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Her assurance warms my heart. “I like him too, but he isn’t why I’m here.”
“You’re here for me?”
Her smile grows when I nod. “The day you went with your daddy to work, I saw you. You were walking through the courtyard, and your shoelace had come undone.”
“And Daddy fixed it while talking to his work friend.”
Again, I nod. “When he mentioned your new nanny, your face went really sad. You looked upset.” I lift her downcast head with my hand. “That’s when I heard your wish.”
Her eyes bug as her mouth gapes. “You heard it?”
I nod. Since it isn’t a lie, it doesn’t present as one. “And I knew then that I had to help you.” Her happiness has me struggling with my next words. “But I made a mistake, Lucy. I should have never come without asking your dad’s permission first.”
“He would have said yes.” Her lie holds out for nearly a minute. “I think.” She doubles down on her assurance by rolling her shoulders and repeating, “He would have said yes. He was making you breakfast. He doesn’t do that for anyone. Only Mommy and you.”
Not wanting to upset her, I pull back the baby hair still growing near her forehead and tuck it into the more established locks while asking, “You remember that?”
She shakes her head, but for the first time while talking about her mother, tears don’t well in her eyes. “Daddy told me last night.” Her feet stomp on the floorboards when she leaps down from my bed. “He said if I was a good girl and went straight to sleep, he’d make us breakfast.”
“Us?”
“Uh-huh.” Her head bob blurs my vision with its swiftness. “He said you’d want a greasy breakfast and that it would make you feel better.” She licks her lips while rubbing her hands together. “I told him you also needed pancakes.” I laugh. She loves pancakes so much she wants to eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. “So after a story, he went down to check on you.” My heart flutters in my neck when she looks up at me with big eyes. “Did you know Daddy met Mommy when she was still at school? She was really pretty but super shy, and that’s why I must get my ten… ten…”
“Tenacity?” I suggest when she struggles to find the word.
Again, she nods. “Tenacity from him.” Inquisitiveness crosses her face. “What’s tenacity mean?”
Her answer comes from the last person I expected. “It means you’re strong, stubborn, and persistent.”
Brodie enters my room, not knocking. His expression isn’t as confused as earlier, but the groove between his brows is deep.
“Persistent?” Lucy asks, going for the hardest word.
“It means you don’t stop until you win,” I inform her. “Not even when you should.”
My reply is more for Brodie than Lucy, but she doesn’t see it that way. “There’s nothing wrong with winning. Hey, Daddy?” She cozies up to his thigh before peering up at him like she’s on his side again. “As long as the better person wins.”
“That’s right,” he answers, ruffling her hair. “Are you hungry?”
Lucy nods so fast her teeth clang together.
“All right, then you better head down before the pancakes go cold.” Before Lucy can fire the plea we both see in her eyes, Brodie locks his with me and says, “We will join you in a minute.”
She keeps her squeal locked up tight, but her fist bump can’t be concealed. “I love you, Daddy,” she declares while sprinting for the door. Before Brodie can announce that her feelings are mutual, she adds, “I love you too, Henley.”
I melt into a puddle on the floor, and the mess worsens when Brodie pops out of my room for half a second before reentering. Not only does he look and smell divine after spending the night huddled at my side like a kinked pretzel, but there is something satisfyingly erotic about a brute of a man not taking no for an answer in the only way he knows how.
With dominance.
After rehanging my limited selection of clothing and stuffing my panties and bras into a drawer next to my single bed, he stores my brand-new suitcase on top of the freestanding closet, then nudges his head to the door. “If you think your stomach can handle pancakes, you better be quick. Lucy can eat Thane under the table when it comes to sugar.”
His witty comment has a smile inching high on my face, but I can’t just sweep my stupidity under the rug. I have done it for years, and it never ends well. “I—”
“Should save your energy,” Brodie interrupts. “You’re going to need it.”
Forever curious, I blurt out the first thing that pops into my head. “For?”
My heart whacks my ribs when he says casually, “For the self-defense class I’m teaching this morning.” He stares me dead in the eyes. “The one I’ll teach every day until the only chipped teeth you have to worry about are the ones you’re handing out.”
