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Energy snapped at the bare contact.
I heaved out a breath, and he angled in closer. “You don’t have to hold it all, Little Warrior.”
A smirk took to the edge of his mouth as he angled back. “Some things are just better when you do them together.”
FORTY-FIVE
KANE
Maci ranacross the lawn ahead of us, searching for the perfect spot for our picnic.
Emery was at my side.
My footsteps were a whole ton slower than typical on account of my stomach being in fucking knots of anxiety and anticipation.
Twisted and tied as I thought of how to tell my little girl that I was her dad. How to make her understand when it hardly made any sense to the rest of us.
But I wasn’t sure that the exact words even mattered. The only thing that did was the amount of love that gushed out of me when Maci turned around when she got to the big shade tree that was about midway between the house and the stream.
Her beaming face lit up beneath the bright sunshine that poured down from the endless expanse of blue above.
But she was the true light.
This joy that had been found in me.
Both she and the woman who seemed every bit as nervous as me. As if we were trudging for desolation rather than the nirvana that we’d achieved.
But I got it.
There was a big, gaping hole cut out in the middle of this paradise. A figure I barely knew but who had been so intrinsic to these two.
Their hearts had to take on a brand-new mold since such a significant piece had been scored out of them.
My little girl jumped up and down, waving her hands overhead as she shouted, “Over here, over here! IfinkI got the very perfect spot.”
“That looks pretty danged good to me,” I hollered back, my pulse speeding erratically as we approached.
She hopped from foot to foot, the child wearing another one of those adorable sundresses, her soft blonde curls done in pigtails that swung around her head. “That’s because I’m extra smart.”
“That’s right, you are,” I told her as I set the basket onto the soft green grasses below then grabbed the edge of the blanket and tossed it out.
It unfurled, and I knelt as it drifted down to the lawn. Maci hopped into action and grabbed the other side to help straighten it.
“And a huge help, too,” I told her. “Wouldn’t have been able to get this blanket down here without you.”
“That’s because we gotta do things together.”
“Yup. Together.”
I glanced up at Emery who wavered at the side.
Wasn’t sure how one person could look so captivated and terrified at the same damned time.
Maci scrambled onto the blanket on her knees. I plopped onto my butt on it and stretched a hand toward Emery. “Come on, lovie dove.”
Redness streaked all over that pretty face, and she hesitated for only a beat before she dropped to her knees, teeth gnawing at that bottom lip as she inched forward until she was in the middle with us.
Maci grabbed either side of Emery’s face and screeched, “It’s picnic time!”