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I swallowed hard. Billy would be proud of me. And he’d tell me it was about time.
He was right. It was past time.
When I pulled up at home, I made sure the radio was cranked up and that I was singing John Mayer’s “Your Body is a Wonderland” at top volume. Hannah came out laughing, carrying Lily in her little yellow rain slicker, and I forgot how to breathe.
“You didn’t finish,” Hannah said breathlessly as she bent down to lean in my window.
“Finish what?”
“The song?”
“What song?”
“Asher.” Hannah grinned as she pushed her finger into my forehead. “What’s your damage today?”
Lily babbled a word that sounded an awful lot like “Asher” and tilted precariously forward to grab for my face. Then she gave me a sloppy kiss that smelled of grape jelly.
“Daddy,” I corrected her without thinking, my gaze connecting with Hannah’s over Lily’s reddish-brown hair.
Hannah’s throat moved as we both waited for something that didn’t come. But I couldn’t claim to be disappointed, because I’d never come so close to wanting that before.
Had never figured it was in the cards for me.
Hannah came around the car and got Lily into her carseat before joining me in the front. I turned down the radio and backed out of the driveway, my thoughts so loud she probably was getting a headache.
“You can be her Daddy too, you know.” She touched my thigh. “It’s not an either/or situation. Her father will always be her father.”
“Yeah.” I tightened my hands around the wheel. “You’re right.”
“You’ve earned that name and then some, which is why she’ll be calling you that sooner than you think. Right now, she’s pretty obsessed with sounding out jelly, but I bet that will be the next word on her list.”
Smiling, I slid her a sidelong glance. “Or maybe Mommy.”
She held my gaze until I reached over to grip her hand. She tangled her fingers with mine and I pressed them to her belly, needing her to know I wasn’t only talking about Lily. Our family of four was new and special and scary as hell, but I was all in.
Now I just had to convince Hannah.
We arrived at her doctor’s office a short while later. I grabbed my glasses out of the visor on the way in, raising my eyebrows innocently as Hannah shot me a look.
“I’m sure we’ll be looking at paperwork.”
“Right. You’re sure you want to make me all hot and bothered.”
I tugged her against my side as we reached the door. “Side benefit. Right, Lily Patch?”
Lily screwed up her mouth. “Asher.”
I sighed. “I’m going to be the only one at parent-teacher nights whose kid calls them by their first name, aren’t I?”
Hannah’s lips twitched. “No. Because she’ll probably call me by mine too.”
The acknowledgement that Hannah intended to stick around for the long haul made my grip around her shoulders tighten. I brushed a kiss over her hair and Lily leaned between us from her perch in Hannah’s arms, offering her face up to me for a kiss.
Hannah chuckled. “See, she thinks you’re handsome in your glasses too.”
I kissed Lily’s forehead and steered them to the desk in the waiting room. We filled out some paperwork, then took our seats.
I was only hyperventilating a little about the purpose of this visit. Baby steps sometimes felt fucking huge.
