Page 123 of Reckless
“What?”
“I’ve been so excited for her to walk. It’s like I failed to realize how fucked I’m going to be when she can. Like...how do you control a human with no sense of self-preservation who canwalk? Run? Let alone ride a bull.”
I can’t help it. I laugh.
“It’s not funny, Theo! She’s already got this nutso Silva streak in her. Did you not see her the other day? I turned around for like ten seconds and she used a chair to climb up onto the counter.”
“I know. I was watching her figure out how to get up there to get a cookie. She was fine. Really kind of impressive if you think about it. Got her mama’s brains.”
“What’s going to be impressive is me keeping her alive with you away. I’ve gotten soft having you around. I have to keep her from taking up toddler parkourandI’ll have to get my own coffee. It’s total bullshit if you think about it.”
She’s joking, but there’s a thread of truth in there. We’ve been living in a blissful world since I made it clear to Winter we were together.
There wasn’t a lot of conversation about it. We sort of sank into the warmth of this new normal. My mom is still living next door for a couple of weeks before she needs to get back to Emerald Lake, which is a blessinganda curse. And slowly but surely, I’ve moved my things over to this house.
Winter is funny. Now and then, she empties a drawer and leaves it open. A silent invite to move more of my stuff. It’s like she still can’t bring herself to believe that this whole thing with us is real, that this is something bigger. Though I can tell she does by the way she clings to me all night. The way she casually swings by the gym while I’m working just to say hi—and glare at my clients.
But we’re on the cusp of change today.
“Maybe I’ll take one more week off,” I announce as I stare down into my daughter’s eyes. She’s still standing here, listening to us, head swiveling back and forth like she’s part of the conversation.
“You will not.”
I start at the bite in Winter’s voice. “Pardon?”
She lifts her finger to point at me. “Not a chance. You listen to me, Theo Dale Silva. And you listen carefully. You are going to go to whatever shitty little town you need to go to—”
“It’s Billings, Montana, Tink.”
“The only thing I know about Montana isYellowstone.”
“The National Park?”
She scoffs. “No, the show. So you’re going to go to Dutton Ranch or wherever the hell it is, and you are going to kick all their hillbilly asses.”
I cross my arms and shift over to prop a hip against the counter and face her. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, that is so. Because you can wipe the floor with them. And you want it bad enough to make it happen. And I don’t want to tell Vivi someday that her dad gave up on his dreams because her mom became terribly needy and codependent.”
I huff out a laugh. “You have the strangest way of telling me you ‘more than like me,’ Dr. Hamilton. Aren’t you worried I’ll get hurt?”
She waves me off and takes a sip of her coffee. “No. You’re too stubborn. Manifest that shit, Theo. I want you to win. I’ll patch you up myself if you get hurt, and then I’ll tie you onto a bull myself if I have to.”
My lips twitch. “That sounds kind of hot, if I’m being honest. Like a sexy doctor with a bondage ki—”
She points down at Vivi, who is staring up at me with impossibly big brown eyes, facial expression awed like I hung the moon.
It hits me in the chest like a battering ram.
The reason I don’t want to leave isn’t only because I don’t want to leave Winter.
It’s because I’m head over heels in love with this little girl. This little girl who I barely knew a couple of months ago. This little girl who has become my entire world without even trying.
The reason I don’t want to leave is that I don’t want to miss anything.
A first step.
A first word.
