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Isuck in an audible breath as if an invisible fist just sucker punched me, while my daughter walks through the door to an open dance studio, holding Everly Sinclair’s hand.
Everly Sinclair.
My Cinderella.
Holding Kerrigan’s hand.
Kerrigan, who doesn’t like strangers. Who hates new people and places. Who I had to bribe to take ballet lessons with promises of a pink leotard and a stop at the bakery next door for cookies and whipped-cream-covered hot cocoa.
I rock back on my heels and force down the lump forming in my throat as my two worlds collide. My kids haven’t come up in the little time Everly and I have found to text since that night at West End. Her teaching dance here somehow didn’t manage to come up either.
Fuuuuck. I’m so fucking out of practice when it comes to the whole dating thing.
I haven’t even gotten her to agree to a damn date yet.
Was I supposed to tell her about my kids already?
“It’s okay, Mr. Wilder.Yourdaughter is in good hands withmy daughter,” a woman standing behind a desk next to me says matter-of-factly.
I turn to face her and am met with a slightly older version of Everly. I’ve seen pictures of her online, and they don’t do her justice. Warm caramel-blonde hair is pulled back from her face, framing wide, green eyes. Eyes that are currently studying me curiously as she offers me her hand. “Annabelle Sinclair. Nice to meet you.”
My hand dwarfs hers as we shake. “Cross Wilder. Nice to meet you, Mrs. Sinclair.” Jesus. I’m reverting back to a teenage boy talking to his girlfriend’s mom. Only that woman in the other room isn’t my girlfriend.No. Everly is a skittish little thing. At first glance, she doesn’t seem like she would be. But first glances would be wrong. She wants to see me again. I know it. But getting her to agree to it... Well, that’s been harder than I expected.
A lesser man would step away.
Less sure of himself. Less sure of what he wants. Less willing to put in the work.
But I’m no lesser man.
I know what I want, and it’s on the other side of that window.
Another parent moves in front of the desk to talk to Annabelle, and I’m cautiously relieved to be out of the hot seat, like an intimidated fucking teenager.What the hell?Something about the way she looked at me set my nerves on edge... Like she knew something. But she couldn’t have...
No way Cinderella told her about that night, right?
Girls don’t talk to their moms about guys they meet in bars, do they?
I look through the window at the room full of little girls, all with their eyes glued to the woman standing front and center.Her golden hair is pulled up into a bun. A much better one than what I managed this morning.
I’m going to need Bellamy’s help next time.
Whatever Everly is saying has the little girls giggling in unison, and her cheeks flushing a pretty shade of pink.
Damn. She’s gorgeous.
A gorgeous enigma.
She looks so damn sweet and innocent in front of them all, in her fuzzy pink sweater and that little black skirt barely covering her perfect ass. An ass I had in my hands.
Miss Evie seems much more sweet and innocent than the woman I met.
The one I’d like to get to know better. If she’d just let me.
Before I realize it, the class is over, and Kerrigan runs out of the room in a stampede of little girls, making a beeline directly toward me. “Daddy... Did you see me?” she asks softly. Always softly. I’m not sure my baby girl knows how to be loud.
I squat down to her level and cup her small shoulders in my hands. “I did see you. You did so good. Did you have fun?”
She nods her head up and down dramatically as Everly walks into the waiting room and claps her hands. “You all did so well today. Make sure to practice what I showed you, and we’ll see you back here next Saturday.”
