Sophia lets out a little intoxicating puff of air from beside me, clasping her hands together. The desire to turn to her and tell her I love her floods up within me, making my chest tight with the need for it.
I don’t know how I keep my gaze on my daughter instead.
“And this isn’t a fling,” Caitlin goes on.
“No,” I growl, the very notion making my body tight, like I want to get into another brawl.
I don’t know who I’d be fighting. It’s just the idea that Sophia could be something temporary for me when in reality she’s everything.
She’s my whole universe.
She’s mine.
She’s going to be the mother of Caitlin’s brothers and sisters.
“Soph?” Caitlin says, turning to Sophia.
“Yeah?”
Caitlin smiles and something in my chest erupts and spreads starry hands. Smiling doesn’t mean she’s automatically okay with the situation, but surely it implies that there’s some acceptance flaring into embers inside of her, embers that might bloom and become something even fiercer.
“Well—how do you feel?” Caitlin says, taking her seat and moving her forefinger around the edge of her glass.
I almost flinch when Sophia reaches across and lays her hand against mine. I don’t expect her to make such an intimate move in front of Caitlin, but once I feel the warmth of her hand and the desire for safety shimmering up her arm, I know she needs this.
I interlock my fingers with hers and give her a squeeze, letting her know that I’m here for her and she doesn’t have to worry.
She never has to worry again, for the rest of her life.
I’m always going to take care of her.
Because she’s mine.
“I feel like all the love songs I’ve heard finally make sense,” she says, giggling full of pure emotion, happiness, and anxiety burning together. “I feel like—I know it doesn’t make sense, Cait. I walked into that office, and suddenly a girlhood crush became something real, something I couldn’t pretend didn’t exist anymore.”
“I always knew you had a crush on Dad,” Caitlin says, nodding and sitting back with a sly smile, one I recognize from when she was a teenager and used to love pulling pranks.
“You did?” Sophia murmurs.
“Yeah. I didn’t really mind. It was harmless, right?”
“And this?” Sophia says, unable to hide the uncertainty in her voice.
I squeeze her hand harder, fighting every instinct I have that tells me to drag her into my lap and envelop her in my arms. The primal protective part of me roars that I need to shield my woman. I need to pull her close and make it so nothing, not even her heartache, can hurt her ever again.
“It’s weird,” Caitlin says. “I won’t deny that. But the thing is, when I look at you two like this, I can’t deny it.”
“Deny what?” Sophia and I say together.
We turn to each other, laughing at the same time, as though we’re sharing the same voice for a bliss-filled moment. Her eyes glint in the sunlight and her cheeks are shiny, and as her lips twitch into a smile, I imagine our children grinning in that same way.
I hope they have more of their mother in them than me.
I hope they have her beauty, her kindness, her affection, her everything.
“That,” Caitlin giggles. “Look at you two. You’re both happier now than I’ve ever seen you before. Especially you, Dad. I mean … you’re smiling.”
“Am I?” I chuckle.
“You are,” Sophia says with a thrill in her voice. “Oh my God—”
“Don’t you mean oh my gosh?”
She rolls her eyes.
“You’re grinning like a little kid on Christmas morning, Solomon.”
“She’s right, Dad,” Caitlin laughs. “It’s sort of freaky, actually.”
I shake my head, but I can’t stop grinning, more happiness flooding into me each moment.
“Does this mean we have your blessing?” I ask.
Caitlin glances down at the table, still moving her finger around and around the edge of her glass.
Sophia and I exchange a glance. Our expressions mirror each other, both of us growing taut with anticipation.
What if Caitlin changes her mind now?
I can imagine her flurrying to her feet and grabbing her glass of water, tossing it over the balcony, and turning to us with rage-flooded cheeks.
“Are you kidding?” she’d scream. “That was a test, you idiots. Of course, I’m not okay with this.”
Finally, her finger stops its endless motion around her glass.
She looks up at us with the suggestion of a smile on her lips, and then her cheeks dimple and her smile widens.
For a brief sun-filled second, she looks exactly the same as she did on her first day of high school, grinning and waving as I watched her from the front seat of my car.
“Yes,” she says, “you have my blessing. But you need to know something, Dad. If you ever hurt Soph, you’ll have me to deal with.”
“Understood,” I say, glad that my woman has such a protective best friend.
“You mean it?” Sophia cries, standing up and walking around the table.
She leans down and throws her arms around my daughter. Caitlin hugs her in return, patting her on the back as Sophia lets out tears of joy.
“I was so worried,” she says, voice strangled with a sob. “I shouldn’t have gone behind your back, Cait. I’m so sorry. I just didn’t know how to tell you. I value our friendship so, so much. I thought I’d ruined it.”
“You could never ruin us, Soph,” Caitlin says. “I’m not saying this is the most conventional setup in the world, but if it works for you two, it works for me.”
“It does,” Sophia says, looking over the top of Caitlin’s head to aim her shimmering eyes at me.
I love you, Sophia Clarkson, I think but don’t say.
Something holds me back.
Just like taking her virginity, I want the time to be right.
Caitlin turns and faces me, adding her smile to the happiness that Sophia brings.
“Dad, I hope you know how lucky you are,” she says.
“I do,” I tell her
