Page 15 of Snowed In With The Second Chance Daddy

My insides shudder at the fact she echoed a thought I had not three minutes earlier. “Yeah, well, good luck.”

“You too.”

We part ways, and I continue my search.

Except, I don’t. Not really. Now that I know Iris is here, I can feel her everywhere. I don’t have to see her.

My body is alert to her, to her exact direction, to her exact distance. And it kills me.

We’ve been apart for half a year, my body should have reset, be able to let her go.

That’s so not the case.

I start combing through some dolls and find one that doesn’t have items too small Rose might accidentally swallow them. It’s a start. Nothing exceptional, but…it’ll have to do.

As I turn into the next aisle, my body lurches. Iris is here.

And sure enough, there she is, combing through stuffies. She picks up one dog and frowns at it, then drops it into the basket and grabs a giraffe. Her focus breaks, her eyes shooting to me.

Fuck, I’ve been staring.

Idiot.

“Can I help you?”

I gnash on my lower lip. I don’t have to make this hell for both of us. I don’t. “She’s really into hippos now.”

Iris frowns.

“Rose, she likes hippos.”

Her expression lightens. “Oh. Thanks. That’s helpful.” She reaches into the bin and pulls out a fluffy hippo.

Rose will love that.

She shakes her head. “God, I’ve missed so much. I remember when it was–”

I walk a little bit closer. “Giraffes. Yeah. That phase didn’t last much longer after you…” I clear my throat.

I don’t need to bring up the past anymore. We both get it.

It sucks. This. Us.

I realize Iris is no longer holding the box she had earlier. “Changed your mind on the main event?”

“Yeah, I…it needs to be perfect, and it wasn’t.”

We are both quiet. I watch Iris’s hand wring the neck of that poor hippo. She’s nervous. I don’t blame her. So am I.

She looks at what I’m carrying. “You still don’t have anything?”

I shove my hands into the pockets of my jacket, sighing heavily. “I don’t know what I’m doing, to be honest. All I managed was some clothes and that’s a gift for Rowan more than Rose.”

Iris giggles.

My chest fills up with all the moments before where I thought to myself, “I love that laugh. I’ll love that laugh forever.”

Unfortunately for me, that might still be true.

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