Page 19 of Boss Daddy
Noah
She was sprinting across the street in a flood of tears when I saw her, and now she’s in my arms where she belongs, crying and clutching at my shirts as she comes to terms with a really shitty reality.
“She doesn’t love me,” she wails. “She doesn’t care. Why can’t she just be my mom? Why can’t she—” A great big hiccup cuts off her words as she buries her face against my chest, her tears soaking through my shirt. “Why can’t they just be happy for us?”
I move my hands up and down her back in a soothing motion as I press my lips into her hair. “Because people don’t like what they don’t understand, and a lot of people don’t understand what real love is. They go for simple fixes like your mom does, or they’re too young and inexperienced to grasp it like Dermot was. But we’re gonna be OK, baby. It’s you and me, and everyone else is just gonna have to fit in with us.”
She lifts her head, tear-stained cheeks glinting in the sunshine as her weary eyes meet mine. She’s young, yes, but there’s a lifetime of pain in those eyes, and if I’m even half the man she thinks I am, I’ll do my damndest to keep those pretty eyes of hers as joyful as possible in the years to come, because I’m not letting her go. I can’t. She has the other half of my soul inside her.
“I don’t want to cause a rift in your family, Noah. I’ve already messed up mine. I can’t be responsible for messing yours up too.”
“Baby,” I whisper, kissing her cheeks. “Baby. You aren’t responsible for any of this. Not a single bit. It’s a mother’s job to careforher children, not the other way around. You have done nothing but be an amazing daughter, an amazing woman, and your mother should be praising you, not making you cry. You’re too good, Tilly. Too good.” I pull her against me again, holding her as if the power of my hug can somehow press all of her broken pieces back together. “As for my sons, they’ll be fine. They’re good kids. Dermot was understandably shocked, but in time, they’ll come to love you too. You’ll see.”
“You really think so?” she asks, looking up at me with that glorious hope I‘ve come to love in her.
“I do, angel. Let my family be your family. And let me give you a family of your own.” I press my hand against her belly. “I want you to have a life you’re excited to live, live in a world where you don’t feel so used anymore.”
She sniffles and offers me a wobbly smile. “You want more kids?”
“With you?” I say, lifting my hand to brush my fingers through her messed up hair. “Yeah. I want it all. Marriage, kids. All of it. We get to create our own world here, baby. Everyone else can fit in with us. I’m never giving you up.”
“Oh, Noah, I love you so much.”
“I love you too, angel,” I say, pressing my lips to hers and kissing her long and slow like my life depends on it. And I’m pretty sure it does. Before Tilly came into my life, I barely existed, searching for purpose after my boys had moved out to start their own lives. I opened the bar because creating jobs helped me channel that need I have to fix the world. Then I saw her, and suddenly, my world had meaning again. Despite our age difference, I knew we were meant to be. I felt it in my bones when she was in my arms, and from that moment, she’s the only thing that’s made sense to me. I know in my heart that God kept my soulmate close until I was ready to accept her, then He quite literally dropped her in my arms. My second chance at love starts and ends with her. Tilly is my world, and I intend to keep her.
