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Faith's eyes volleyed between Luna and myself.
What is she planning?
“Pie and cookies!” My daughter's eyes were as wide as saucers. Her hands immediately folded into prayer. “Please let me go to this sleepover. Faith promised to braid my hair like a princess, Daddy. A princess!”
Alice suffered enough of my fumbling with her hair after watching hours of YouTube videos to no avail. Having someone who could actually braid her hair had her buzzing with excitement.
I looked at Constance and Faith. I'd met Constance a dozen times over the years and while I didn't know her that well, I'd heard plenty from Sebastian. And Faith, for that matter.
I trusted them both implicitly. After I ran a thorough background check the first time I met each of them.
“We will take good care of her,” Faith promised.
“I'll be good, Daddy.” Her sweet face filled with excitement and anticipation. Then she climbed out of her chair and came over to mine, crawling into my lap. “Pleeease. I've never had a girl's night before.”
What a gut punch. My baby girl didn't have a lot of strong women role models and now there were three in this very room. She wanted to spend time with two of them. To be silly and have sweets and stay up way past her bedtime.
I hugged her tightly. “Sure. Just make sure you listen. And if you need to find me at the main house, make sure someone walks you over okay?”
Faith waved her phone. “And we’re just a phone call away.”
Alice flung her arms around me. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Then she ran from the room, probably to get her bag.
Luna crossed her arms. “I'm really not invited to girl's night? That's fucked up.”
“Language,” Constance scolded despite the fact I've heard the woman swear like a sailor. The woman grabbed our plates.
“I can take care of the dishes.” I stopped her, pushing back my chair and lifting the plates from her hands.
Constance patted me on the cheeks. “Thanks, sweetheart. I'm going to set up the house. I never had a daughter; this will be fun.”
She left with a wave and there were only three of us left in the room.
“I should go pack too and then I'll take Alice over when we are both ready,” Faith said with a little finger wave.
Finally, it was just the two of us.
Me and the woman who’d had me buzzing all afternoon.
I didn't even care that Faith had clearly cooked up this girl's night to give me and Luna privacy. I was damn well happy she had.
“This will give us plenty of time to catch up,” I said, breaking the silence.
Luna lifted a brow. “You stuck in the past, Beck Bennet?”
“I'm stuck in thewhat could have beenand making up for lost time.”
Luna shot from her chair, and walked toward me, then leaned against the large marble countertop near where I stood at the farmhouse sink. “You found your solace in Alice's mom. You didn't waste much time.”
I shut off the water so she could hear me clearly. “I will never regret that because it gave me Alice, but trust me when I say she didn't compare to you. No one could even come close to comparing to you and our night together.”
I watched, mesmerized as she swallowed hard.
“Is that so?” she asked
Planting two hands on either side of her, I got up close, the smell of her citrus shampoo marrying with the scent of basil from the bruschetta. “It’s the truth. Maybe if we stopped this stupid bickering long enough, we could actually tell more of the truth.”