I gently cup his cheek with my left hand and nod. “I’d love to. Granted, Claire isn’t too sick.”
Levi suddenly pushes away from the desk to stand and wraps his arms around me. I wrap mine around his waist, resting myhead on his chest and give him a light squeeze. His head rests on top of mine before he places a kiss to my temple.
“Send me the address of her school and I’ll go get her,” he says, pulling away. “I’ll take her back to your place and keep her company until you get home.”
“Thank you.” I watch as he walks toward the door, his phone in his hand. “Call me if you need anything, okay?”
Levi stops and looks at me over his shoulder. “We’ll be fine, Lowe. Promise.”
Half an hour later, my phone buzzes on my desk. Seeing it’s a text from Levi, I hastily click it open and smile. He sent me a picture of him and Claire in the car, her in the backseat giving the camera a thumbs up with a big grin while half of Levi’s face covers the left side of the screen.
Typing out a quick response, the sound of the office doors opening grabs my attention. A woman walks in wearing jeans and a plain white tee underneath a black leather jacket. She smiles as she approaches, her bright pink hair that stops at her shoulders just as blinding as her teeth.
“You must be Sasha.”
A couple hours later,after an exhausting questionnaire and interview with the applicant and discovering that we have no reliable matches for her currently in our system, I finally pack up my work bag and prepare to head home. Checking my phone before I throw it into my purse, I decide against double texting Levi and lock up the office.
Stepping into the cooling September air, I tighten my blazer around me slightly as I flag down a taxi and prepare for the longer commute home.
Forty-five minutes later, I stop outside the door of my apartment and listen for a moment. The soft sounds of the television reach my ears, but other than that, it is completely silent. Levi hasn’t responded to my text from an hour before, and I can’t lie and say I wasn’t a bit concerned.
Unlocking the door, I step inside and set my bag down near the shoe rack and slip out of my heels. Walking past the kitchen to enter the living room, I stop at the sight before me.
Levi is laying on the couch, fast asleep, his right hand tucked under his head and his other wrapped around Claire. She’s asleep with her head on his chest, one arm draped over his midsection. When I look closer, I notice his nails are painted a light shade of blue and I don’t miss what appears to be blush covering his cheeks and eyeshadow on his lids.
I pull out my phone and snap a quick photo before sliding it into the back pocket of my jeans. Tiptoeing over to the sleeping pair, I kneel beside them and gently brush the hair away from Claire’s face. When I glance up at Levi, I see his eyes open, staring at me with a sleepy smile.
“Don’t go crying on me now, Lowe,” he whispers, and it’s only then that I am aware of the tears that have welled in my eyes. “Otherwise, I’ll think this eyeshadow isn’t my color.”
I bite my lip to stifle my laughter. “The eyeshadow might not be, but the nail color certainly is.”
“Blue is my favorite color,” he says, glancing down at his hand. “I thought it looked the closest to your eye color, and Claire agreed.”
“How charming,” I respond, unable to stop the blush from creeping into my cheeks. “I can take her to bed.”
I stand to grab her, but Levi tightens his hold on her ever so slightly. “We have a couple of hours until the event. Come snuggle with us for a little while.”
As I squeeze beside him, sliding in as carefully as I can so I don’t wake Claire, I rest my head on his shoulder, my hand rubbing slow and gentle circles on my daughter’s arm. Levi removes the arm that was behind his head and curls it around me, running lazy patterns on my back.
My heart constricts as I look up and see him staring down at Claire, an adoring expression clear in his eyes. This is a moment I have dreamed of for longer than I can remember. Claire never got any moments like these with her father, and that knowledge pains me. These sweet and simple moments, the quiet and easy ones, mean more than anything.
Once I became a mother and looked back on my childhood, that’s when I realized it wasn’t just about who showed up for you in the important moments, but it was also about who sat beside you while you ate dinner, or who did your hair in the morning. It was just as important, if not more, to have someone supporting you in quiet rather than when there are others watching.
It is those people who you learn to realize you can count on. Always.
And Levi is becoming that for Claire.
An hour and a half later, Claire is curled up on the couch with the sitter, watching a movie as I slip into my coat at the front door. I glance at the mirror hanging on the wall one last time, running a hand through my hair to loosen some curls. Fake lashes cover my real ones and a simple nude eyeshadow and thin liner graces my eyelids. I settled on a light pink lipstick, not wanting to go too dark with the black dress I had picked out.
It’s a simple strapless floor length dress with an intricate lace around the bodice and a cascading silk skirt. I pair it with simple black block heels, wearing my most comfortable ones to be prepared in case there’s dancing at this event.
A knock on the door drags me out of my thoughts, and I pull it open to see Levi in a pristine, crisp suit. It’s not all thatdifferent from what he wears in the office, but seeing him with the suit jacket is doing something to my insides.
“You look breathtaking,” he whispers, eyes scanning me from head to toe, my jacket still hanging open. “God, what can’t you pull off?”
“Probably a brown paper sack.” I shrug, and he chuckles.
He steps past the threshold, hands landing on my hips and pulling me flush against him. With a low, gravelly voice, he whispers, “I can’t wait to see this dress on my bedroom floor.”
