Page 34 of Protecting Little Phoebe

“No, no. I do. I very much do.”

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes. It felt… amazing. Thank you for trusting me with you.”

“You’re welcome, Daddy.”

“I’m sure you don’t. Have I mentioned lately how much I like you calling me Daddy?”

“Not in the last five seconds, no. Very slack of you if I’m honest.”

“I do apologize. I very much like hearing you call me Daddy.” He leaned forward and kissed her lightly. “Good morning, sweetheart.”

“Good morning,” she replied when he drew back.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked.

“Yep. Like a log. Although I don’t see how logs sleep.”

“Why were you pulling a face when I opened the door?” he asked.

“Sorry about that!” she said quickly. “I wasn’t pulling a face at you.”

“No? Then why?” he asked.

“I pull faces in the mirror sometimes to cheer myself up,” she explained. “I just forgot to stop pulling a face when I opened the door, that’s all.”

Barren cupped her face between his hands. “I’m sorry you were feeling sad, little girl.”

“Not sad, just worried you weren’t going to turn up,” she told him.

“We need to spend time to get to know one another. But there is something you need to know about me right now. If I say I’m going to do something, I do it. I said I was going to be here this morning, so nothing apart from a complete disaster was goingto keep me away. And yes, I could decide this relationship isn’t going to work, but so could you once you get to know me.”

She couldn’t see that being very likely. He was her Knight in Pressed Pants.

“That’s not going to happen, you’re perfect.”

“Far from it. Listen to me, Phoebe. Are you listening?” he asked firmly.

“Yes.”

“I really want to get to know you. I like you calling me Daddy, that you trust me enough to let me take that role in your life. But we don’t know each other that well, so at any time you can tell me to slow down, all right?”

“And you’ll do the same?”

“Yes. We just need to communicate with each other. That’s very important. I was in a marriage with someone who kept a lot of secrets and when I discovered how much she had been hiding from me, I felt like an idiot. And like I didn’t know who she was. It felt like everything in my life had been a lie and I didn’t like that feeling. So just be honest with me and I will be honest with you. All right? And asking to slow things down isn’t saying that you want to step away. Or that you don’t like what the other person is doing. I want you to be comfortable with me. Because the last thing I ever want is to get into another relationship with someone who is deceiving me.”

“I don’t ever want to deceive you.”

“Good. Neither do I. And I don’t like the idea of you being worried or upset. Okay? So tell me next time. I’ll make funny faces in the mirror with you.”

She giggled at that idea.

Just as her stomach started to grumble.

“Oh my gosh! Tummy, stop being so rude. Daddy and I are having a conversation.”

“We can have a conversation over breakfast. You’re certain you don’t want to go to preschool this morning?”

---