Page 102 of Until the Ink Dries

She’d already talked about having a sleepover with her friends from school. The amount of floor space will allow her to invite at least five or six little girls. Benjamin wasn’t looking forward to that, but I promised I would come over to help out.

“Do you like it?” Benny asked once we finished putting her bedding on.

“I love it! Thank you, Daddy!”

She ran over to her father and lifted her arms for him to pick her up. Benny scooped her up, tossing her in the air, and she erupted in a fit of giggles as he smothered her chubby cheeks with kisses. I just love the way he loved her. It reminded me so much of me and my daddy as a kid.

“Ms. Willow, can you help me put my stuff up?” Charlie asked.

“Of course, buttercup. Why don’t I put away your clothes and you put away your toys?”

“Deal.”

She ran to grab the bags of toys from her birthday party last week, while Benjamin and I grabbed her suitcases and bags of clothes.

“I’m going to leave you two to this,” Benny said. “I would like to sleep in my bed instead of on a blowup mattress tonight, so I’m going to go put it together.”

“Okay, baby.”

He pulled me in for a kiss before leaving the room. I turned to Charlie, who was watching with a huge smile on her face.

“What?” I asked, hands on my hips.

“Do you love my daddy, Ms. Willow?”

I reached for her, and she abandoned her toys to come to me. Scooping her up in my arms, I sat on her bed.

“I love your daddy very much, Charlie. And I love you, too. I love spending time with you both. I love reading you bedtime stories and taking you to the park. You, my little love, make me smile like no one else can because you’re so special to me, Charlie.”

“You’re special to me, too.” She kissed my cheeks and wrapped her arms around my neck. “I love you back.”

She hopped off my lap and went back to putting her toys away while I busied myself putting her clothes in the closet. She started singing something from Gracie’s corner and I joined in.

If someone had told me a few months ago that I would be dating a man with a child and falling in love with that child, I would have laughed. I loved children and I wanted to be a mother someday, but men with kids hadn’t been for me because of the exact thing happening with Tierra.

The baby mama drama.

This wasn’t the typical drama, though. I was dealing with a whole addict who thought I stole her man. I still couldn’t believe Shirah and I had gotten into a fight with her. Like, how old were we? We hadn’t heard from or seen her in the two weeks that passed, but I couldn’t shake this uneasy feeling that we hadn’t seen the last of her.

“Ms. Willow?” Charlie called.

“Yes ma’am?”

“Are you gonna move in with us?”

I turned to her little inquisitive self. “Why? Do you want me to stay?”

She nodded. “I don’t want you to ever leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere, baby.”

“Yes, you are. You're going back to your house and leaving me and daddy alone. What if you don’t come back one day? What if I never see you again?”

“Why would you think I wouldn’t come back?”

“My—” She wiped her eyes and swallowed hard. “My mommy left me. She doesn’t like me.”

She started crying and I dropped everything in my hands to go to her. Dropping to the floor in front of her, I pulled her into my lap and rocked her like the little baby she was.

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