Page 166 of Rule Breakers Fall Hardest

“Rosie, the way I reacted…” He lowers his head in shame. “It was reprehensible. I was hurt. You’re my little girl, and this wasn’t how any of this was supposed to go. But my pain didn’t give me the right to hurt you in turn.”

His speech sounds rehearsed to me, but I’m not going to call him out on it.

“We’ve always been close,” he goes on when it becomes obvious Rosie isn’t going to respond, “and it’s been awful not talking to you.”

Not awful enough to apologize until now.

Again, Rosie says nothing. Chandler tugs at his collar, the corners of his mouth turned down in unease.

Sammy crawls over, using my leg to get into a standing position.

“Rosie, I?—”

“Dada.”

My heart stops, and I dart a look at Rosie. “Did he say?—”

Her smile is so bright it hurts to look at. “He did.”

Ignoring the man in front of us, I scoop my son into my arms. “Say itagain,” I beg.

I’m aware that begging a baby to say a word again is futile, but I can’t help it.

Sammy smacks his open hand against my cheek. “Da.” Another smack. “Da.”

Fuck. I’m going to cry.

“Dada,” he says again.

My heart lurches, and my chest aches in the most perfect way. “That’s right. I’m Dada. And who’s this?” I point at Rosie. We’ve been working on getting him to say Ro-Ro.

Sammy claps and lunges for her. “Mama.”

I freeze, and at the same time, the color drains from Rosie’s face. Her eyes are comically large when she asks, “Did he call me Mama?”

I let out an uneasy breath, not sure how she’s going to feel about it. “He did.”

“Mama,” he says again, opening and closing his hands. His bottom lip begins to tremble when she doesn’t take him.

Shit, Maybe she’s upset. We’ve been careful not to refer to her as that—not wanting to be disrespectful to Danielle’s memory—but so many of the books we read to him reference mother figures. Apparently he’s picked up on it and decided she’s supposed to be Mama.

Tears pool in Rosie’s eyes, and she finally snaps into action. With shaky hands, she takes him from me and holds him close, kissing his cheeks. “Sweet boy,” she says.

Rubbing the back of her neck, I ask, “Are you okay? Is it okay?”

She nods, the motion causing a few tears to slip down her cheeks. “It’s okay. I don’t… we’ll always make sure he knows about his mom, but I’m okay with whatever he wants to call me now and whatever he decides to call me in the future.”

I lean in, kissing her. God damn, how did I get so fucking lucky?

Chandler watches the entire exchange, not saying a word. In fact I kind of forgot he was there until he clears his throat.

“You two… you’re really in love.”

I chuckle and press a kiss to the side of Rosie’s head. “I tried to tell you, sir. It’s why we couldn’t wait to get married.”

A laugh bursts out of Rosie, because that’snotthe reason, but what her dad doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

Chandler rubs his hands against his pants. “I just wanted to come here in person and apologize. I know it doesn’t erase how I behaved, but I felt like it was better to come here and see you than to call. So…” He stands slowly, like his joints hurt. “I’ll head out and leave you to it.”

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