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Lennox shook her head as adamantly as the first time. “I don’t want to leave her. I got mad at her for wrecking my stuff. I said mean things to her.” Tears welled in the little girl’s eyes. She didn’t let anyone see them fall though. Instead she buried her face against the puppy in her arms. “If I go away now, she’ll think I don’t love her. And I love her, Mommy. I love her so much.”
“Oh, honey.” Leigh pulled her daughter into an embrace. “Ladybug knows you love her. I’m sure she’s already forgotten you were mad.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because that’s how love works. Once love is there, it doesn’t go away because of an upset moment or a problem. Love is much stronger than that.”
“I still don’t want to leave her. Please can I stay home with her, Mommy?”
“Of course, you can.” Looking over at him, she mouthed a silent,I’m sorry. Only she had nothing to apologize for. Being a great mom was a huge part of who she was.
And he was pretty damn crazy about who she was. Every part of her.
Her eyes widened as he rose and moved toward the front door.
“Not taking off, just grabbing that thing from earlier, if it’s okay?” At her nod, he stepped out of the house, collected the bag he’d stashed and returned to the living room. “This might tide you over for tonight, Lennox. Until you get to the art store tomorrow.”
The hug ended as Lennox’s attention landed on the bag hanging from his hand. “What is it?”
“A couple drawing things I brought over for you.”
“Why?”
“Manners, please, Lennox,” Leigh said sharply. “Good ones, this time.”
“Sorry, Mommy. Sorry, Sam. I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He set the bag at her feet. “You were sketching when I first met you in your mom’s bakery. She talks about you all the time, about how you love to draw and how talented you are. I was picking up some stuff for work the other day and grabbed a couple extra things I thought you might be able to use. No big deal.” There. No lies told, just a stretched version of the truth and the large omission that he’d already seen lots of her artwork in this house. Including the upstairs bathroom.
She glanced down at the bag, then offered him the puppy. “Want to hold Ladybug for a minute?”
“Absolutely.”
Standing out of Lennox’s line of sight, Leigh smiled at him while mouthing a silent,Wow.
Hell yeah, wow. Entrusted with the little girl’s beloved puppy at this particular moment—not something he’d take lightly. He held the wiggly bundle of fur securely while Lennox dropped into a cross-legged position on the floor.
She parted the handles tentatively, then pulled out the sketch pad. “This is a good one.”
“Lennox.” Leigh sighed. “Manners?”
“But I haven’t taken everything out of the bag yet,” Lennox said, employing her serious face.
Rosy pink colored Leigh’s cheeks. “There’s no maximum on saying ‘thank you.’”
“Babe, it’s fine. Let her finish looking.” The words had barely left his mouth when he realized he’d used the wrong ones. The wrongone, specifically, and it hadn’t gone unnoticed.
Not by Leigh, whose eyes went wide enough to see the whites around her pretty gray irises.
And not by Lennox, currently scrutinizing him from knee level. “Nobody’s ever called Mommy ‘babe’ before. Not even my dad when he lived with us.” Technically, she hadn’t asked a question. But she damn sure looked as if she expected an answer.
“It’s a pet name I call your mom sometimes.”
“A pet name? Like when I named Ladybug?”
Behind Lennox, Leigh covered her smile with one hand.
“No, that’syourpet’s name,” he said. “Notapet name.”
