Atta girl.
And at least Lucy was distracted. That was much better than the quivering bottom lip and woeful eyes he’d imagined.
“That’s because you’re very smart.” Daphne leaned down and pressed a kiss to Lucy’s forehead—and Finn’s heart tumbled into a free fall. Just like that. No warning. No parachute. Just plummeting into some terrifying, wonderful void.
“But is there anyone in your class who might be an expert on the letters and writing and... teaching?”
Finn’s breath squeezed through his throat. Where was this leading?
“Miss Krissy!” Lucy piped up, her previous sadness dissolving.
“Exactly!” Daphne squeezed Lucy’s shoulders. “Miss Krissy is the teacher, so she should know a lot about letters, right?”
“Mm-hmm.” Lucy took a sip from her frosted glass.
“So you can trust Miss Krissy to be an expert with letters, right?”
Lucy nodded. “And she writes very pretty.”
Finn almost grinned.
And from his view of her profile, so did Daphne. “Excellent for a teacher. So, Miss Krissy knows the truth, and she helps you know the truth because she’s an expert on letters,” Daphne continued, brushing a wild curl off Lucy’s forehead with gentle fingers. The feeling in Finn’s chest squeezed tighter.
“Well now, if someone says something unkind aboutyou, then I suppose we need to ask an expert on you to figure out what’s actually true. Right?”
His brain snagged on the question like an epiphany waited just in the shadows of his mind.An expert?
“Does anybody know you best of all?” Daphne asked.
Lucy took a proud sip from what was unmistakably a pink strawberry milkshake—because of course it was—and declared, “Daddy.”
Finn’s eyes burned. He pressed his forehead against the wall, swallowing the knot in his throat.
“That’s right. I bet your daddy knows you better than anybody in the whole world.”
“Mm-hmm, but God.” Her voice grew to show her excitement. “God knows me better than anybody in the whole sky.”
He smiled, eyes closed.That’s my girl.
“Exactly.” Daphne chuckled, her voice filled with a tenderness so familiar it settled in around his heart. Daphne cared like she was meant to belong right there with his little girl. “So if we wanted to ask an expert—like, if you’re pretty or not—who should we trust? Some boy on the bus? Or Daddy?”
“Daddy.” Not even a pause.
Finn’s breath shattered. He pressed a fist to his chest, as if that would keep his heart from coming apart entirely.
“And what would Daddy say about you, Lucy?”
“He finks I’m beautiful.”
That did it.
His heart cracked, expanded. Wanted to keep whatever beauty made this moment so good and right.
Or rather...whomade this moment so good and right.
“And he thinks you’re beautiful all the way through, from the heart out.”
Finn opened his eyes and looked at Daphne. The sun caught her hair, casting a warm halo around her as she sat beside his daughter. She was genuine. Compassionate.
