Page 109 of Ugly Duckling
I rubbed at that space where my heart never stopped aching. “Then we’re on a plane.”
She clapped her hands. “Then we’re on a plane!”
“You excited?” Parker asked as we walked back toward our trucks.
“About flying to watch Sutton at the qualifiers? Or picking Lottie up?” I teased.
“Sutton,” he answered.
Sutton and I had gotten married six months ago in a quiet wedding on the side of Caddo Lake.
It was a small ceremony with only our closest friends and family, and I didn’t shove her face into the cake. She didn’t even have to ask me not to.
“I’m nervous as fuck,” I admitted. “This is somehow worse than watching her run marathons.”
“That’s ’cause you’re usually competing in them with her,” he pointed out. “This is a big deal.”
“It is,” I agreed. “I’m glad this was a short week and Lottie gets to come watch. Sutton is going to be so happy to have her there.”
“Does she know you’re coming yet?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. She doesn’t know that you don’t have Lottie, and that I’m back from that job.”
The job from hell.
It was a huge job at a high school that regularly shielded five thousand kids at a time.
It was a miracle I’d been able to finish it early and get back in time to get Lottie to her first day of school.
Being a parent who traveled for work really sucked.
Sutton was even more upset with herself, but it wasn’t like you could really tell the US Olympic team when they could have a qualifying race.
Sutton had cried for an hour while she packed to leave.
I’d felt awful for her.
Six months ago, I’d approached her to ask if she wanted to adopt Lottie.
She’d jumped at the idea, and now we all had the same last name: Penn.
All because of the man at my side.
“I wanted to thank you,” I said. “For everything.”
He read into what I wasn’t saying.
“Jett would’ve been so damn proud of you.” He cupped my face like he used to do when I was younger. “I love you, kid.”
I dropped my head. “It still hurts.”
He squeezed the side of my face. “Same, kid. Same.”
“Daddy,” Lottie whispered from her first-class seat beside me. “My nuts are so hot!”
I couldn’t help the smile that twitched at the corner of my lips. “Is that right?”
“Yeah, do you want to feel my nuts?”
