Page 111 of A Game Plan for Love

“It’s not that simple.”

“You don’t want to be my dad?” Nora whispers, and when I meet her eyes, they’re swimming with tears. Emotion clogs my throat, but I shake my head.

“That’s not—” I don’t know what to say.

“Mommy said it’s my choice.” Nora crumples her dress beneath her grip, and my chest aches—a deep, sharp throbbing.

My eyes meet Addie’s, who are brimming with unshed tears, but her smile is enormous, and the disparity is jarring. “Nora, can you give us five minutes?” She looks like she’d rather get the stomach flu again, but Addie adds, “There’s a Kit Kat in my purse you can have.”

Nora holds up her hand with all five fingers outstretched. “Five. Minutes.”

When she’s gone, I collapse onto the king-size mattress, the weight of her words dragging me beneath the waves of suppressed emotions. Never in my life have I ever imagined someone calling me “Dad”, and now that it’s happened, I don’t know how I’ll ever recover from the way it made me feel—whole, wanted,loved.

Addie trails a hand along my neck, massaging the tightened muscles, and it’s then I realize that tears are streaming down my face and my hands hold a slight tremor. She hums softly as I work through the onslaught of emotions and when I can inhale a full breath, she speaks.

“She asked me a few weeks ago if we got married, would you be her dad.” She sighs softly. “I told her we were not getting married, but if wedid,” she gives me a wry smile, “it would be a decision between you and her. It freaked me out at the time, because what she was asking for is a lifetime commitment and I wasn’t sure—I didn’t know what I know now.”

She wraps her arms around my shoulders, clutching me tightly, and any words I could offer her catch in my throat.

“You are…” she fumbles, “not what I could ever have expected. Kind, confident, cocky, generous,great with your tongue.”The last pulls a soft huff of laughter from me. “You give without expectation of reciprocity, and you love with an intensity I’ve never experienced, but could never live without again.”

Addie crawls off the bed to stand in front of me and take my hand between her palms. “There is no man I know who embodies the qualities of a good father more than you. So if that’s what you want, then it’s yours. We’ve chosen you, Declan.”

Her lips meet mine in a soft kiss, and when we break, she swipes away a tear with her thumb.

“It’s been five minutes,” Nora calls out, sprinting back into the room with chocolate covering her face.

Addie chuffs softly, and I reach out a thumb to swipe it off her cheek.

Her blue eyes are wide and uncertain as she takes in my tears. Tiny fingers reach out and pat my cheek like a mob boss.

“Can we go to the pool?” she asks, and a loud, surprised laugh rips from my chest.

“Sure,” I say, knowing she could ask for the moon and I would find a way to wrangle it from the sky. “But, Nora, first I wanted to talk to you about what you called me.”

“Oh.”

“You can call me whatever you want,” I tell her, chest rattling with more nerves than the day I was drafted. “The choice is yours.”

She nibbles on her lip, and then so hesitantly, she asks, “Do you want to be my dad?”

“I would love that very much.”

“Okay.” She shrugs, like her question hasn’t flipped my world inside out, then moves to the luggage in the corner. “Can you blow up my floaty?” she asks, handing me the box with the arm floaties Addie packed.

“Sure, sweetheart.”

I’ll do that once I catch my breath.

Addie helps her find her swimsuit and as they disappear into the bathroom to change and put sunscreen on, I hear a soft, “Thanks, Daddy.”

I can’t shake a smile for the rest of the day, even when Addie dunks my head under the water at the pool and I spend five minutes with snot dripping from my nose.

CHAPTER 33

I Got 3 – Jack Gray

Addie

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