There was a small flicker of her brows. “You were away. You were serving in the military, fighting for our country.”
“But I’m also her father. The second she was born, she became my priority. And I failed her.”
“You’re here now.”
“So are you.”
When a tear slid down her cheek, he couldn’t stop himself. He stepped forward and swiped it away with the pad of his thumb.
“Thank you.” His voice sounded loud in the otherwise quiet house.
Her eyes flickered between his, and her next words were barely a whisper. “For what?”
“For loving my daughter like she’s your own.”
One side of Sadie’s mouth lifted. “She’s easy to love.”
So damn true. Still, the fact that this woman loved her so much did something to him.
Suddenly, he was all too aware of the way he hadn’t moved his hand from her cheek. Of the softness of her skin against his palm. For some reason, he wanted to graze her plump lips with his thumb. See if they were as soft as they looked. Hell, even the way her clothes smelled like cookie dough made him want to lean into her and do things he shouldn’t even be thinking about.
When her gaze lowered to his mouth, he almost gave in. Almost lowered his mouth to hers and touched those full lips. The only thing that stopped him was his daughter. The fact that she loved this woman, and he couldn’t mess that up. Because kissing hercouldmess that up. It would complicate things. Make them messy. And Avery didn’t need messy right now.
He forced himself to step back. To drop his hand from her cheek and look away. “I’ll just grab you some cash.”
Then he left the room as if the devil himself was chasing him. Walked down the hallway and into his office to grab some money. When he returned, Sadie stood by the door with her bag over her shoulder.
He handed her the cash. “Here you go.”
“Thanks. Let me know if you need my help again.” She stepped out the front door, and when he followed, she glanced at him over her shoulder. “You don’t need to—”
“I’m walking you out, Sadie.” The man in him, the protector, had to. He scanned the street as they moved.
When she reached her car door, she was about to slip behind the wheel when he wrapped his fingers around her wrist. She looked up, and those black eyes burned right into him.
“Again, thank you. Not just for tonight, but for everything.” For loving his daughter. Watching her. And coming home to her.
A small smile curved her lips. “You shouldn’t be thanking me. I should be thanking you for making such a great kid. I’ll see you later, Eastern.”
When she just stood there, it took him a beat to realize he was still holding her wrist. Then another to force himself to release her and step back.
The entire time she drove away from him, he had to remind himself that she wasn’t for him. That tonight, he’d come too close to crossing a line…a line that he could not, under any circumstances, cross.
CHAPTER 5
He’d almost kissed her, right? That hadn’t been her imagination. Eastern’s head had lowered, and heat had laced his ocean-blue eyes.
Sadie nibbled her bottom lip as she cleared the remaining cupcakes from the display cabinet. They’d almost sold out today. Not a surprise, her grandmother had developed a great little shop here, and its reputation was well-known amongst locals.
The thing was, if Easternhadkissed her last night, she would have kissed him back. And that was crazy when a couple weeks ago, she was supposed to marry another man. Had woken that very morningthinkingshe was going to marry another man.
Except, almost kissing Eastern didn’tfeelcrazy. It felt right. Just like letting him touch her, stand so close, felt more right than anything else in a long time.
Nuts. She was absolutely nuts. Sure, he was only ten years older than she was, so it wasn’t a huge age gap. But she was his nanny. And she’d just walked out on a wedding.
She checked the clock on the wall. Three o’clock. Time to get out of here and go home, watch some sitcom reruns and get out of her head.
She’d just finished boxing the last of the cakes when the door opened and two women stepped in. One was Matilda Taylor. She’d been born and raised in Misty Peak, but she’d left town about five years ago after her father had stolen from locals. Sadie had heard she was back but hadn’t seen her yet. She’d also heard she was dating Kayden Walker, Eastern’s brother.
