Page 72 of One Unexpected Gift

Nick mimicked a knife being stabbed in his heart and pretended to stumble. This woman would be the death of him. In the best of ways.

“How do you do that?” He scooped up his daughter and tucked her body in the pouch, strapping it quickly so he could catch up with Skylar.

“Do what?” she asked when they were shoulder to shoulder.

“Know when she’s going to be hungry?”

Skylar held both breasts in her hands and lifted them. “They’re getting full and heavy.”

Nick groaned. Loudly, apparently, by the smirk on her face. “You know, if you need a hand... I’ve got two.” He held them out in front of him and wiggled all ten fingers.

“Nursing and engorged breasts are not sexy.”

“Says who?”

“Typical guy,” she mumbled.

“Darlin’, anything and everything on you is sexy. I thought I made that clear a long time ago.”

She slowed her gait. “Things have changed.”

“Yes they have.” He cupped his daughter’s bottom and stroked her back.

They were almost to the end of the trail when Skylar said “Okay. I’ll go.”

“You will?” he said excitedly. So excitedly that he startled Gabriella. When she started crying he lifted her to his face as best he could, being strapped in. “I’m sorry, angel. Daddy didn’t mean to scare you.”

She stopped fussing as quickly as she’d started. When he lifted his gaze, he found Skylar looking at him strangely. A cross between confusion, fear, and awe. No, not a cross. He saw all three before she softened her expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I...”

“Skylar. We agreed on one hundred percent honesty.”

She licked her lips and gave him a curt nod. “I just... it’s the first time you referred to yourself as Daddy.”

“It is? That’s all I’ve thought about since you told me I had a daughter.”

“Hearing you call yourself Daddy. It surprised me.”

“I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but I am her father, and I want her to know me as her dad.”

Now he was the one with the mood swings. He cared about Skylar and wanted to make her and Gabriella happy, but he wouldn’t hide his parentage because she wasn’t sure how to handle him being in their lives.

“No, I didn’t mean it that way. I mean, you are. You’re her Dad. I want her to grow up knowing her father loves her. It’s just...” She lifted a shoulder.

His backyard came into view and he stopped her once they reached the deck stairs. “No trailing off. I can handle it. Straight up honesty, Skylar. Why did it bother you when I called myself Daddy?”

“It didn’t bother me.” She licked her lips again, her tell-tale sign that she was crafting her words carefully before speaking. She lifted her arms into what he thought would be a hug, but it was to unbuckle Gabriella from the carrier. “It made this all a little more real. I’ve thought about you as the father of my daughter since I found out I was pregnant. But you calling yourself, Daddy. Well, it just got more real, I guess.”

When Gabriella was securely in her arms, he curled his finger around the tip of Skylar’s ponytail.

“It’s real, Skylar. One hundred percent real.”

***

Meeting Nick’s family shouldn’t have made Skylar this nervous. It wasn’t like they were a couple and she was meeting her boyfriend’s parents for the first time. They had a granddaughter they didn’t know about and had a right to meet her. It shouldn’t matter that it happened to be his mother’s birthday weekend, and her very first time meeting his parents. It wasn’t really about her.

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