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“She thought it was bad having six sons. Ten grandkids.” I whistled under my breath. “Thank God Paddy’s with her. It’ll stop her from pulling out her hair.”
“You just have to love how, out of all of them, Third’s the worst.”
I shuddered. “The terrible twos were nothing in comparison to the terrifying threes.”
She nodded. “How did she even get on the kitchen counter yesterday?”
“Probably bribed one of the boys into lifting her up,” I said with a grimace. “It’s a good thing you saw her trying to grab the handle of that knife.”
“You need eyes in the back of your head with Daniels’ kids. You think she’s bad, you should have been around for Aspen and Paris. Jesus Christ, it’s no wonder Dagger went prematurely gray.”
“Two of them,” I breathed, eyes widening with horror. “At once.”
“Exactly.”
“Daddy, what do you think?”
My heart stopped at that title.
It always did.
But especially at a moment like this, when she was nervous and excited at the same time.
‘Daddy’ had come after a year of us being a family. It had morphed into ‘Dad’ when she was a teenager. That we’d reverted to Daddy broke my heart even more.
It wasn’t right that she was growing up.
God, all my kids were going to do this to me, weren’t they?
I turned to stare at her and tried to brace myself for the fallout, but there was no bracing big enough for this.
“You look beautiful, Katty,” I choked out, using the nickname so that I didn’t totally crumple into a ball of misery and joy.
She giggled. “Katty? Really?”
“Really,” I teased, helping Star off my lap so that I could stride over to our daughter and tug her into a hug. In her ear, I whispered, “You’re going to be the belle of the ball.”
“Don’t tell Lyra that. She’ll be jealous when it’s her turn next year. You know she’s all about being Belle.”
I chuckled. “You know what I mean.” I squeezed her. “You okay?”
“Nervous, but happy.”
“That’s all right then. I schooled Seamus myself. He’ll be here soon with your corsage, and he’s got it down pat on how to present you so you can trust him to know what to do if you get nervous and forget.” Or I’d beat the shit out of him. “So just relax and have fun, okay?”
“I will.”
As I pulled away, I reached into my pocket and retrieved a box. She beamed a grin at me. “Thank you, Daddy.”
“You don’t know what’s in it yet,” I pointed out.
She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. You picked it so I know it’s given with love.”
That had me blowing out a breath.
Somehow, the precocious kid who knocked shit over without trying had become a thoughtful, intelligent, kind young woman, capable of breaking her father with a few words.
Silently, I handed her the box and as usual, Star’s timing was perfect because she slipped her arm around my waist.
