“Little much, Dad.”Annie eyed the tray of s’mores ingredients he’d put together for their night. “Don’t you think?”
“I think Emmaline is going to take some convincing.” He broke up another bar of Valrhona French chocolate to set beside the charcuterie of marshmallows, gluten-free graham crackers, and the Belgian chocolate Fiona preferred. “Did you and Fiona finish up over by the pit?”
Annie gave a teenage grunt of affirmative as a response.
Given he was nervous as all hell, he didn’t push it.
“You wore your bracelet?” She had the bracelet with her name on her wrist.
The girls used to wear their friendship/family bracelets always, but time passed, and now they only pulled them out on special occasions.
She made anuh-duhsound.
Do not push.
He didn’t push, but he went in for a hug. “Thanks, love.”
“Don’t make it a thing,” she said this, but she still squeezed him.
Annie had grown quite a bit in the last few years, both physically from a girl into the start of a woman, and emotionally, too. She’d spent a lot of time working through everything with her past. There was a whole airport full of baggage there, but she’d done the work to unpack it. Honestly, he had baggage, too, and she helped him learn to unpack it, as well.
Annie adored Emmaline and, in return, Em adored her right back.
He loved Fiona like she was his own daughter, too. Happy to be the one who got to show her how a bloke should treat her mum.
He shook out his hands and did a little boxer bounce. He had this.
He had to remember that tonight, no matter what happened, they were a family. That wouldn’t change.
“You can stop freaking out now, Dad.” Annie rolled her eyes in the way she’d gotten so good at recently.
“I’ll stop when it’s over.” After she’d given her answer. A woman who let a bloke redesign her entire kitchen for his own personal playground would not say no.
Even if she hated weddings. Right?
It didn’t even have to be a big thing. They could pop over to the courthouse and leave with the same last name. Figuratively. She didn’t have to take his name. In fact, he wouldn’t expect or even ask her to take his last name. Not when Emmaline Eaton’s name was about to be on the cover of so many children’s books it made his head spin.
She’d become something of a celeb in her own right within the children’s book publishing world. It helped he talked about her and her books all the bloody time whenever he was on the telly.
They’d had a lot of adjusting to do, but they’d done it as a team.
“Are we going to eat first? Or go right for the s’mores?” Fiona took the stairs two at a time on her way down.
Her mum hated when she did that. Always worried she’d end up in the Emergency Room with a broken arm.
That only seemed to encourage Fiona to do it more often.
Like Annie, Fiona had also grown into a top-notch human. She also wore her bracelet.
Fiona inherited her mother’s creative side and took as many art classes as she could. He’d met Tony, her dad, and quickly realized she’d inherited his height. Because the girl already towered over her mom and Annie.
She had more to go to top him.
“I vote food.” Fiona raised her hand and headed to the oven. “I’m starving.”
“We have to wait to see if Emmaline ate at the airport.” He forced himself to stop fiddling with the tray.
“She ate in Phoenix.” Annie held up the screen of her mobile.
