Page 124 of Someone You Deserve

“So, Penn and I wanted to talk to you about something,” she starts, nervousness in her voice.

“Are we in trouble?” Lilly asks.

“No, baby.”

“Did someone die?” Bentley asks and the look on his face almost breaks my heart in two. I imagine the last time Astrid sat him down with something to talk about, it was probably to tell him that his father was never going to come home.

Astrid’s bottom lip trembles, but she holds it together. “No, Bentley. No one died.”

Bentley visibly relaxes. “Okay, then what’s going on?”

I squeeze her hand and take the reins. “Your mom and I are in love,” I say, waiting for a reaction from either one of them. “And we wanted to let you know.”

Wide eyes stare back at me before Lilly exclaims, “Like Anna and Kristoff!”

I search Astrid’s face for help. “Frozen,” she explains simply.

“Uh, yeah. Exactly like that,” I reply, scratching the back of my neck.

Bentley crosses his arms over his chest. “So, are you two like boyfriend and girlfriend now?”

Astrid nods. “We are…Even though those titles sound so juvenile.” She wrinkles her nose as she turns to me. “Am I supposed to call you myboyfriendnow?”

“I guess. Although, I’m not a boy anymore.”

She laughs. “Oh believe me, I know.”

“Are you guys gonna get married?” Lilly asks, leaning forward in her seat. “And is Uncle Penn going to be our new daddy?”

And just like that, reality slams right back into us. “Well…”

Astrid puts her hand on my thigh, letting me know she’s got this one. She turns to her kids and takes in a deep breath. “Look, I know that you both have a lot of questions, but here’s what I want you to know. Uncle Penn will never replace your father, okay?” Bentley nods but Lilly still has hearts in her eyes. “And we want you to know thatthis wasn’t something that just happened. Penn and I care about each other a lot. We’ve been friends for so long, but now we want to be together as more than friends. And we want the four of us to be a family.”

Lilly jumps from the couch and claps her hands. “Then you have to get married!”

“One day, Lilly Bear.” I wink at her and find Astrid staring at me. “What? You act like that’s not where we’re headed.”

She draws in a shaky breath. “I know, but I thought we could discuss you moving in here first before we talked about marriage,” she says, her voice low.

“We can hear you,” Bentley says, alerting us to his presence again. I can’t get a good read on him, and I wish that I could because I’m sure his mind is racing with all sorts of feelings and questions.

Astrid grimaces and turns back to the kids. “Well, we just wanted to know how you two feel about this,” she says as I reach for her hand, waiting on pins and needles. Now that we’re actually talking about this, my confidence in their reaction has diminished.

If Bentley’s not okay with this, will she want to press pause again? Wait until he can accept the truth? Or will his feelings on the matter prevent us from ever moving forward?

“I’m so happy that Uncle Penn is gonna live with us! Then we can have game night every night!” Lilly yells and then races over to her box of art supplies in the corner of the room before we can correct her. “But that means we have to fix something now.” She runs over to the vase sitting by the front door, rips off the sign and scribbles something on it, then tapes it back on. “There.”

As soon as she stands back, I can see the addition she made to the Kisses from Daddy jar—"And Uncle Penn.”

Fuck. I think there’s something inmy eye.

Astrid’s bottom lip trembles again. “I think that’s a great idea, Lilly.”

Lilly turns around and runs over to me, throwing herself into my arms. “I love you, Uncle Penn. And if you love Mommy, then I think that’s awesome.” She stays in my arms as Bentley stands from the couch and walks over to us.

He reaches out his hand to me, waiting for me to shake it. And I do. “I know that you make my mom happy, and you’re already here all the time, so I guess it’s not horrible if you become a part of our family too.”

My lips lift. “Thanks, Bentley.”

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