Page 238

Because of it, I always was a little antsy while he was away.
At least I had Maci to keep me entertained since she hadn’t stopped talking about her first tumbling class she’d had yesterday.
“Did you and my daddy even see me?” she prattled, her little bodyturned sideways as she grinned up at me, her chubby, adorable hand on the railing as we ascended.
Amusement tugged on my chest. “We absolutely saw you, and we almost couldn’t believe it. You were doing flips all over the place.”
Kane and I had sat in the parents’ section and watched through a big window. He’d claimed her a natural, even though she’d fallen more than she’d landed on her feet.
“Big ones, too!” she enthused.
“Oh, yeah, they were definitely big.”
“And guess what, Auntie Em?”
“What?”
She lowered her voice like it was a secret. “I even get to learn how to do a backfwip.”
“Whoa. Are you sure you’re ready for that?”
We hit the top landing, and her sweet smile filled my periphery as she beamed my way. “I’m ready for anything, Auntie. My mommy told me that’s the way we gotta live. Takin’evwyopportunity we got.”
Joy pressed down fiercely on my heart. It shouldn’t be real. That I could feel this way. But it was there. A warm glow that surrounded me.
I could almost feel my sister’s presence. Like if she couldn’t be here, this would be exactly the way she would have wanted it.
As if maybe she’d somehow set me on this course on purpose.
Kane’s grin flashed behind my eyes. That gorgeous face and those big hands and his beautiful heart.
I was still having a hard time understanding how I’d found myself in this place.
Trusting.
Giving.
For so long I’d believed I would forever live hiding from my ghosts.
But he’d brought me out of it. Out of the darkness and into the light.
I balanced the laundry basket on my hip as Maci darted ahead of me into her room. “Here, Auntie, I’ll help you.”
She tore open the bottom drawer of her dresser where we kept all her sundresses.
“You really are a big help,” I told her as I knelt so I could place the folded stack into the drawer.
She shrugged a tiny shoulder. “That’s what my daddy tells me.”
I tucked the stack of dresses into the drawer then leaned down so I could press a kiss to the crown of her head. “Your daddy loves you, doesn’t he?”
“He told me he’s got two very most favorites…” She lifted two fingers in the air. “That’s me and you! I think that’s a special spot, and my daddy’s got a really special spot right here.”
She touched the spot over her precious heart, and mine basically melted.
“I love you so much, Angel Face,” I said, trying to keep the soggy emotion out of my voice as I whispered it.
“As many as all the stars,” she mumbled, then she hopped up and moved to where she’d left her dolls scattered on the floor, her sweet imagination carrying her away in an instant.