Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Hailey gave me an affected smile, those blue eyes on me, her nails scratching through my beard. “I’ll be waiting for you,” she said.
I took that hand and brushed my lips over her knuckles before I turned course and headed to Maddie’s room.
A dim nightlight glowed from low on the wall, and I quietly moved over to her bedside and sat down on the edge.
My little Button beamed up at me.
“You think I forgot something important, huh?” I teased.
She almost looked contrite, though her blue eyes danced with mirth. “Well, you didn’t really forget since you already gave me a goodnight, but since I wasn’t asleep yet, you’re supposed to give me another.”
“Is that a new rule?”
“Goodnights are important, Daddy! It’s how we get good dreams.” She said it like I was clueless.
A rough chuckle skated out, though it rolled with affection.
“Well, you get all the goodnights, then,” I said, and I started poking at her belly, making her giggle as I tickled her and sang, “Goodnight, goodnight, sleep tight, never, ever let the bed bugs bite.”
She grappled for my fingers as she howled with laughter. “You got me!”
Everything slowed, the energy a quiet hum of intensity. I touched her cute little nose that she had all scrunched up. “No, Button, you got me.”
I swept in and pressed a kiss to her forehead, and she hunkered down beneath her covers with her Princess Verona tucked to her side. “I love you, Daddy.”
Adoration pressed hard at my chest. “I love you the most.”
Pushing to standing, I eased back across her room, leaving her door cracked so we could hear her if she needed us, then I moved back down the hall to the other side of the upper floor.
I opened one side of the double doors that led into our bedroom.
Hailey was sitting up in bed and leaning against the headboard.
The sight of her punched me in the gut.
Blonde hair woven in maple and honey cascading around her stunning face in soft, touchable waves.
Pouty lips.
That body that drove me straight out of sanity. Her belly round with our kid.
But it was those crystalline eyes that would forever do me in. The way they dragged me into eternity.
Yeah.
They got me.
Every day. Every night. Every minute. Every moment.
And every single morning.
The End