Page 100 of It Must Be Fate

I take advantage of his momentary distraction and turn back towards Astra, murmuring so only she can hear me, “Ina few years, you’ll probably have your first crush. Then your first boyfriend or girlfriend. Remember, never settle. Don’t date anyone who doesn’t treat you exactly like your Daddy treats me, okay?”

“Someone who buys me things?” she whispers back.

“Not necessarily. Money isn’t what’s important because not everyone has it. We’re extremely fortunate,” I explain. “No, someone who will give you their whole heart without any reservations.”

“I’ll try.”

Squeezing her hand, I say, “I’ll help you, if you want.”

She shrugs. “Maybe. Boys are gross anyway.”

“Exactly,” Phoenix interjects, getting into the bed on her side this time. “Boys are horrific creatures who cannot be trusted and should be avoided with the same abject horror as the bubonic plague.”

I roll my eyes but don’t put up a fight. Astra has already moved on from this conversation, too busy showing her dad exactly what she’s discovered in the night sky.

***

Later, Astra is sound asleep in the crook of her dad’s arm. Her face rests on his chest and moves up and down with the rhythm of his breathing. Phoenix stares down at her in wonder, much more taken by her than he is the stars. He brushes his fingers through her hair quietly, content to spend his night this way.

Picking back up where we left off, I say, “I know we’re years away from this yet, but she’s never going to meet anyone if you helicopter parent her like this.”

He throws a narrowed look my way. “First of all, no man will ever be good enough for my little girl. Secondly, she’ll never date anyone. Ever.” His hand tightens around her. “I challenge any man to come after her when she’s not allowed to leave the house.”

With a loose smile on my lips, I shake my head. There’s a battle ahead, of that I’m sure. “Poor girl,” I whisper thoughtfully. “She won’t ever be able to leave her tower. Some brave person is going to have to get behind the walls of your fortress to get to her.”

He growls in warning, a deep sound that rumbles in his chest and curls his lip into a snarl. I laugh in the face of it, not easily cowed by his theatrics when I’m used to defusing him before he detonates.

The sound of my laughter alone is enough to ease the tension in his shoulders. For a few minutes, we simply watch our daughter sleep.

“Do you want another one?”

The question is whispered softly, inquisitively, the same way as the two other times he’s asked it. I know him well enough to understand that he’s not asking because he wants to press the topic or because he has a particular opinion on the matter. He asks because, as always, he’s checking in on what I want. Making sure that he’s not passing by a desire of mine that I might be keeping secret simply because he hasn’t asked.

So he asks.

And my answer is the same.

“No.” I reach over to them and drag my knuckles in a soft caress down Astra’s pink cheek. “But maybe one day.”

I would tell him if I was ready to adopt.

***

Fifteen years after graduation

Chapter Twenty-Four

Thayer

I’ve been in the kitchen all afternoon, working on perfecting dinner. I’m not particularly renowned for my cooking and typically let our chef handle all of our meals, but I chose to dismiss her for the evening.

It would have been easier to let her handle this bit so I could focus on the upcoming confrontation, but part of me—a foolish, irrational part of me—thought that if I cooked a perfect dinner, then maybe everything would be alright.

I place two plates on the dining room table and sit down, anxiously wringing my hands. Then I wait for my husband to come home to me.

Bile sits heavy and sour in the back of my throat. My heart races and my hands are clammy. I tell myself it’s the heat from the stove causing this reaction in my body, but I know it’s not.I’m shaking, hoping against hope that there’s a good explanation for what I discovered.

That my world isn’t going to be ripped from under me again, like it last was at RCA.

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