Page 5 of If You Love Me

“I know what you mean. I can’t believe it’s been this long. Part of me still has hope. I don’t even feel like I can fully have that. Iona is great. She’s great with Summer Rose, and she’s good to me. I love her, but part of me will always love and mourn Evenie.”

She nodded. “I understand, baby. It’s hard loving two people for two different reasons.”

“It is.”

Iona said she understood my feelings, but I knew deep inside, she held some doubt. She outright asked me one night what I would do if Evenie walked back through that door. I couldn’t give her an answer because I honestly didn’t know. I tried not to think about that possibility because it was slim to none… heavy on the none.

It took me a long time to move myself out of the mindset of expecting her return. After all this time, I couldn’t torture myself with what ifs. I couldn’t live in the past or rewrite history. All I had was today, and I had to live for that. I had to live for my baby because she deserved the best version of me.

“I just pray she’s at peace, Ma. If she’s gone, I pray she didn’t suffer.”

“Me too, baby.” She swiped at the tears spilling from her eyes. “Let me get myself together. I wanna be in a good mood when Summer Rose calls us to tell us about her day. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

We disconnected the call, and I took the short walk back to the house. By the time I was turning in the driveway, Iona and Summer were coming down the front steps. I opened my arms to baby girl, and she didn’t hesitate to come right into them.

“I hope you have an amazing first day, baby,” I said, kissing her temple.

“Thank you, Daddy. Have a good day at work.”

“I will. I love you, princess.”

“I love you too.”

I gave her a squeeze before releasing her and handing her the phone. She skipped off to get into Iona’s car. Iona made her way over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck.

“How’s she doing?” she asked, referring to Mama Cheryl.

“She’s okay. A little emotional, but that’s to be expected.”

She nodded as she adjusted my tie. “Don’t call my phone all day looking for check-ins.”

I grinned. “I’ll try not to.” Cupping her face, I softly kissed her lips. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Tyrion. More than you know.”

She pecked my lips once more. I opened the driver’s side door to let her in. Once she was safely secured with her seat belt, I closed it and headed up the front steps. I watched and waved as they backed out of the driveway and headed down the road.

Looking up at the morning sky, I closed my eyes. “Our girl is growing up, Ev. Wherever you are, I hope you know I love you and I’m doing my best.”

I stood there for a moment, as I always did when I spoke to her, waiting for a sign that she heard me. Like always, it nevercame. With a heavy sigh of disappointment, I headed back into the house to finish getting ready for work.

2

Iona Cambridge

“Tell me whooooo, who’s getting all my love, who’s getting all my love…”

Summer Rose and I sang along to Chris Brown’s “Residuals.” If we did nothing else, we ran this song into the ground. Both of us sang at the top of our lungs like we were going through heartbreak and missing the man of our dreams. I had to laugh at myself. Tyrion was right. We were loud and sounded terrible on top of that. But my baby loved our morning routines as much as I did, so that made up for it. When her father told me long ago that she loved music, I made it my mission for it to be one of the things we bonded over.

“I just wanna see him in concert, Ms. Iona.”

“Me too, baby. I might just lose my mind.”

She laughed. “Daddy might get jealous of you fangirling over him.”

“He might. We’ll see if we can get him to take us if he goes on tour again soon.”

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