* * *
Despite the big lunch, Cam brothered me into eating, I felt three stone lighter by the time I left his house. He’d listened, he’d believed me, and he’d still loved me by the end.
“Being a King doesn’t take away the man.”
Wasn’t too sure what he’d meant by that, but I appreciated the sentiment. I appreciatedhim, and I knew how lucky I was to have the friends—the brothers—that I did.
I picked Ivy up from school and spent the car ride home trying to figure out how to explain to her that I had a boyfriend who was coming to live with ustonight,when she’d only ever known me sad, lonely, and single.
You’re still all those things. It isn’t real.
Except the lonely part. That had to take a hit, right?
At home, I put Ivy straight in the bath and spent an hour detangling her hair. Then I discovered a note from her teacher in her book bag.
Mr Greene,
Ivy’s hair has been causing her some discomfort at school. Can we suggest that it’s plaited on PE days. Or perhaps cut a little shorter.
Plaiting hair was one of the few parts of being a girl dad that I’d managed to master. I didn’t have Orla’s deft skill, but I could bang out a decent Dutch braid. I dried Ivy and set her on my knee. “You want the pink bands?”
“Lilac,” she corrected. “I don’t like pink anymore.”
She did. But I wasn’t down for an argument I’d lose. I dug the lilac hairbands from the box beside me and separated her hair into sections.
“Can I have a fishtail braid?”
“A what?”
“A fishtail. Like a mermaid.”
“I don’t know what that is. Hang on...” Mateo had taught me the YouTube trick. I found my phone and tapped in a search. Images of plaits and braids way out of my reach filled the screen. “Ives, these look complicated. You might have to ask Orla.”
“But Daddy, you can do anything.”
“I cantryanything. There’s a difference.”
“Can we try then? Please? I won’t be cross if you can’t do it. That’s what you say about reading.”
Clever little shit. I spent all evening messing with her hair until she had something that made her smile. We had junk food for dinner and then I sat her on the couch with the bag of dolly mixture I’d brought back from the road.
Ivy picked through them, depositing anything she didn’t like the look of into the palm of my hand.
Of course, I ate them. A sugar rush of courage before I opened my fat mouth. “Hey, you know how Rubi and River live together now? And Uncle Cam lives with Saint and Alexei?”
Ivy stuck a sweet on the end of her tongue and wiggled it at me. “That’s because they’re boyfriends. Like Mateo and Embry before they were husbands.”
“That’s right. How would you feel if I had a boyfriend too? One that stayed here sometimes?”
Ivy retracted her tongue and chewed her sweet. “Can it be Rubi?”
“No, he lives with River, remember?”
“Oh. Can’t we just have Saint then? Cam said I can borrow him whenever I want.”
“I don’t think he meant to sleep in my bed, sweetheart. And I don’t think Saint would want to.”
“Who does want to sleep in your bed then?”
