“You are,” I agree.Better than me at staying inside the lines,I think grimly.
She grins, then frowns at the phone in my hand.“Is Ethan coming to dinner tonight?”
The casual way she asks nearly knocks the wind out of me.Kids notice more than you think.“Yes, sweetheart.He is coming to dinner.”
Her little nose wrinkles.“He’s nice.”
That’s Ivy’s polite way of sayingboring.She likes Ethan well enough, he builds Lego castles with her, let’s her climb all over him like he’s a damn jungle gym, and always remembers her favorite ice cream flavor.But even at five, she already knows the difference between someone who makes the air feel alive and someone who just ...fills space.
I smooth her curls back and smile anyway.“Nice is good.”
“Yeah,” she says with a sigh that makes her sound far older than her years.“But he doesn’t make you laugh like Uncle Luke does.”
I bark out a laugh despite myself.Trust Ivy to cut through every pretense.“You’re too smart for your own good.”
She giggles and skips back to her crayons.
I watch her, my chest aching in that familiar way it always does when I catch flashes of him in her—the storm-gray eyes, the stubborn tilt of her chin, the way she lights up a room just by being in it.She is Maverick’s daughter through and through, even if he doesn’t know it.Even if he never will.
I turn away before the thought hollows me out further.
****
Dinner is easy as theway life with Ethan always is.He takes us to a family restaurant in the next town over, where everyone knows his name and the waitress already has his drink order memorized.Ivy chatters about her day, her hands flying as she described every detail of her art project, and Ethan listens with that patient smile of his, nodding at all the right places.
He holds my hand across the table, his thumb brushing over my knuckles, warm and steady.
“Are you okay?”he asks softly, when Ivy is distracted by her fries.
I blink at him.“Of course.Why?”
“You seem distracted.”
I force a smile.“Just work.”
It isn’t entirely a lie.House of Ink has become a bigger part of my life than I ever expected.Photographing their art, running shoots for Skye’s social media campaigns, helping capture the energy that made the shop what it was, and I love it.It is creative, messy, and alive.
But now, it is dangerous.Because Maverick is there.
I tighten my grip on Ethan’s hand.Safe.Stable.Normal.That’s what I need to remember.But even as I smile and nod, even as I let him walk me and Ivy to the door, even as I let him kiss my cheek in a way that is sweet and respectful and everything a man should be, my mind betrays me.
All I could see was Maverick.The way his eyes locked on mine, like no time had passed.The way my pulse had betrayed me, hammering out the truth I didn’t want to face.
And when Ivy curls against me later in bed, her sleepy voice whispering, “Mommy, do I have a daddy somewhere?”My heart splits clean in two.
I smooth her hair, kiss her forehead, and whisper, “You have me.That’s all you need.”
But the lie tastes bitter on my tongue.Because the man with her eyes, the man who doesn’t even know she exists, is back in Franklinton.Back in my life whether I want him there or not.
Fate is just getting started.
