Page 81 of Inevitable
I knew that because I craved exactly the same thing.
I stayed quiet as we rose to go join the rest of the group.
When and if Colin was ready, he was going to be the first one to know exactly how I felt.
Chapter 24
Marshall
Ipaced my rental place the next afternoon, staring at the gifts I’d bought for Wren every time I passed by the dining room table.
The table was full.
Emma had pitched a fit over those gifts, but I’d gotten them anyway.
Twenty-six gifts total.
Thirteen for every one of her birthdays I’d missed, and thirteen for every Christmas I’d missed in my daughter’s life.
I thought it was a logical number.
Since I already knew that my daughter had a gift for technology, I’d gotten her things that would challenge her brain.
The rest of the stuff I’d picked up because Emma had mentioned that they were some of Wren’s favorite things.
I wasn’t trying to buy her affection.
I’d just picked up a gift for every occasion I regretted missing in her life so far.
I glanced at my watch for the millionth time in the last thirty minutes.
Emma had picked up Wren around lunchtime.
She’d said she was going to feed Wren and bring her over as soon as they got settled into the cottage.
The three of us were going to walk to town and get an icecream. The ice cream shop had been around for decades. Emma and I had gone there together, and I had to admit that they had the best soft serve ice cream cones I’d ever tasted.
It’s just a damn ice cream. It’s not a big deal.
While my rational mind tried to make me see some reason, my irrational mind was winning this particular battle.
What if she didn’t like me?
What if my injured leg and significant limp bothered her?
What if she resented the fact that I hadn’t been around for the last thirteen years?
Hell, she didn’t even know what I looked like.
Emma and I had never taken pictures in Virginia Beach, so she hadn’t even seen a photo of me.
I might be her biological father, but I was going to be a complete stranger to Wren.
I grimaced and stopped prowling around the house when the doorbell finally rang.
You can’t expect to be a father to her right now. Just try to be her friend.
I was determined to be exactly that when I opened the door.
