Page 97 of Before You Can Blink
“Like we always do.” Finishing that phrase had become automatic.
“Almost didn’t know what to do with myself once the big house was finished. There was too much space, and I struggled with not having constant eyes on the kids.”
I chuckled. “Then the kids got bigger and there were days when it didn’t feel large enough, everyone on top of each other.”
“Now it seems excessive for just the two of us.” Wry laughter sounded. “Maybe we should be fixing up the cabin for us.”
Even though I knew she was joking, my chest tightened at the mere mention of moving back into that shack, and it took me a minute to find my voice.
“Nah. If we did that, where would we entertain that gaggle of grandkids you’ve got your heart set on?”
Daisy snapped her fingers. “Darn, you’re right.”
“Still feeling that full dozen?” I teased.
“Vision hasn’t changed, but it is strange to think Aspen’s about the same age you were when we had her.”
That reality was like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head.
Aspen was still so young. Her life was just getting started. I couldn’t even begin to imagine her having babies and becoming a mama.
Slow your roll. She’s not even dating anyone.
“I don’t even have to look back to know that sent you into a panic.”
She knew me too damn well.
I grunted. “She’s still a baby herself.”
“Half her graduating class already has kids, Jett. Some of which will be roaming my halls, starting kindergarten in the fall.”
“That supposed to make me feel better?” I muttered under my breath.
“No, but you need to come to terms with the fact that she is a grown woman now. Yes, she has a lot she wants to accomplish and isn’t thinking about settling down anytime soon, but plans and dreams have a way of changing when life unexpectedly throws the person you’re meant to be with right in your path.”
She sure as hell had my attention now. “She meet someone?”
Daisy dug her heels into the dirt, causing the tire swing to stop before I could give it another push. Extracting herself from the hole in the rubber, she turned around to face me.
With a single step, she closed the gap between us, reaching up to smooth a thumb between my brows. “You’re too protective for your own good sometimes.”
“That wasn’t an answer, Daze.”
Her eyes lifted to the sky before returning to meet mine. “No, she hasn’t met anyone. But you need to prepare yourself for the day when she does. Some poor boy is already gonna be knocked on his ass, having fallen in love with our daughter, so the last thing he’ll need is you giving him a hard time because you’ll never deem anyone good enough for your baby girl.”
That last part hit a little too close to home. Daisy’s close relationship with her father grew distant after she married me. While he never tried to stop our union, he’d been outspoken about his displeasure that I couldn’t support his daughter.
By the time I’d gotten around to proving him wrong, he’d already left this earth. More than anything, I wished he could have seen that I’d done right by Daisy, even if it took longer than I—or he—would have liked.
There were too many days when it felt like I’d already lost Aspen, with her being over a thousand miles away. The last thing I wanted to do was to push her even further away because I couldn’t make peace with the partner she’d chosen to share her life with.
As much as it killed me, I would have to accept whatever man she decided to marry because I wasn’t willing to lose her.
Swallowing against the broken glass lining my throat, I rasped, “I only want the world for her.”
With her thumb stroking my jaw, Daisy’s lips turned up, and her eyes softened. “Of course you do, because you’re a good father. She loves you and will want your approval. Don’t give her any reason to doubt her instincts when she believes she’s foundthe one.”
My eyes slid shut, and I dragged in a deep breath through my nose. On the exhale, I said, “I’ll try my hardest.”
