“Yes to the everyday with you, but you’re going to have to give me a little bit to decide on dropping everything to travel around and spend all your money.”
He grinned, kissing me once. “I really thought that would be the easy part, but okay. Fair enough, I did just drop a lot on you. Does this mean no to ice cream and bikes?”
“For me? Yes. You two can go, though.”
He groaned, but nodded. “Happy to, although I was pretty excited to have you pressed up against me on my bike all day.”
“As tempting as that sounds, I can’t leave Amber alone at the restaurant all night. Maybe you would be willing to do it twice in one week?”
“Whatever you want, Daze. Come on, we can at least give you a ride to work.”
He leaned down to kiss me, squeezing my hand once before he disappeared around the corner.
It was hard to say no to all of it. Impossible even.
I had no reason to, and I realized fast that no part of me wanted to.
FIFTY-ONEDAISY
The next day after work, I got to the apartment to find the place empty.
Kye was supposed to be watching Bailey, and after my tires were slashed and the house broken into, my panic bubbled up immediately. I pulled out my phone, already hitting the button to FaceTime Kye.
He picked up in two rings, his smiling face filling my screen.
“Hey,” he said, turning the phone down to Bailey quick and back onto him.
“Where are you?”
“Walking towards the apartments.”
“And where have you been?” I asked, already heading back downstairs to the sidewalk.
“The tattoo shop.”
My mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”
“We are right outside,” he said. “I’ll be inside in one minute.”
He laughed, clicking the call off, and I wasted no time storming outside to meet them out front.
“You took her to a tattoo shop?” I was almost yelling, but I couldn’t believe what he was telling me and I couldn’t believe how cute the two of them looked. He apparently took her shopping too, because she had on new clothes. Her little shoes matched his and so did the hat, both of theirs backwards to match. Even her blonde hair matched his and I realized then that she looked like his. If we were walking down a street, I wouldn’t think twice about assuming that was his kid. Even the relaxed way they were together made them look like family.
“Relax, Daze. It’s one of the cleanest environments next to a hospital and the guys and girls there are great. She knew she had to behave and sat with me like a champ. Everyone loved her gymnastics routine too,” he said with a smirk.
“I held his hand for the needles,” Bailey said proudly.
“Yes, she did through the entire thing. And showed everyone your tumbling routine too, so that was a hit with them.” He smiled down at her and back at me.
“You can’t bring a child to a tattoo shop, Kye!”
“It’s not like she got a tattoo and anyway, I needed the artist there for approval.”
“The artist? What are you talking about?” Every part of me was about to explode with the cuteness that was Kye with a child and finding a reason to be upset was losing its appeal. “I swear if you let her tattoo you, Kye, you will both be in so much trouble.”
He leaned down, whispering something to her, and she giggled before running to his other side and trying to pull up his shirt. Finally he helped and I could clearly see what the tattoo was, even covered in wrap.
It was the animal she drew on him with marker before. It was close to what she had drawn, a little perfecting from the tattoo artist, but overall, it was Bailey’s drawing.
My heart raced and stomach dropped.
“You got that tattooed on you?” My voice squeaked, but nothing was processing. I struggled to find any coherent words.
“First my name on your hands and now this? Kye, this is too much. This feels like more than tattoos, this feels like…” My words died because it felt nearly unbelievable.
This made him really feel like ours.
He stepped closer, close enough that I could smell the musk of his body wash. The scent went to my head, and I leaned into him more.
This couldn’t be real life. I couldn’t be this lucky to find this type of love and have it come back to me.
The man I had loved from the day I met him, loved me back, and even loved my child.
And now he was two feet away, tattooed with my name on him and her drawing, asking me a question that I realized I was ignoring.
“What did you say?”
“I said,” he leaned down, kissing my neck once, “what does it feel like?”
