Page 59 of Freefall

Now his gray eyes roam around the room, taking in everything. The dried coffee rings staining the kitchen table. Daisy’s half-drawn illustrations spread across the counter. If he’s offended by any of it, he doesn’t say anything.

Instead, he nods toward the bakery bag. “I didn’t know what she liked, so I grabbed a little of everything.” He picks up one of the coffees and offers it to me. “You still like milk and sugar with a splash of coffee?”

A laugh escapes before I can stop it. “Yeah.”

I reach for the cup, our fingers brushing as I take it. It’s barely a touch, yet my pulse reacts like he’s pinned me against the counter.

Before I can recover, footsteps thunder down the hallway.

“Mommy? What’s for break⁠—”

Daisy skids to a stop as she reaches the kitchen, her miniature stormy blues locking onto Nate’s before sliding over to the white bag. “What’s that?”

Nate nervously fidgets with his watch like he’s bracing for something he can’t control. “Breakfast,” he says softly.

Daisy’s face lights up. “For me?”

He hesitates for a moment and looks to me, not for permission exactly, but more to make sure we’re on the same page. I give him a small nod.

“Yeah,” he finally says. “It’s for you.”

She doesn’t need to be told twice. The bag is unceremoniously ripped open, paper crinkling loudly as she digs through it.

“Mommy! There’s donuts and muffins and…is that a croissant?”

I poke my head into the bag. “Yes, I believe it is.”

She grins like she’s discovered buried treasure and immediately starts building a breakfast buffet across the counter. I take a sip of my coffee, exactly the way I like it, because of course it is.

“Thanks, Nate,” Daisy says around a mouthful of chocolate chip muffin.

“You’re welcome.” He glances at his watch. “We should get you to school. I don’t want you to be late.”

Daisy bursts into the kind of giggles that could only come from a little girl.

He looks between the two of us. “What?”

She points at me with half a muffin. “Mommy’s always late.”

“Daisy…” I warn.

“What? It’s true.” She turns back to Nate. “We usually get to school when the second bell rings, but it’s okay because they only make you get a late pass if you’re like… really, really late.”

I close my eyes, taking a deep breath through my nose. When I open them, the little blue-eyed traitor is happily chomping away on her second muffin. And Nate? He looks furious. His eyes narrow into thin slits, and the hand that isn’t holding his coffee twitches.

“I see” is all he says.

Ten minutes later, we’re all buckled into Nate’s Range Rover. My heart nearly fell out of my chest when I realized that sometime between dropping me off last night and showing up at my door this morning with coffee and breakfast, he also managed to buy a booster seat for Daisy. Not a cheap one, either. A nice one that fits her perfectly.

The drive to school is relatively quiet, other than Daisy’s excited comments about how nice Nate’s car smells and how the doors don’t even get stuck. I swear this girl is getting me into deeper trouble by the second. I catch Nate’s eyes narrowing at that last one. A few minutes later, she gasps. “It even tells you when another car is next to you!”

That gets a small smile from him.

“And the heat works!”

Every innocent observation feels like another tiny betrayal.

By the time we pull into the school parking lot, I want the earth to open up and swallow me whole. Nate parks beside my Jeep, and the three of us walk to the curb.