Page 54 of The Dark Elf's Surprise Baby

Harper and Addie go into the dining room and I watch as Harper gasps at the spread. “You made all this?” she asks.

“I did,” I tell her, coming up behind her to wrap my arms around her. “All fresh, all from scratch.”

“You are incredible!” Harper says, picking up a piece of toasted bread and taking a bite. “Oh gods, fresh bread too? Is there anything you can’t do?”

“Nope,” I say, popping the ‘p’.

“What’s the occasion?” she asks as she sits down with Addie in her lap. “Oh gods. Are you ending this?”

“No!” I yell a little too loudly. Addie and Harper wince and I bite my lip. “Sorry. No, I’m not ending things. Can’t I spoil my best girls?”

“Of course Dad can spoil us,” Addie insists. I sit down with them and load up my plate, helping Harper feed our daughter while we enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Addie loves the fresh juice and the eggs while Harper eats three slices of fresh bread and a pile of cubed burgona and somana.

“This was the best thing I’ve ever had,” Addie declares after breakfast. “Dad is the best cook!”

My heart swells in my chest and I beam at her. “Thank you, baby,” I tell her. “That means a lot to me.”

“It really was amazing,” Harper agrees.

“This was only part one of my master plan,” I tell her, teasing. “I needed to get you all full and happy so I can trick you into going shopping with me!”

“I wanna go shopping!” Addie yells, hopping up and down, her blonde curls shaking.

“Ooh, shopping?” Harper asks. “Like, new dresses or new books?”

“Anything you want,” I promise her.

We head upstairs to get cleaned up and dressed and Harper hugs me out of the blue, standing in the hallway.

“Thank you,” she says, looking up at me with her big, daette-brown eyes. “You have made such an effort to be there for us. To be good to us. I love you.”

“I love you too,” I tell her, planting a kiss on her head. “Let’s get going so we can hit all the shops you want to go to.”

“Yes!” Harper grins. She loves dress shopping. I think she secretly missed her fancy clothes. I finish dressing before her so I head downstairs. I need to send a message to Kerym and Layla, I want them to know I’m proposing and get their help for it.

“Take this message to the Torsys household,” I tell Bryrion. “Make sure that Master Kerym sees it.”

“Right away, sir,” Bryrion curtsies quickly. “Thank you for bringing Miss Harper back,” she adds. I forgot that Bryrion and Harper were best friends before she left. She must have missed her friend while she was gone.

I turn just then to see Harper walking down the stairs in a beautiful blue dress. “Where did you get that?” I ask. “I don’t remember seeing it.”

“I borrowed it from Layla the other day, just in case we wanted to go out to the shops again soon,” she says, giggling and twirling around. “Do you like it?”

“Yes,” I tell her, pulling her in close. “I like it very much. Now we should go before I get too distracted by you in that dress and we end up staying here all day instead.”

Addie comes down just then and runs up to me, holding her arms out. I scoop her up and twirl her around. “There’s my special agelios!”

Harper beams and we head outside where the carriage is waiting for us and head to the shops. Our first stop is the bookstore, which Addie is more than thrilled to visit.

She runs around, picking out fairy tales and books about dark elf mages. I love seeing her so happy and carefree here.Harper picks a few books out herself and they have quite a stack going by the time we’re ready to check out.

“You can get more,” I tell her, chuckling.

“I’m good,” Harper grins. “Besides, I need an excuse to come back again next week!”

After the bookshop, we head to a shop for Harper to buy a few new dresses. Addie is quickly bored so I take her outside to keep her entertained.

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