeve adds.
“Let’s go to the pub for lunch. I know you eat there all the time,” I say to Maeve, “but I’d love to show Rachel. Or, we can go somewhere else.”
“The pub!” Rachel announces. “After you pay for my new bedroom stuff.”
“The pub it is,” Maeve says with a laugh. “I think my parents are there today. They just arrived from Ireland a couple of days ago.”
“Your parents live in Ireland?” Rachel asks as I type my credit card into the iPad. “That’s so cool.”
