Page 133 of Saving the Single Dad

I stood, carrying Mila with me.

“What was written on them?”

The girls all blushed, looking down—then Seraph spoke up.

“We talked to Dad about it, and he thought it would be a good idea.”

My heart squeezed tight at the mention of Liam, and the memory of those cupcakes. I wanted to sit with the girls at home talking about this. I wanted them to point to what they had done, so I could tell them how proud I was that they’d done it at all.

“But they were too hot when we put the words on,” Mila added, her little face dropping in disappointment.

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense, what did it say?”

Maddy looked at her sisters, and they looked up at her.

“It said, ‘Will you be our mom?’”

Oh shit. I wasn’t prepared.

I’d come over here with a plan. I came with my pride slightly still intact because this wasn’t my first verbal spat.

It wasn’t the first time I had to hear someone’s unfiltered and unchecked thoughts about my character spat in my face in a fit of rage. I survived then and I’d survived again.

But this––hearing this.Damn it.

“She’s crying. We made her sad,” Mila whispered to her sisters.

I couldn’t see their faces through the tears.

“She’s crying worser than usual… We broke her. Uncle Cole!” Mila yelled, hopping off my lap.

I tried to swipe at my eyes, but it just got worse and then the sobs started. It all hit me at once: The realization that Liam didn’t want me. The fact that he’d asked me to go. The bone- deep loneliness that had trailed me my entire life. The rejection. And stealing the biggest moment in my entire life—the girls asking me to be their mom.

How would I cope with losing them, not when something so wonderful and amazing had finally happened to me? I couldn’t lose them. I couldn’t leave them.

The couch dipped next to me, and Colson started rubbing my back.

“Sis, you okay?”

I sniffed, swiping at my face.

“Yes, sorry.” I needed the girls—where were they?

I got up and went to where they were standing over by the fireplace and knelt in front of them. Opening my arms, I tried to control myself as I gave them a wobbly smile.

“I love you girls so much. With my whole entire heart. That was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

Maddy hugged me first, a few tears slipping free, and then the other two crowded around me.

Once I was sitting back on my heels, I gave them all a resolute look.

“I have to go on a little trip back home to tie a few things up, but I’ll be back….” I pulled their little hands and herded them back to the couch.

“We don’t want you to go,” Seraph said.

“It’s just for a little while. I’ll be back. But until then, we can talk on the tablets.”

The girls didn’t move.

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