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If it was real.
My eyes strayed back to Hope. She rocked back and forth holding Brayleigh’s hand, my daughter clasped against her breast. I wondered if she wanted what Lucky had with the ice queen.
When she turned back to me, the look on her face dispelled any doubt.
The question was, did she want it with me?
Was I even capable of giving it to her?
Trust
Ares
Hope checked the time again.
We spent the early part of the evening doing last minute Christmas shopping, something Hope insisted I needed to do. Our dinner reservation was for 9 p.m. and we’d barely made it on time.
Folding my hands on the table, I leaned forward. “We can leave. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”
She pursed her lips, her eyes scanning The Bard’s Bistro.
It was notoriously difficult to secure a reservation at this time of year, but I had zero reservations about canceling if that’s what she needed.
More and more, I found myself contemplating what she needed, if I could give it to her, and how to balance it with what Sia needed.
She shook her head, her blond locks floating over her shoulders. “No. I need to get over this. Other than daycare, we’ve never left Brayleigh with anyone other family. But it’s not reasonable to never have a babysitter.”
We.
That ‘we’ bothered my possessive side. The side that didn’t exist before Hope. They were a unit. A family. I was the outlier.
The position was familiar. I should have been comfortable, but I wasn’t. Not where Hope was concerned.
Her cornflower blues darkened with anxiety.
I reached for her hand. Not being one for public displays of affection, taking her hand across the table snagged her full attention.
“Melissa has never given me a reason to doubt her,” I assured her. “But I have no problem if you want to skip dinner and go home.”
She pressed her lips together. “I’ll just text to make sure everything is okay. If it is, we’ll stay.” She looked around and sighed happily. “It’s beautiful. I love Bard’s when it’s all done up for Christmas.”
Over dinner, she confessed her concerns about her job.
Concerns I shared.
But while she had Lucky, her parents, and Ava, I relied entirely on hired help. “I need to do something about my travel as well,” I admitted.
“I called Maeve to talk it out a bit.”
“Yeah? What did she say?”
She smiled and huffed out a small laugh. “What she’s said from the beginning. It’s not worth it.”
“I wonder that myself sometimes.” I lay my cutlery across my plate. “Perhaps a simpler life, a smaller life, would allow more space for the important stuff.”
She tilted her head to the side, her eyes far away. “I don’t mind the idea of a small life anymore.” Suddenly she zeroed in on me. “Can we go? I really want to get home to the girls and make sure they’re okay.”
Ten minutes later, I pulled out of the parking lot.
