I blink at him. “You what?”
“Go big or go home, Hart.” He shrugs, like dropping a stupid amount of money on a toy is no big deal. “Ellie Bean deserves the best.”
My throat goes tight. “Felix?—”
“Don’t give me grief unless you want to talk about how I caught you watching me chop wood earlier.”
My face flames. “I was reading.”
“You were drooling.”
“I was not?—”
“Practically panting.”
“Oh my God, you’re impossible.” But it’s true, and we both know it.
“Impossible to resist?” He waggles his eyebrows in the most ridiculous way.
I throw a plastic carrot at his head. He laughs and catches it one-handed, and a warmth unfurls in my chest that feels strangely like happiness.
Ellie chooses that moment to toddle over to her new kitchen,running her hands over the tiny oven door with reverence. “Mine?”
“All yours, Bean,” Felix says softly.
She looks up at him with pure adoration, then at me, and it’s like the three of us are doing more than playing at being a family. Like this could be real if we wanted it to be.
But Felix is trying to find Ellie a “real family” because he’s convinced he’s not father material. And I’m carrying his baby, a secret that grows heavier with each passing day. Each sweet domestic moment makes me stupidly hope that just maybe he could want this, too.
“Pi hungy?” Ellie asks, holding up a tiny pan in my direction.
“Yeah, sweetie. I’m so hungry.”
She beams and immediately sets to work “making dinner,” chattering away in her toddler language.
Felix and I clean up the packaging in silence, but I’m hyper-aware of his big presence, all that heat and strength. When we finish, he straightens and looks at me with an intensity that makes my breath catch.
“Piper—”
“Fee! Fee!” Ellie interrupts, holding up a play hamburger. “Eat!”
He shakes his head as he studies me for another long moment before turning to crouch down next to Ellie. As he marvels over how yummy her dinner is, I escape to the kitchen, my heart racing.
This whole situation was supposed to be simple. A month of helping with Ellie, figuring out what kind of father Felix could be, then telling him about the baby and dealing with whatever came next.
But I’m quickly discovering that nothing about Felix Barlowe is simple, and I realize I’m not just evaluating him as a potential co-parent.
I’m falling for him.
And I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do about it.
7
FELIX
Two daysafter setting up Ellie’s dream kitchen, I come pounding down the trail and into the clearing behind the cabin, lungs burning like I’ve just sprinted up Mount Doom with Frodo in my arms.
I double over, palms on my knees, pulling in sharp gulps of air and praying my legs don’t give out underneath me. High altitude training: the gift that keeps on punishing.
