“Cassie!” Kellie chided.
“Sorry, Mom.”
“It’s fine,” I told them. Hell, right now Cassie could set the whole place on fire, and I still wouldn’t give a shit. She called me Dad. Nothing else mattered.
“Is this Mom’s room?” she asked.
“Mom’s and mine,” I confirmed, taking Kellie’s hand, lacing her fingers with mine. “Is that okay?” I whispered into Kellie’s ear.
“It’s perfect,” Kellie confirmed with a smile.
“Where are the toys?” Cassie asked innocently, but my mind was absolutely not innocent. There was nothing at all innocent about the images that flashed through my head, and as if reading my mind, Kellie elbowed me in the side.
“Behave,” she warned, although the pink on her cheeks confirmed her thoughts weren’t exactly child-friendly either. An interesting development and one I’d be tucking away in the good-to-know-revisit-later file.
“Can we go see the chickens now?”
Kid had the attention span of a goldfish.
“The chickens?” Kellie asked. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one caught off-guard. “We came out here to spend time with Jake.”
“We are, but can’t we see the chickens too?” Cassie whined as she stared up at me with huge, pleading eyes. Eyes I would have to fortify myself against, or I might end up buying this girl a pony before dinner.
“How about we get your things out of the car, and then we can ask Jake what he has planned for us?”
In response, Cassie rolled her eyes so dramatically, I swear she saw her own brain. Life with her in it was never going to be boring, that I was sure of, but God help me when she became a teenager. If she was this sassy and stubborn at three I wasn’t sure I’d be able to survive when she hit fourteen.
After unpacking their stuff, Cassie was in her room putting away her toys when I managed to corner Kellie in the kitchen.
“You heard it, didn’t you?” I asked, not even a bit embarrassed by my neediness.
“I did.”
“Did you know?”
“No, Jake, I didn’t.”
“Are you worried?”
I felt like I was holding my breath waiting for her to answer.
“Yes and no.”
“Yes and no?”
“No, I’m not worried that she knows you’re her dad. You’re a great guy, Jake, and she’s lucky to have you. I know you’re going to be an amazing dad to our baby girl, even if you do go a little overboard sometimes.”
“I have some making up to do,” I countered.
“You don’t. But I understand.”
“And the yes?”
“The yes was more about you.”
“Keep going,” I encouraged.
“I wasn’t sure you were ready for her to call you Dad, and it came out of the blue. Are you okay with all of this? I mean, two months ago you had your bachelor life and could do whatever you wanted. Now you have a daughter, and you spent your week painting your spare room purple.”
