Page 119 of Still Here Without You

“Jesus, woman. Your hands are freezing.”

She giggles, and to this day, the sound still runs right through me.

“Why else would I be cuddling you this closely if it wasn’t to warm up?”

“I was curious.”

That earns me a whack to the abs before she rubs her hands over every warm part of my body.

“Jesus, fuck. You are lucky I love you.”

“Forever grateful. Now, come on, you know the drill.”

I fill Del in on bedtime with Chloe, something I do every night. She hates that she only gets to do the bedtime routine on weekends, but at the same time, she loves that it’s become mine and Chloe’s special thing.

“And tonight I sang her a song.”

Del shoots up in bed. “You did not? She let you?”

I laugh at the shocked expression on her face before rubbing the little creases between her eyes, caused by her furrowed brows. “She did. It took a little convincing, but she let me sing her a song. I haven’t decided if her falling asleep halfway through is a good thing or a bad thing.”

Delilah’s face lights up in a beaming smile. “Good thing, I’m sure.”

Just like I did with Delilah, I told Chloe of my amazing singing abilities as soon as she could understand. Expecting to wow her with my talent and to quickly move up the ranks as number one parent—since it’s always Del—I was shocked when she simply smiled and sweetly said, “No thanks, Daddy. I like Mommy singing to me.”

Never mind the fact that I’d been singing to her since she was a baby. Suddenly, after my bragging, I’d been blacklisted. It’s definitely the sass. Tonight, that changed. Maybe it was my lucky night, or maybe I’d worn her down. But tonight, she asked me to sing…and God, did it make me happy.

“So, what did you sing?”

“‘Here Without You.’”

Delilah’s eyes widen. “Really?”

“No. She made me sing ‘You’re Welcome’ fromMoana. But I snuck in a couple of verses of ‘Tiny Dancer.’ Thought it might be nice to sing a song I once sang to you.”

“You’ve never sung that to me?”

“Oh, but I have. You just couldn’t hear it.”

Del’s quiet for a moment, and then she sighs in recognition. “I’m pretty sure that’s the moment I started falling for you.”

“I’m one hundred percent sure I fell for you that day. Looking back, anyway. I could never figure out why that song made my pulse race whenever I heard it. Until the day I proposed. I wasn’t meant to propose that day, but ‘Tiny Dancer’ came up in our playlist, and you started dancing around the room, eyes lit up, not a care in the world. It made me think about the first time we danced together to that song, and all the times we’ve danced together since. I thought it was only fitting to sing it to our little girl.”

“You never told me that. Why?”

I pull her in close, wrapping my arms around her. “Hadn’t thought about it until now. Guess you saying yes kind of took over my mind.”

“Well, I love that story,” she says, kissing my chest.

“Good, because you know that’s about as romantic as I get,” I joke.

“Lucky for you, I’m not a fan of romance,” Delilah flat-out lies.

“Oh, yeah? And what are you a fan of?”

She smirks before bringing her finger to her lips. “Hot tutors turned frenemies with benefits. Good benefits.”

I can’t help but laugh as I move us both around until she’s positioned beneath me.

“Now that, I can help with. You really need to work on your—”

I’m cut off by Delilah crashing her lips to mine as she wraps her legs around me.

Even after all these years, I will never get enough of her.

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