Page 109 of Sugar Baby Mine

I circle my hands over her wrists, smoothing my fingers along her palms. She pulls her gaze up from the stone pavers beneath our feet. But she’s staring into the patch of flowers now, and I can tell from the glazed look in her eyes that her thoughts are jumping from one thing to another faster than I can parse out.

“Would you still love me if I was a caterpillar?” she asks after a moment.

I bring a hand up to her chin, tipping her face up as I tuck her phone back in my pocket. “How is this any different than when you asked if I would love you if you were a worm?”

Her nose scrunches up, adorably so, and the strong set of her gaze narrows in on me. She reaches up and grabs my chin between her fingers until we’re mirroring each other. Then she turns my head to the patch of flowers.

“There’s a fuzzy yellow caterpillar on that purple flower.”

“Where?”

“There.”

“What? Where?”

“Rightthere.” She shakes me with a jostle of her arm, otherhand pointing in front of us.

“Oh,” I drawl when I finally find the chubby, yellow caterpillar. She drops my chin and I do the same to her as we both watch the caterpillar inch its way toward the flower stem.

“It looks like it’s wearing a sweater.” Emmeline crouches down to get a better look.

“Don’t touch it.” I frown when she reaches her hand out. “Sweet and cute can be deceptively dangerous.”

“Like me?” She grins up at me.

“Yes, like you.”

“So?”

“So what?”

“Would you love me if I was a caterpillar?”

“I will love you always, in this life and the next. But please God, make me a caterpillar as well.” I mutter the last bit as I roll my eyes up to the domed glass roof, my plea to whatever higher being that may be out there listening.

“I can still hear you, jerk,” she says, snapping back up with her hands on her hips. She narrows her eyes at me. “But I guess I’ll take that as an acceptable answer.”

“Come on.” I point my chin over her shoulder. “Let’s finish walking through the collection.”

“Oh, can we see the orchid display?”

“Of course.”

“Oh, I can’twait. Orchids are so elusive to me, it’s the one plant I’ve never been able to keep alive.”

I snort. “It’s funny you think that the calathea you brought with you is still alive.”

She paws at my chest, her nose scrunching up. “It wasfineuntil Pebbles peed on it. You said he might try and eat it, but I wasn’t expectingthat.”

“Lies.” I shake my head. “Let’s get going.”

When we get back home, Emme tosses the brown paper bag filled with penny candy from the sweets shop on the kitchen counter before digging through every cabinet.

I tap on the cabinet door on the island, right beneath where I’ve got a label that spells out what’s inside just for her. She still forgets to look sometimes. “Right here.”

She sets back on her heels and closes the upper cabinet she was looking through before coming over to me. She pulls out a bright blue bowl, which we’ve deemed her snacking bowl, and pours the candy from the bag into it. Individual selections from the candy store downtown, one piece of this, one piece of that. Anything that appeases her senses.

I pull out one of the blue raspberry Tootsie Frooties and twist the wrapper off.

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