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“Trent is your dad…” I begin, but she cuts me off before I can finish my sentence.
“He’s not here. He’s in heaven, and I want a dad here.” She crosses her arms over her chest and falls back with a huff. “It’s not fair. Everyone’s got one but me.”
Kelsie and I had agreed we’d talk to Jordan together, but with how upset she is, there’s no way I’m going to let her continue to feel this way.
Pierce
Jordan’s upset about not having a dad. Can I talk to her, please?
Kelsie
Is she okay? Of course you can!
Pierce
It means telling her I can be her dad.
Kelsie
I know. I love you. Thank you.
After texting her back that I love her, I drag my chair closer to Jordan, who’s back to eating her pretzel in silence.
“Trent is your dad,” I start again. “But if you’d like, I’d love to be your bonus dad.”
This gets her attention. “What’s a bonus dad?”
“It’s a special dad. Trent will still be your dad forever, but since I’m here and he can’t be, I’ll be your dad too.”
“Can I call you Dad?” she asks softly.
“Yep, if you want to.”
“Can you go to the dance with me?”
“Of course I will.”
“Okay,” she says nonchalantly. “You can be my bogus dad.”
“Bonus, not bogus,” I say with a chuckle.
“Okay, Bonus Dad.”
“Mommy! Daddy!” Jordan yells from her room. I grin at Kelsie, loving the way Jordan took to calling me dad so easily. “How do you spell baby?”
Kelsie yells back, “B-a-b-y.”
We go back to what we’re doing: me, watching Monday Night Football, and her, reading a book, then a few minutes later, Jordan yells again, “Mommy! Daddy!”
Kelsie snorts and shakes her head. “I swear she just wants to say Daddy.”
“I’m okay with it,” I say to her, then to Jordan, I yell back, “What’s up, Princess?”
“How do you spell brother?”
Kelsie chokes on her laugh, and we both get up to go see what Jordan’s up to. In her room, she’s sitting at her little table, writing on a piece of paper.
“What are you doing?” Kelsie asks as we walk farther into her room.
“Writing my letter to Santa.”
“I thought you already wrote it?” I ask.
“I did. But I need to change it ’cause I asked for a daddy, but now I got a bogus one…”
“Bonus,” I correct, while Kelsie laughs under her breath.
“Yeah, bonus,” Jordan says. “So now I don’t gotta ask for one. So I’m asking for a baby brother like Tilly’s gonna have.”
I glance at Kelsie and waggle my brows, then lean over and whisper, “You know, if she’s asking for a baby brother, we should give her one or she might stop believing in Santa.”
Kelsie snorts again, then whispers back, “Keep banging me in every part of this house and it will happen.”
“Noted.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
KELSIE
As I stare at myself in the full-length mirror, dressed in an off-the-shoulder ombre—fading from black to a beautiful Christmas red—floor-length gown and black stilettos, I feel like a different person. Obviously, I’m still me, but the person I’m staring at is a happier version of myself. I guess falling in love will do that to a person.
My thoughts go back to this past week… Aside from when Pierce was at work, every morning has been spent with me making breakfast and taking Jordan to school.
While she’s there, we’ve been planning the wedding. Not only did I buy my wedding dress and Jordan’s flower girl dress, but I also found a dress for the charity ball. The stores didn’t have many summer clothes, so Pierce had me order stuff online and got it all rush delivered. We picked out our cake and what we’ll have catered for the dinner afterward, and we even went to the courthouse and applied for our marriage license.
The afternoons have been spent with Pierce and Jordan: horseback riding, taking Cinder for walks, and hanging out while Jordan plays on the swing set that Pierce surprised her with.
In the evenings, I cook dinner—and Pierce helps by grilling or keeping Jordan entertained—and we eat as a family. On the night he worked, he surprised me by having food delivered to the house with a dozen roses and a note that read:
Since I can’t be there…
xoxo Pierce
After Jordan has had her bath and is in bed, Pierce and I spend the rest of the evening wrapped up together—talking about everything and nothing—which always leads to us getting lost in each other. And on the night that he had to work, we had a crazy hot sexting session that still gets me horny when I think about it.
With each day that passes, I fall more in love with Pierce. With his thoughtfulness and selflessness and the surplus amount of patience he possesses. And the way he handled the dad situation with Jordan… Sigh.
“Holy shit,” a masculine voice whispers, making me spin around in my heels. Standing in the doorway is Pierce, dressed in a sharp charcoal gray tux, complete with a red tie that matches my dress. His face is cleanly shaven, and his hair is styled in his signature messy way.
