Page 109 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bargain

I don’t want him to ever have to worry about anything. Just like Pops did for me as a child, I want Davey to always feel secure and loved, even when things get hard.

Like now.

“You know I’ll always protect you and your mom, right?”

He nods and pulls his head back, looking up at me with sleepy eyes and little furrowed brows. “Are you my new daddy?”

Fuck…

I swallow through the emotion lodged in my throat.

How the hell do I answer that?

It isn’t a simple one.

What I might want, how I mightfeel, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily what Camille or Davey needs. And we haven’t discussed any of this.

Not really.

Not beyond the promises we made to each other in the barn earlier today.

But I know what I want my future to hold with her and this little boy—and that baby who will enter the world so soon.

“I would never try to take the place of your daddy.” My voice breaks on the final word, picturing the man whoshouldbe here with them and everything he’s missing. “He loved you and your mom very much, but I do, too. And I’ll always be there for you guys, no matter what.”

I hope that’s a good enough answer.

One that doesn’t further confuse the little boy who has had so many life changes in the last six months.

He offers me a soft smile and nods, then returns to resting his cheek against my chest.

The fact that he’s so trusting, that he feels comfortable enough with me to do this makes old memories and long-suppressed feelings bubble to the surface.

It’s hard to think that twenty years have passed since I lost them. Sometimes it feels like yesterday, and often, it feels more like a distant dream I have trouble clinging to.

I wrap my arms fully around him and lower my cheek to his thick mop of dark hair. “You know, I used to sit like this with my dad in front of the fire.”

“Where is he?”

Long gone…

Some days, it’s hard for me to even remember his face, and I have to seek out the old photo albums we keep on a shelf in Pops’ office to remind myself what he and Mom looked like. So I can convince myself I haven’t fully forgotten them.

“He died when I was about the same age you are.”

Davey pulls back and looks up at me again.

“Pops raised me. He’s my grandfather, but he’s also like my father in a way because he taught me everything I know.”

“Like you’re teaching me?”

Oh, God.

That heavy emotion I can’t quite place thickens my throat again.

Honored that I’ve been put in this position with him?

Terrified I don’t deserve it and am going to fuck it up?

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