“Just like you learned how to braid her hair.”
He scoffed. “Yeah, I’m not sure how good YouTube videos are at teaching you how to tell your daughter the facts of life, how to empathize with her when she has her period. How to help her through the emotional roller coaster of dating when all you want to do is fight off any guy who comes within a hundred feet of her.”
Olivia smiled. “You’ll read up on single-parenting a daughter, get advice from her grandmothers. And when it comes to boyfriends, you can give her the male perspective. God knows, I wish I’d had that when I was growing up.”
He held her gaze. “But you won’t be around to help?” The words were out before he could censor them. She went rigid beside him, and the bottom fell out of his stomach. “Sorry. Wrong time, wrong place.”Wrong fucking question.
She glanced away and for a long, heavy moment there was silence. When she finally turned those hazel eyes back to his, they shimmered with emotion. “If you’d asked me a few months ago I’d have reminded you that I didn’t want a relationship, never mind a family. Now...” She swallowed. “Here I am, playing at being happy families with this young guy who was only ever meant to be a fling.” Her voice wavered on the last word and she inhaled sharply. “Everything I thought I knew about myself has been turned on its head.”
“Dad, we did it!”
Ellie’s breathless voice interrupted the moment, something he figured they were both grateful for. “Well done, Turnip. Knew you girls were too smart for that game.” He gave Olivia’s hand a quick squeeze, then threw his arms around his daughter. “Are you ready for something to eat?”
“Yesssssss!” She grinned up at him. “Did you do pizza pinwheels?”
“Of course. You’ve got some pepperoni, and some tomato and mozzarella.”
She clapped her hands. “You’re the best.”
Coming so soon after the conversation with Olivia, he felt a sting at the back of his eyelids. Ellie was happy, and it was time he took some of that credit. “You guys go in and wash your hands. We’ll bring the food in.”
He couldn’t resist a smile as Ellie shouted over to Emily, “Dad makes awesome pizza pinwheels. Wait till you try them!”
Olivia glanced at him. “Awesome, huh?”
“You know it.” Grateful for the release of tension, he clasped her hand. “Come and help me chop carrots and peppers. Can’t have Emily telling her mum all she had to eat was pizza.”
He led her into the kitchen and gave her a knife, a chopping board, and a washed and peeled carrot.
She looked at it like it was going to rear up and bite her. “I’m not good at this.”
“It’s cutting a carrot into sticks. Not brain surgery.”
He watched as she tentatively grabbed the offending vegetable. Then nearly sliced her finger off as she brought down the knife.
“On second thought, I’ll do it.” He took the knife from her and eased her out of the way. “I prefer you with ten fingers.”
“Told you I was useless.”
He wasn’t going to lie, it felt good to flaunt his knife skills in front of someone who was so competent at pretty much everything else.
“Show off,” she grumbled as she watched him slice.
He grinned. “Give me a spreadsheet and I’ll weep. Give me some vegetables to chop and I’m a king.” He nodded to the oven. “If you can take the pizza pinwheels out of the oven without burning yourself, we can see how awesome they are.”
She rolled her eyes but grabbed an oven glove. “I presume, as you’re such a king in the kitchen, that you showed Aaron your menu ideas?”
He blew out a breath. That was one way to wipe the smug from his face. “I’ve not seen him. Pat says he’d been on holiday.” He fished in the cupboard for a bowl to put the veggies in. Also so she couldn’t see his face. “I did email them over to him, but I’ve not had a reply.”
“When did you send them?”
He focused on sliding the sliced carrots and peppers into the bowl. “End of last week.”
He felt an arm circle his waist. “I suspect he’s waiting to see you in person to tell you how great they were.”
“Yeah.” He swallowed down the emotion, the fear. “So how are the pinwheels?”
She kissed his cheek. “Awesome.”
