“I wonder what he looks like,” she mumbles, clutching her dress in her tiny fists, and I realize belatedly that she’s nervous.
“Daddy’s going to love you,” I promise her, and I pray their first interaction will go off without a hitch.
The guard watching Luca steps out of the room when I arrive. It’s one of the perks of still being part of the police department, I guess.
Luca smiles brightly as I walk in, and when Rosa walks in after me his eyes widen as he looks down at her. His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows hard.
“Hey there, pretty girl,” he murmurs, and Rosa shyly hides her face behind my legs.
“Don’t be shy now,” I tell her, and she smiles and walks up closer, slowly putting her hand on his.
He freezes, looking at her like she’s a cornered animal, then she leans up and kisses his hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, Daddy,” she says in the smallest voice, smiling at him, and he squeezes his eyes shut and then opens them again. Rosa frowns. “No cryin’, okay?”
“No crying,” he says hoarsely and blinks his wet green eyes rapidly.
“See my princess dress?” she asks, twirling around.
“I do. My princess looks so beautiful.”
She giggles. “I not a princess.”
He frowns. “Yes, you are. You’re our little princesses. And you want to know a secret?’
“Yes,” she breathes, and I can’t help but chuckle at her exuberance, fighting tears myself.
“Princesses get anything they want.”
“Not anything,” I complain.
Rosa’s eyes sparkle. “Even cake for breakfast.”
“No,” I start, but Luca cuts me off.
“Especially cake for breakfast.”
I roll my eyes, but I can’t stop smiling. He’s good with her. Better than I would have expected. An hour later, she’s coloring his fingernails in with marker and he looks down at her as if she hung the moon.
Another hour later and she’s down for her nap, curled against him with her thumb in her mouth.
He watches her like she’s something rare, something precious.
I brush her dark hair from her face.
“I can’t get her to stop sucking her thumb.”
“She’ll grow out of it.”
“What if she doesn’t?”
“She will,” he says confidently. “She’s just a baby, let her suck her thumb.”
“You’d let her get away with murder.”
He looks up at me. “And what about it?”
I laugh. “You can’t give her everything all the time.”
