Page 38 of All I've Waited For

“Oh, I kind of like being the doctor Barbie.”

Mia frowned. “But the bride Barbie and Ken need to kiss, and Mommy told me I’m too young to make the Barbies kiss. So you have to do it.”

Okaaay. Enough of that. “Peanut, you know what I think it’s time for?”

His niece eyed him warily. “What?”

“Snuggles and stars.”

Her eyes lit up. “My favorite!” Then, after placing all of the dolls gently on the ground, she scrambled up into his lap, leaving a Mia-sized gap between Derek and Ashley.

“Snuggles and stars?” Ashley arched an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“We snuggle and look at the stars, silly.” Mia shook her head as if it should have been obvious. “Scoot over so you can snuggle too. It doesn’t work if you’re too far away.”

“Um, I should probably—”

“But, Miss Ashley, you promised you’d stay.”

Ashley’s eyes met Derek’s, and she shifted on the seat.

Ugh. She was uncomfortable. Of course she was, after what he’d pulled on Thursday. “Miss Ashley needs to go.”

Then Mia busted out the trembling lower lip. She was a wily one. “But …”

“All right. I can stay for a few minutes.”

“You sure?” He studied Ashley.

Her gaze shifted down to Mia, then back up to him. “Yeah.” She moved a bit closer to him on the bench.

He shouldn’t be so happy to have her near.

The temperature had dropped rapidly with the sun, and Mia’s little body shivered against him, so Derek pulled a quilt off the back of the swing where someone had left it on some previous night. After tugging the quilt over them both, he tossed half of it across Ashley’s legs.

“Now, let’s look at some stars, shall we?” He pointed out the obvious ones, including Mia’s favorite, the Big Dipper. Crickets chirped as the three of them laughed and made up silly stories, Ashley contributing one about Leo, the lion who got his head stuck in a jar of honey.

Eventually, Mia started to yawn and turned to snuggle into Derek’s chest. After less than a minute, her breathing evened.

Ashley glanced down from the sky and at the four-year-old. “I think she’s out.” Her voice remained soft.

“Guess I’m not going anywhere for a while.” His chest squeezed as he watched Mia, took in the relaxed peace in her features. “We just had one more thing to talk about wedding wise, right?”

“Oh.” Ashley straightened a bit on the seat. “Yes. Vows.”

“Vows?”

“Yeah.” She coughed. “Do you guys want to go traditional or write your own?”

“I guess I haven’t thought much about it.”

“Really?” Ashley’s hands played with the raggedy fringe on the blue quilt. “Hmm.”

“What?” He winced at the sharpness in his tone. Thankfully, Mia didn’t wake up. Derek lowered his voice. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“I know you, Ash, and that wasn’t nothing.” The wind kicked up, nipping his face. He adjusted the quilt better around Mia, covering her neck and ears.

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