Page 73 of Your Soul to Keep

Maeve sighed. “I agree. You know I do. But we still have to come up with a plan to deal with daycare.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Gabe asserted.

“Gabe—”

“Mom,” he interrupted. “I said I’ll take care of it, and I will.”

She nodded slowly. “Let me know if you need anything.”

He softened. “You know I will.”

In the backyard, we played with Dylan whose energy seemed endless. She bounced from one thing to the next, running not walking, curious, bright, and full of wonder.

She filled her pockets with treasure, dumping them out on the picnic table to show me before jumping off the top into Gabe’s arms, and filling her pockets once more.

She climbed onto my lap and ran her sticky fingers through my hair. “This hair like banananas.”

Gabe snorted. “Could we find a better comparison than bananas? Maybe we could say Shae’s hair is like sunshine?”

She cocked her head and considered my hair, murmuring, “Dylan like banananas.” Grasping the end of my long ponytail in her hand, she leaned forward with wide eyes and put the end in her mouth.

I laughed, well used to kids’ antics.

She shook her head, disappointed. “It don’t taste like banananas.”

She utterly enchanted me. “I like bananas, too, Dilly-bar.”

Her eyes snapped to mine, and she pointed to her chest. “Dy. Lan. I Dylan.”

I didn’t have Dilly-bar status yet. “Dylan,” I agreed.

She climbed up onto the table and leapt into Gabe’s arms without warning. He caught her with a guttural ‘oof.’ “Give Daddy a warning next time!”

She was beautiful.

And if she didn’t have the right people around her, this world would do its level best to crush her.

When she began to yawn, Gabe told me she was staying with his parents for the night.

“Hey, Dilly-bar. Come give Daddy a kiss goodnight. You’re sleeping at Grammy and Papa’s tonight.”

Like everything else she did, she threw herself into his arms with gusto and pressed an enthusiastic kiss to his cheek. Unsatisfied, she palmed his cheeks and turned his face to hers before smacking her lips on his. “I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, Dilly-bar,” he whispered fiercely, closing his eyes as he hugged her close.

After a moment, Dylan wiggled to get down and lifted her arms to me.

I was hesitant.

Not because I didn’t know how to handle small children. I did.

Not because I didn’t want to, I wanted it desperately.

But because once I held her, there would be no going back for me. Not after the day we had.

I picked her up and held her sturdy little body close to mine. She felt so good in my arms, I wanted to cry.

She peered into my eyes, her bright blues exactly like the ones I fell in love with so long ago, the ones I loved even now.

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