Page 127 of Marry Me, Maybe?
Smiling, I handed him the brush and leaned over to kiss him briefly. “You know it’d be easier if you taught me how to do it.”
“But I want to do it all the time. It’s our thing. She likes pretty braids, and I like doing it for her.”
I kissed the top of Ivy’s head. “All right, then. Let me finish getting dressed while you two play hair salon.”
Matty slid the brush gently through Ivy’s hair. His big hands were tender, working with the same patience he had with his rescued horses.
I ducked back into the bedroom for my jacket and shoes and spritzed cologne on. When I returned, tugging at my zipper, I froze in the hall. Their voices carried low and soft through the room.
“Maaatt,” Ivy whispered, her voice small, careful, “do you know where my mama is?”
The question knocked the breath out of me. She’d seemed so well adjusted lately, but it was foolish of me to think she had forgotten her mother had left. The question still cut as deeply as the last time she’d asked me.
“I’m sorry, baby girl,” he said gently. “I don’t know. But I’m sure wherever she is, she’s thinking about you and missing you a whole lot.”
“Why she leave?” Ivy asked. “She come back?”
“Sometimes, adults need help. And sometimes, they have to go away for a while to find it. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t love and think about you.”
There was a long pause. Then Ivy’s little voice wobbling. “Will Daddy leave me too? I don’t want Daddy to go.”
The floor dropped from under me. I hadn’t known she’d ever thought about that. I would never leave her no matter what. I clenched my hand around my keys.
“No, sweetheart. You’re the love of your daddy’s life. Everything he does is for you, and I promise you, Ivy, that Daddy will never leave you. Not ever.”
“Will you leave, Maaatt?”
“Ne-ver.” His voice cracked, but I heard the smile in his voice. “You see, I love your daddy very much, and I love you too, so I will always be here to take care of both of you.”
I inched forward so I could see them. Matt was tying a ribbon in a bow at the end of her braid. “Can babies have two daddies?”
My heart skipped a beat, and my chest rose and fell hard. Where was she going with this?
Matty blinked, dropping his hand from her hair. “Yes, they can. Why do you ask?”
She turned around to face him and patted his cheek. “I want you to be my other daddy too.”
Matty’s fingers trembled as he took her little hand in his. His eyes shone, his mouth working around words that didn’t want to come. “Oh, Ivy… I would love to be your daddy. More than anything. But maybe we should ask your daddy first. What do you think?”
That was my cue, though I hadn’t meant to eavesdrop this long. I stepped forward, heart in my throat.
Ivy spotted me instantly. “Daddy!” she squealed. “Can Matt be Daddy too? P’ease?”
I looked at her, at the hope spilling out of her little face, then at Matty, so undone he could barely breathe. His eyeswere as shiny as, no doubt, mine were. My chest burned, and the answer was the easiest thing I’d ever said.
“Yes, Bug,” I said, voice rough. “He can for sure be your other daddy if that’s what you and he want.”
Her squeal rang out like bells. She threw her arms wide around Matty’s neck. “Now I gottwodaddies!”
Matty pressed his cheek against Ivy’s hair, laughing shakily, and when he looked up at me, I caught the discreet swipe of his thumb across the corner of his eye. A tear, gone almost as quick as it had fallen. He’d never looked more undone or more beautiful.
“Come on, Daddy Matt,” Ivy scrambled off his lap and grabbed his hand. “Let’s go! Movie, movie, movie!”
She tugged on him like she could drag his much-larger frame out the door by sheer determination. Matty let himself be pulled along, shaking his head but grinning. “All right, all right, lead the way, princess.”
“Cowboy!”
“Oops, sorry.”
