Page 90 of My Heart's Doctor

“Alright, thank you,” I said, walking quickly toward the living room.

Aurora was concentrating on coloring a book and didn’t hear me arrive. I stood at the door watching her affectionately; that little one had already taken over my heart.

“How is Princess Aurora doing?”

She lifted her little head and looked at me. A big smile lit up her face and she came running to me as fast as her little legs would allow.

“Devon!”

I took her in my arms and we melted into a tight hug. The little one laughed while I gave her kisses on her chubby cheeks.

“Were you coloring?”

“Yes. Let’s color,” she said, laughing and pushing to make me put her down on the floor.

“First show me what you were doing,” I suggested, to calm her down a bit.

We sat on a couch with her on my lap and she explained what she had colored. I told her she was quite the artist and she laughed, explaining that she had colored the princess blue because it was her favorite color. She also showed me other princesses that were together, telling me they were her and me. We both laughed and she wouldn’t stop talking. Being with Aurora eased my nervousness a little.

“We can go to the table now,” I heard him say from the doorway, and his voice made me shiver again.

I stood up and, holding hands, we headed to the dining room table. Seeing him standing there, watching us seriously, shookmy nerves with a new emotion. As we passed by him, Aurora stretched out her little hand for her father to take it, which he did, and so we walked, the three of us together with Aurora in the middle. I was about to let go of her little hand, but I looked at her and saw her smiling with such happiness that I couldn’t do it. When I looked at William to get an idea of what he thought about this situation, I was surprised because I saw him looking at me naturally, as if this situation were the most normal thing in the world.

When we reached the kitchen, Delia looked at us and, I don’t know if it was her face marked by surprise, but I couldn’t resist anymore and gently let go of Aurora’s hand.

“Hello, Delia; how have you been?” I greeted her.

“Very well, doctor. How are you?”

“Very well. I came to dinner because I promised Aurora,” I said, to make it clear that it was for her and not for her father, although that wasn’t entirely true.

“It’s a pleasure to have you here, you should come more often. But, please sit down so I can serve dinner,” she indicated, and it seemed to me that her comment had been made with a certain playfulness, which made my cheeks blush.

William seated Aurora in her chair and sat beside her. I preferred to sit across from him so that he would be the one taking care of his daughter, but the little boss had other plans.

“I want to be withDevon.”

“You should have dinner next to your father, don’t forget that he missed you very much and it’s been days since you had dinner together,” I explained.

“It’s not a problem,” William said, and he seemed sincere to me.

“For me, it is, because you are her father,” I stated, then I turned to Aurora and added, “If you insist on changing seats, I’ll have to leave because the right thing is for you to sit next to your dad.”

William gave me a beautiful smile that I assumed was one of gratitude, but while we were looking at each other, we heard Aurora’s voice with a comment that left me paralyzed and darkened William’s face.

“And you are my mommy.”

“That’s not true, princess,” I hurried to say, and then added, “We already talked about this and I explained that I’m not your mommy, I’m just a friend who loves you very much,” I said, reminding her what I had told her at my place, because I didn’t want her father to think I had made her believe such nonsense.

“But I want you to be my mommy,” insisted the little demon.

“Devon can’t be your mommy because you have a mommy, she’s not with usbecause she died, but she will always be your mother,” he pointed out, looking at her seriously.

“But I want Divon,” she insisted.

“I love you very much, but I’m not and won’t be your mommy, though that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends and play together.”

Delia was very timely arriving at that moment with another employee to serve us dinner. Aurora didn’t insist on that topic and neither did we say anything more. To avoid having to clarify that issue again, I started talking about what we had done those days, and that got Aurora excited about telling him everything and forgetting about themommytopic. The conversation extended, not only during dinner, but we also spent some time at the table after eating. It was already very late when William decided it was time for his daughter to go to bed and that hewould accompany her. Once again Aurora put me in an awkward situation.