Page 132 of Single Dad Dilemma
“You’re my best friend,” he told me. “My partner. And every piece of my life is better with you in it.” He kissed my hand as he looked up at me, his own eyes filled with tears. “Marry me, Lily.”
I said yes, and we waited to tell the kids until they got home from Rachel’s a few days later. Bryce wiped away a few tears that he thought we couldn’t see, while Maggie proclaimed it the best day of her entire life.
Buffalo made it into the playoffs that year, winning their wild card game and then one more, and it was the saddest fucking thing in the world watching those players leave the field after they lost.
Two days later, Barrett woke me up with his mouth between my legs, and when he was done—or when I was done, rather—he said he had a surprise for the kids and me.
“That wasn’t my surprise?” I said, still slightly out of breath, adjusting the sleep tank that had gotten all twisted around my chest.
He laughed. “Nope. Get dressed and come downstairs. We’ll grab breakfast on the way.”
“You’re in a chipper mood,” I said, eyeing him skeptically. “You didn’t even get laid this morning.”
He smacked a kiss on my mouth while he waited for me to stumble out of bed on still-shaky legs. “The day is still young.”
I rolled my eyes.
We all piled into his truck and stopped for a fast-food breakfast, to the delight of his children.
Barrett took a turn and then instructed us to close our eyes.
Dutifully, I did as I was told, smiling when he curved a large hand around my thigh.
“Maggie,” he said in a warning tone. “Close ’em.”
“Idid. Sort of.”
He chuckled, and the sound of it made me shiver slightly. His hand squeezed, like he knew what I was thinking.
The truck came to a stop and when Barrett shifted it into park, he let out a slow breath. “Okay. Open your eyes.”
Second Leash Animal Sanctuary
My mouth fell open. Maggie screamed.
“Are we getting a dog?” Bryce gasped.
Without waiting for an answer, Maggie hurled herself at her dad, uninhibited by the fact that we were still in the truck and she couldn’t really get into the front without kicking me in the face.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she said, peppering his face with kisses.
“Really?” I asked, smile spreading as I watched the unleashed joy in front of me.
He held Maggie to his chest and nodded, eyes warm on my face. “Really.”
The kids were over the moon, even though Barrett gave them a steadying talk about how it might take time to find exactly the right fit.
But in the end, it took less than five minutes.
Maggie stopped at the first kennel,oohing andaahing over what she found there.
Bryce looked carefully, slowly walking a bit farther than his sister, then stopped at one a few kennels down, crouching with a soft expression on his face. “Lily, look.”
While Maggie and Barrett fawned over a wriggling black dog with white spots on his chest, Bryce read the sign in front of him, eyes darting back and forth between that and the dog inside the kennel.
He was skinny, with the coloring of a hound and massive floppy ears. Legs too big for his body. And he had big brown eyes that looked right into my fucking soul.
When I crouched down next to Bryce, the tip of the dog’s tail started thumping against the ground. Then he edged forward to sniffus, his tongue darting out to swipe over Bryce’s fingers wrapped around the metal links on the door. Bryce and I smiled at each other.
