Finn shoved his mobile back into his pocket and scowled at the barren apartment, as if staring it down might magically summon the missing moving truck. After a week in a hotel, waiting for their personal belongings to arrive from the UK, the moving company had promised delivery today.
But with one delay after another, they’d finally moved delivery to first thing the following morning.
So here they were in their apartment above the pub.
No furniture. No extra clothes. No towels.
A small disaster in the grand scheme of things, but still... frustrating.
He could’ve booked another night at the hotel, but the moving company had promised—promised—they’d be here at seven a.m., and Lucy had been so excited to sleep in her new home. He could endure one night of discomfort if it meant letting her settle in.
And it was only for one night.
A sweet humming drifted through the empty space, pulling his attention away from the movers’ latest apologetic text. Lucy patted her plush unicorn and green dragon into the pink folds of the sleeping bag he’d procured from the local hardware store, as if sleeping in the middle of their empty living room wasn’t unexpected at all.
A delayed moving truck failed to tip her happy disposition.
The tension in his face relaxed, and he sighed. Oh, she gave him perspective. She’d spent her whole life doing that without even trying.
A childhood full of surgeries, an absent mother, and a scar that had rewritten her smile—Lucy had faced it all with more grace than most adults. And though another operation loomed in the future, she never let it dim her joy. She’d become one of the best teachers on optimism, gratitude, and perseverance in his life.
Clearing his throat, he stepped toward her. “Are your animals ready for bed, lamb?”
Lucy beamed up at him, loose dark hair tumbling in soft waves from a day wearing plaits. “Dey like to camp on de floor, Daddy. It’s an adventure.”
An adventure? He scanned the empty room and shrugged a shoulder in acceptance. The past week had certainly been an adventure. “It is.” He crouched to her side, his voice dropping to a whisper. “I wonder what will be next? A rescue? A battle?”
And his thoughts immediately shifted to Daphne Austen.Battleseemed an appropriate word when in reference to her. A fun sort of sparring, because she not only was easy to irritate but rose to eachoccasion with a quick wit he couldn’t help admire. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed such easy and fun conversations with a woman. And despite her glares, he had a sneaky suspicion she enjoyed the banter too.
Or, at least, as she’d confessed, found some inspiration in it.
His lips twitched. Then the memory of replacing her sugar bowl with salt, only to have the prank misfire on a customer, nearly wiped off his grin.
As a small business owner himself, he’d never want to damage her reputation or business, so her private messaging with him helped allay a little of his concern. But he’d take a chance to apologize again, in person.
His shoulders almost sank. That’s all he seemed to do with Daphne.
Apologize.
And verbally spar.
His grin almost resurrected. Sounded like a fitting relationship.
Well, and flirt a little. Because she was long overdue for some solid flirting.
The squeeze of her pink lips and tension in her brow proved an almost overwhelming temptation to soften her features, if nothing else, to see if he could.
And then he gave his head a shake.
No, Finn! No romance. Especially not with someone who... well, with her.
She was the type of woman who slid beneath a man’s skin.
Who promised something wholesome and as fairy-tale-ish as one of Lucy’s children’s books.
Lucy’s eyes widened, sparkling in the glow from the lamp he’d purchased from the hardware store as well. “A sleeping princess,” she whispered back.
“But we already have a princess in this house, lamb.” He kissed her head and gestured toward her plush toys, to keep the conversationsafely redirected from any talk of other princesses in their lives. “Posie and Dragon seem at home in these royal quarters, don’t they?”
