Page 60 of Nashville Lights

“Miss Roxie?” she coos, her eyes still closed.

“Yeah?”

“I wish you could be my new Mommy.”

I’m still stroking her silky hair in feather-light strokes and I hear myself whisper, “Me too.”

“Then I would be happy and Uncle Nate wouldn’t be so lonely.”

Her breathing gets deeper. Nate turns off the lamp. The princess nightlights give off a low glow.

We’re still holding Daisy’s hands, gazing at each other in our little cocoon in the darkness, listening to Daisy’s soft, even breathing.

It’s too quiet to hear but I read his lips.

I love you.

22

My eyes open.The slant of the sun tells me I’ve slept later than I have in a long time.

We’re in Daisy’s tent. All three of us fell asleep in here after Daisy’s nightmare.

Daisy and Roxie are curled up together like two little peas in a pod.

I spend a few minutes just watching them sleep. Daisy’s still wearing her princess outfit. I didn’t want to wrestle her out of it last night as I put her to bed and risk waking her up. Her hair’s wild from broken sleep and from two back to back parties. She looks like a tiny little mussed-up angel.

Roxie’s wearing one of my shirts she must have grabbed on the way down to Daisy’s bedroom. Her shiny dark hair is fanned out over the pillows, her lips lightly swollen from my punishing kisses. She’s so damn pretty it hurts.

I fucking love her more than I can bear. I love them both so much.

A feral variety of contentment settles into my chest. They’re what I want. These two. After years of not really knowing and always working like a maniac to try to distract myself from my own discontent, here they suddenly are. The two people I would kill or die for. That’s it. I want to give them everything they want and need for the rest of time. I want to shield them and help them thrive to become the happiest, best versions of themselves. I want to take such good care of them they have no choice but to live their best lives. It’s my entire reason now.

Roxie’s eyes blink open.

It takes her a second to figure out where she is.

“Hey, beautiful,” I say quietly.

Daisy wakes at the sound of my voice. She gasps, smiling her little gap-toothed grin. “We slept in mytent!” she whispers. She’s lost her two front teeth in the past couple of weeks and I was almost panicking about my new role as the tooth fairy. Turns out twenty bucks is good money for a tooth. All her friends were jealous.

I lick my thumb and gently wipe some chocolate from her cheek. Another detail that flew under the radar when I tucked her into bed last night. “We did. And now I’m going to make you two the biggest breakfast you’ve ever seen. What do you want? Pancakes?”

“Yay, pancakes! Do you like pancakes, Miss Roxie?”

“I love them.”

“Come on, then.” I scoop Daisy into my arms and thethree of us make our way down to the kitchen. Glancing up at the clock, it’s after nine. “I can’t believe we slept in that late. I haven’t slept past six in years.”

“All worn out,” Roxie says, under her breath, giving me a sultry grin.

“Just getting started, darlin’,” I murmur back, and her cheeks get pink.

I set Daisy on the window seat where some of her books are still sitting from the last time I cooked dinner for her. Must have been Thursday night. The night before my entire world shifted on its axis.

I notice now that I didn’t quite get to putting her toys away, from when she was playing with them that night. They’re scattered all over the floor.

I’m still adjusting to the amount of mess a six-year-old makes, but it can wait until after breakfast.

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