Page 97 of Forbidden Flame

“A hover board? Are those a thing?” Cole asked me.

“I guess so.” Personally, I had no intention of buying her a hover board. It looked like she could fall off one fairly easily.

Izzy pouted. “Everyone has them.”

“Well, then,” Cole began. “Does that mean you have to have one too?”

“Duh,” Izzy said.

“We don’t say duh. It’s rude,” I admonished.

Izzy’s shoulders stiffened at my reprimand.

Cole patted her shoulder. “Listen to your mother. She wants the best for you.”

Izzy raised her brow at him but didn’t respond.

I liked how he supported me in front of her. Previously, he’d deferred to me in situations where she was misbehaving or being grumpy. I wanted him to take a more active role in discipline. If we were going to have a future together, he might be the only father she’d ever know.

The thought of that didn’t hurt as much as it had in the past. Probably because she had Cole, and he was a million times better than her real dad.

When it was Izzy’s turn, Santa gestured for her to sit on his lap, and I took a few pictures. I wanted to memorialize all these small moments.

While Santa talked to Izzy, presumably about her wish list for Christmas, Cole leaned in to ask, “Do you talk to her father?”

“I call him occasionally just to satisfy my curiosity. It’s hard to believe he truly wants nothing to do with her. He visited once when she was a baby with his parents. They were distant, cold. Wouldn’t hold her.”

Cole’s expression was incredulous.

“I couldn’t believe it either. I think it’s easier for him if he doesn’t see her, if he forgets she exists, that she’s not a person who needs love.”

Cole shook his head. “It’s easier to walk away from her.”

I nodded miserably. “Exactly.”

“That’s fucked up,” Cole said, and I didn’t even flinch at his words.

“If I think about it too much, it’s crushing. But he’s made his choices, and they have nothing to do with me or her, for that matter.” I nodded toward Izzy, who’d climbed off Santa’s lap and accepted a candy cane from the elf.

Another elf led us over to a screen where we could see the official picture. Cole insisted on paying for a fancy resin frame with Santa and presents on it. Izzy held the wrapped frame tight to her chest.

“Did you ask for the hover board?” I asked, hoping she’d changed her mind.

She nodded. “I asked for that and a daddy.”

My heart skipped a beat, and I caught Cole’s panicked gaze over her head.

Her lower lip stuck out. “All the other kids in school have a dad, and I want one too.”

I stopped and pulled her to a bench where I sat down with her. “Sweetie, you have a daddy. Remember, I told you he’s busy with work. He’s studying to be a surgeon, and it’s a lot of schooling.”

Her face screwed up. “Why haven’t I met him?”

My heart was cracking in two. “He visited you when you were a baby.”

Her nose scrunched. “I don’t remember.”

I brushed her hair back from her face. “You wouldn’t. You were too young.”

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