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“You are?” Natalie asked, her voice tentative.
My mind tripped over to that list of things I’d need to make the night special for Delaney. “I already have my suit picked out. Are you taking her shopping for a new dress?”
“I can,” she said, carefully considering me.
“I think I’ll—” I didn’t want to tell her all my plans. I wanted some things to be a surprise. “We’ll go big. Maybe I could take her to dinner before.”
Natalie shifted so that she was sitting cross-legged on the windowsill. “You don’t have to do that—or any of this. It’s not your job to fix things after her father crushed her.”
“Maybe not, but I want to. I want to make that girl smile. I want her to be happy. I don’t want her to be the only girl in that room without a dad.” My heart ached for everything she was feeling, a sense of loss, confusion, abandonment, and doubt.
Natalie gave me a sad smile. “You know she won’t be.”
“But she’ll feel like she is.”
Natalie sucked in a breath. “You’re right. It doesn’t matter if someone else is in the same situation. It matters that she is.”
I touched her knee. “Let me do this for her.”
“If you’re sure?” she asked, her eyes on mine.
I stood, determined to make this night special. “I haven’t had a date this important in years. I’m going to make her feel special.”
Natalie stood close, placing the palm of her hand on my cheek. “You’re kind of amazing, you know that?”
Our gazes caught and held. My breathing felt erratic. I couldn’t slow the beat of my heart.
“I can’t believe you haven’t found your person yet,” Natalie said wistfully as she dropped her hand and stepped back.
“I don’t know if everyone gets that. But I plan on being the best uncle to my niece and friend to Delaney.” I hoped that didn’t sound as pathetic to her as it did to me.
Natalie made a move to leave. “I can’t thank you enough. I’m going to tell her the date is on.”
“When I saw her crying by herself, I couldn’t take it. I’d do anything to make her smile.”
Natalie touched my chest. “You’re a good man, Mac.”
I didn’t know about that, but she’d already walked away.
I tried not to think about how, if one of my other relationships had panned out, I’d be going to my daughter’s dance. That wasn’t in the cards for me, but I could make Delaney happy. She was a part of my protected circle. I’d do anything for her.
When women broke up with me in the past, they’d said we didn’t want the same things. But I took that to mean they didn’t want me. I’d accepted that I’d be alone. So why did my heart ache for something more with Natalie? She was no different from my exes.
It was shortsighted to start something with her, knowing my history. I thought I had successfully shed any romantic notions of relationships and morphed into a realist. Now, I wasn’t so sure. But I could make a difference in Delaney’s life by going to this dance, by showing her she was the most important girl in my life. She deserved it, even if her idiot father didn’t understand the damage he was inflicting on her.
If Natalie’s ex ever showed up in Telluride, I wanted to have a word with him. But I didn’t even know his name. I couldn’t imagine my father walking away. He’d always been there for us. We went into business together. Delaney didn’t deserve any of the things that were happening to her, and I’d do my best to create a magical evening for her.
* * *
The next day,I tracked Delaney down outside the B&B after school. She was on the swing the guys had hung on the mature tree in the backyard.
“Mac,” she said with a hint of a smile on her face when she saw me.
“Do you have any favorite colors?”
“Pink and purple,” she said without hesitation.
“Yeah? That will work perfectly.” Last night, Alice had shown me a few bouquets of flowers that would be pretty for a little girl, and I’d fallen in love with the peonies. It wouldn’t be easy to get this time of year, but I would.
