Page 91 of Sunshine
“Dylan. You’re a wonderful father, and I want Izzy to be happy more than anything but…” My voice grows small. “That can’t be the reason we’re together.”
Dylan tightens his arm around me and presses his lips to my hair. “Dammit. I’ve screwed this up. Izzy isnotthe reason I want to be with you, but she is the reason I stopped being so fucking scared of asking you to stay, even though your answer might be no.”
I roll away just enough to check that he’s serious. “You want me to stay? Really?”
His brows draw in, and his jaw feathers as his fingers on my hip dig into the soft muscle and don’t let go. “I want you to stay. Not for Izzy. Not even for me. But for us. I want to be with you. Do you…? Do you want to be with me?”
“Oh, Dylan.” I press my forehead to his chest, embarrassed by the emotion that catches in my throat.Do I want to be with him?It’s enough to make me laugh, and it comes out thick with emotion. He’d be better to ask if there was ever a time in my life when I didn’t want that. And the answer is never. Never ever. It’s always been him. “Yes. Yes, I want to be with you.”
I throw an arm over him and clutch him to me, feeling light enough to float away if I let go. Dylan enfolds me in his arms and presses his lips to the top of my head.
“You can move in—it’ll be crazy and busy, but I kind of like the idea of us all under one roof. We’ll make it work.” He talks like he’s already done the work of imagining a future with me, and the more he says, the faster my heart beats. “You can enroll in the community college. Business or cosmetology or whatever you decide to do. Did you know they have programs to support students with learning differences? They can help with registration and scheduling and tutoring—lots of things. I know that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy, but I also know you can do it. We’ll do it together. And we’ll have to work out care for Izzy. It might be weird to still be the nanny when you’re officially my girlfriend. I don’t know. What do you think?”
Officially his girlfriend.I’m spinning and falling and drowning in possibilities.
“You’ve really thought about this,” I say.
“Well…yeah. Haven’t you?”
A hundred times. A thousand. A million times a million.
“And Daisy?” I ask.
“She’ll be okay,” Dylan says. “Better than okay. She’s been pushing me to find someone, right? The more I think about it, the more certain I am that Daisy’s going to be our biggest supporter. She loves you, Poppy. All she wants is for us to be happy. Now all we have to do is show her how happy we are together.”
Hope flutters again. Could it be that simple?
“Stay here, Sunshine,” he says, his hands cupping my face and blue eyes gazing into mine. “Stay here with me forever.”
“Okay.”
Amazement twitches across his lips and dances across his eyebrows. “Yeah?”
I nod, then laugh as he almost buries me with his body, scooping me up with arms and legs into a hug hard enough to make my bones creak.
Dylan wantsme. He wants me to stay. And I can finally tell Daisy the truth. Somehow everything’s going to be just fine.
twenty-eight
Dylan
It’s five a.m. onMonday, Poppy’s gone and my sisters are back, and I’m pumping out an easy hundred push-ups in my bedroom lamplight. It’s been a long time since I felt this in control of my life, but I could do anything right now. Start my own restaurant and earn three Michelin stars. Run Silver Leaf on my own and make business the best it’s ever been. Have a dozen kids and be the most awesome dad in the world. Get married. Be the perfect husband. Treat my wife like a fucking queen and make her the most cherished woman on the planet.
It’s all within reach because I now know what’s been missing. Poppy. All I have to do to make it official is tell Daisy about us, then we can start the rest of our lives. My unbridled optimism refuses to believe it’ll be anything but easy. Daisy loves Poppy. Poppy loves Daisy. I love them both. It’ll work out because it has to, and because I’m determined to hand Poppy proof that she’s safe here with me.
I’m on my last ten push-ups when my bedroom door creaks open to reveal a small shadow on the other side. A shadow withfuzzy slippers and a bunny under one arm poking its hesitant head around the door jamb.
I jump to my feet, cross the room, and lift Izzy into my arms. “Hey, Little Bee. Did I wake you?”
“No. I woke up by myself.”
Izzy’s sleep schedule is all out of whack thanks to the midnight pancakes on Saturday night. I let her sleep in a little longer than usual on Sunday morning—she needed the rest, for one thing, but I’ll admit that sex with Poppy at sunrise was a motivator too—so it took Izzy a little longer to fall asleep that night. I thought I’d need to coax her out of bed for school this morning, but apparently not. That’s the most frustrating thing about kids’ sleep. You never know what you’re going to get.
“It’s a little early to be up just yet, so how about you snuggle in Daddy’s bed while I get ready for work?” I suggest.
Izzy replies with a big yawn, and I inhale her sweet baby breath. “Okay.”
With silent gratitude to Yesterday Dylan for having the foresight to change the sheets, I slip my daughter under the covers, dim the lighting, and drop a kiss on her head before I disappear into the bathroom. I leave the door ajar in case she needs me, shower as fast as I can, brush my teeth, and scrape my hair back into a knot, then return to the bedroom with a towel around my waist.
