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"mommy told a lie!I'm taller than that " she giggled

I embraced her warmly, placing a kiss on the side of her head, her stomach grumbled aloud, we both laughed and made our way to the kitchen

*

*

I bathed Hazel and tucked her into bed, as quick as a light she fell into a peaceful sleep, I guess all her activeness during the day were finally taking their due.

It was still quite early, I decided to have a little snack before going to bed when I heard a soft knock on the door, I made my way towards it and pulled it open.

It was Shawn , I invited him in to take a sit and entered the kitchen to make coffee.I returned back about five minutes later and handed him a mug which he accepted with a grateful smile.

"Well you know how my grandmother is, she wanted me to come check up on you, she dotes on you a lot, even I get jealous sometimes "

I laughed slightly at that and waved off his words

" You look tired " he stated taking a sip from his mug.

"Well I uh was about to go to bed, you know how Hazel is like, making dinner with her is like dealing with World War II " I stated chuckling at the thought

"How about I take you and Hazel out for dinner tomorrow night instead?" he offered

To me right now he was a friend I could count on when I need him, but asides that there was nothing else.

I knew he wanted more but unfortunately I won't be able to give that to him, I wasn't ready for that, not sure I ever would with anyone, not just him.

I didn't want to give him any heads up about anything so I decided to turn him down as kindly as I could

"um actually I..."

"Enough with it, I don't want you to rack off your brains thinking of another excuse why you won't allow me accompany you guys."

I didn't try to refute that, it was the plain truth anyway, although he tried to act casual about it I could still hear the twinge of disappointment in his voice.

We both sat silence for a while before he decided to break it.

"is it about her father?"

His question took me by absolute surprise ,my gaze snapped up to meet his immediately I wondered where that had came from so out of the blue.

"What?"

He gave a light casual shrug but I felt anything but casualty in this moment.

"I mean you haven't mentioned anything about your family ever since you came here nor about Hazel's father...."

I tensed up at his last words , I met his gaze as I straightened to my feet

"What are you talking about?Hazel is just my daughter, she doesn't have a father or any other family, all she has is me"i said then lowered my voice when I realized it had gone a little too loud.

I always get defensive and jumpy whenever they talked about Hayden , no doubt he was Hazel's father but I've always tried to convince myself that we were very far away and safe from him, when anyone asked about him it always made me feel like he's not as far away from us as I think .

The only thing I wanted most in life was to be able to protect my daughter from any danger, and Hayden was dangerous written in broad letters.

"Can we just drop this?please?" I added shooting him a pleading look plunging back on my seat.

He stared at me for some time before nodding in agreement, after some moments our conversation returned to normal.