Page 147 of Stolen Kiss

That first morning, Elodie had woken up nearly two hours after my alarm had rung. It was the latest my little girl had ever woken up, but she had done so with messy hair and a big smile on her face, which only grew when she caught sight of Emilia coming down the stairs dressed in one of my T-shirts and sweatpants, looking good enough to eat.

“Millie! You’re still here.”

Emilia smiled at her and came over, taking a seat next to her high chair. I placed Elodie’s breakfast in front of Emilia, which consisted of a small portion of blueberry pancake, mashed bananas, and some toast.

I watched Emilia feed our daughter while I made us some breakfast, contentment settling in my chest at the sight.

After we were all done, we decided to let Elodie take a day off from going to her daycare—something I still needed to deal with after the events of the night before. We settled around the couch in the living room.

I was taking the day off to spend with my girls, and Emilia would try to get some of her work done here on her computer.

Elodie had moved to Emilia’s lap while I put on the Disney movie Brave for us to watch.

Halfway through the movie, Elodie grabbed our attention by turning so she was facing Emilia. I had been watching them interact throughout the movie. I wondered if Elodie forgot about the events that had happened yesterday. But we had already decided not to push the issue with Elodie until she was ready. We didn’t want to confuse her, even if I could see how badly Emilia wanted to take on the mom role for Elodie.

“Millie?” she asked, tugging on Emilia’s hair.

Emilia gently moved her hair out of Elodie’s grasp. “Yeah, sweetheart?”

“Are you my mom?”

Emilia looked over at me, as if she didn’t know how to answer her.

I cleared my throat. “Do you want her to be your mom?” I asked.

Elodie looked at me with those big gray eyes of hers. I didn’t know what she was thinking. Usually, it was easy for me to read her. Plus, she always told me her every thought. Not today, though.

She nodded, and I could feel my shoulders relaxing a bit. “Yes, Daddy.”

I cupped her head gently before running my fingers through her soft hair. “Then she can be your mom.”

She smiled widely at me, showing off a row of tiny white teeth. “Yay!”

She clapped her hands, and Emilia let out a small watery laugh.

I looked over at her and found tears streaming down her cheeks, but she was smiling at me, the same smile Elodie just had on her face, and I knew things would be all right with us. I moved them closer to me, holding onto my little family.

“My girls,” I mumbled, kissing Elodie’s head.

“Yours,” Emilia reiterated.

Now it was Friday, and we were getting ready to head into the weekend.

I didn’t care much about going out. Not anymore.

I just wanted to spend time with my family, so we were all at home. Emilia was feeding Elodie her dinner while I made ours.

Elodie usually ate pretty early, so we didn’t always have our dinner together, but we tried to make it a routine that we would always be together during dinner time.

I handed Emilia a wet wipe to help clean Elodie up when the bell rang. Emilia looked over at me. “Are you expecting someone?”

I shook my head. “No.”

I hadn’t been expecting anyone and I couldn’t think of anyone who’d come over here unannounced. I dropped the tea towel on the counter and dropped a kiss on Elodie’s forehead and one on Emilia’s lips, making her smile, before I went to the front door.

I looked out the peephole and frowned.

“What the hell?” I muttered.

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