Page 41 of Accidental Fiancé

“Pop! That’s my corn!”

“And we can make more,” Maggie said sweetly. “No need to be greedy with it.”

“Okay. Sorry, Pop.”

I shot Maggie another glance. New or not, I did not understand the spell she had over my daughter. “That’s alright, sweetie. I know how you are with food.”

“I don’t share.”

Maggie laughed. “Isn’t sharing a good thing?”

“I like it when other people share with me. But I don’t like to share with other people.”

I interjected, “We’re working on it.”

“Hmm,” Maggie said, thinking aloud. “Maybe if the adults around Piper asked for popcorn before digging their thieving hand into the bowl, she would be more willing to share.”

Piper grinned up at me. “Pop has thief hands.”

“She doesn’t like to share, and I don’t like hearing no. It’s a volatile combination.” I grabbed another handful out of sheer rebellion.

“Pop!”

“Am I going to have to move the popcorn bowl over here so only Piper and I can reach it?” she teasingly chided.

“I have long arms, and I’m not afraid to use them.”

Piper defiantly placed the bowl onto Maggie’s lap. “No corn for Pop!”

But Maggie threw a piece at my face and giggled. “Maybe just one piece.”

“Oh, it’s on!” I reached over, but she held the bowl away, twisting to keep me from it. So I tickled her to make her drop it.

Piper scooted out from between us and shouted, “Tickle fight!” then she went after my feet, knowing how much I hated that.

Maggie, the voice of reason, tried to pull away and stand up, but I yanked her back down onto the couch for more torture until she whooped and squirmed sufficiently enough to satisfy me. I let her up and she stood there, breaths heaving as her smile faded. She chewed her bottom lip as she looked into my eyes.

But Piper was undeterred. “Get him, Maggie!”

“No, I?I need more wine. Be right back.” She left the bowl on the end table.

“She knew I’d win,” Pip said as she climbed back onto the couch next to me. “That’s why she stopped.”

But I had a feeling that was not the reason. The truth was, all of this was too easy. Maggie fit into our life seamlessly, enhancing it in just a day. The breakfast treats, the meals, the suddenly compliant child. It was as if she took the little things that were mildly bothersome—making dinner, managing Piper’s defiant streak—and turned them into pleasantries.

Now I understood what she meant when she said it was weird because thingsweren’tweird, especially where they should be. She made this situation too comfortable, and I didn’t know what to do about it.

But I had to figure it out and soon. Otherwise, when she left for good, she’d walk out with my heart in her handbag.

Chapter 15

Maggie

Istared at the ceiling all night long. That moment of the three of us tickle-fighting on the couch was too much. I replayed it over and over in my head, and I knew what the problem was, but I didn’t want to put a name on it. I didn’t want to acknowledge it. I wanted to pretend it didn’t happen because I didn’t want to be one of those pathetic people who imagined themselves in the perfect life with the perfect family.

Crap.

I was one of those people. I had grown up thinking I had the perfect family until my father’s stroke, and even after that, things were hell for a while but we got through it. I wasn’t some child with unrealistic expectations of the world. I knew how it worked.

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