Page 50 of Accidental Fiancé

“I see. Well, do you mind if I want to read to you?”Please, kid, I need a win today.

“Okay.”

I scanned through her books and picked one of my old favorites—The Cat in the Hat. She was asleep before Thing 1 and Thing 2 arrived. I wasn't sure why I liked the book so much. Looking at it from an adult standpoint, it was kind of ridiculous. But maybe that was why I liked it.

Things had always been so serious when I was a child. My mother hadn't been able to live her best life until after my fatherdied, and it bothered me to think the same was true for me. Sure, we were a version of upper-crust destitute after his death, but things worked out in the end. My father could be a difficult man. Some days, I worshipped the ground he walked on, and other days, I couldn't stand to look at him. Maybe it was just that way between fathers and sons.

I kissed Piper's forehead and tucked her in a little tighter before leaving the room. I would do whatever it took to make sure that we never had that kind of relationship. It was hard not to spoil her, and I knew I did a bad job of it. But she was silly and fun, an easygoing little girl. I wanted to nurture all of that in her. I wanted her to have the childhood that I wished I'd been able to have.

If that meant reading The Cat in the Hat until she fell asleep so be it. I wanted her to have an active imagination full of whimsical and silly dreams. Everyone needed a little of that in their lives.

When Maggie walked in the door, I knew right away how much I needed it. Though maybe calling it walking was a little generous; she more like stumbled through the door.

“Hey.”

“Hey, yourself.” She leaned on the kitchen island.

I could smell the cheap whiskey on her from five feet away. “You didn't drive home like that, did you?”

“And what if I did? What's it to you?”

“Maggie, come on?—"

“I didn't,” she interrupted me. “I don't do that. Nora drove me.”

“She didn't want to come in?”

“Pfft.” A curly strand fell in front of her eyes, and she tried to blow it back into place, failing. I leaned in and tucked it behind her ear. She recoiled a full ten seconds later. “Don’t do that!”

“Sorry, I was just trying to help.”

“You don't get to do that kind of thing. You're not my boyfriend.”

Just what I needed to hear. “I never said I was. I was just trying to help you out, Maggie.”

“Why?”

“Because when my hair gets a little long and falls in front of my forehead it bothers me.”

“No, not that.” Her coffee-brown eyes held warmth again, and I felt less left out in the cold. “Why do you help me?”

“Because you’re my friend. That's what friends do.”

For a long moment she stared at the scar in my eyebrow. I held my breath. What had Nora told her?

Finally she said, “You should have more scars. They suit you. You're too pretty otherwise.”

I laughed, both relieved and because what she said was funny. “Sorry, almost all my scars are emotional. Hard to see those.”

“Not really.” Maggie stepped over to me. I felt her heat through her clothes. She drew a line with her finger down my jaw. “There's a scar here.”

Her touch made it impossible to breathe. “I don't have a scar there.”

“Yeah, you do. When you get mad, you clinch right here.”

“I don’t think?—"

She placed her palm over my heart. “You have one here, too.”

---