Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 51792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Zoe’s innocent eyes were wide with fear of me. There was no denying she was mine. She had my eyes, the ones I’d gotten from Mom. And like Nate said, Zoe looked very much like a picture of our mom when she’d been around Zoe’s age.
Nate nudged me in their direction. When we reached the porch, Avery bent down and said to Zoe, “You can call me anytime, and I’ll come back if you need me.”
I needed Avery. She was the only one who’d spent a good amount of time with Zoe. But Nate’s stare warned me not to say anything. I wasn’t given a chance.
Zoe looked at me and asked, “Are you my dad?”
I should have cleared my throat before saying, “Yeah,” as I croaked the word out.
Zoe leaped, and I had to take a step forward to catch her. She buried her face in my chest. “Will you find my mommy?”
What else was there to say? “Yes,” I said, as my heart ached for her.
My brother gave me the evil eye before coming and patting Zoe’s back. “I’ll see you soon, kiddo.” He kissed the top of her head as Zoe continued to cling to me.
I shifted so Zoe could wave them goodbye as they got in the SUV that had brought me here. When the car pulled away, Zoe opened her hand, palm up, revealing a Matchbox car. “Uncle Nate said this is yours.” How had he found it? I used to collect miniature model cars. “He said I could have it. But Mommy says if we find something, we should return it to who it belongs to.”
Jesus. I was a dad. “You can keep it,” I said. “In fact, I hid some others in the house.”
“You did?”
I had, unless Nate had found those, too. “Why don’t we find them?”
With her in one arm and my bag in my other hand, I walked up the porch steps. I opened the door and set her down.
“Zoe, are you ready to make cookies?”
The lyrical voice I assumed belonged to Sunshine. Zoe looked up at me. “Go ahead, I’ll be there in a minute,” I said.
She ran into the house as I stood just outside the threshold. There were many reasons I hadn’t come home after Mom’s funeral.
The biggest one was guilt. Mom had called me days before she died, begging me to come home. She hadn’t seen me in a while, she’d said. There had been some big deal I needed to close, and I’d told her soon, probably the following week. As Mom hadn’t been ill or diagnosed with anything, I’d thought there was time. But soon had never come.
Being here made me face the reality that I’d failed Mom. She’d been my greatest champion in life when everyone had looked at my brother as the golden boy. And the one time she’d asked me for something so small, I’d been too busy.
The only thing that got me to step inside was knowing she’d believed in me. She would expect me to be nothing shy of the greatest dad, even when doubts plagued me. A second later, I took the step forward.
The chatter in the kitchen caught my attention. Zoe was standing on a chair with her hands in the dough at the island that hadn’t been there when I was growing up.
Next to her was a woman who stole my breath. She was sunlight personified. She had golden skin and hair, with a smile aimed at my daughter so wide I could feel her warmth from where I stood. Though I could only see a little more than her profile, I dared say she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on.
Dad walked right in my line of sight. “Don’t even think about it, son. She works here, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
Dad and I had a lot of words to say to each other. But he wasn’t the boss of me anymore. The problem was, with Nate gone, now I was Sunshine’s boss. As a lawyer, I knew better than anyone in the house how important boundaries between employer and employee were.
Zoe was my number one priority. That didn’t mean I didn’t have eyes. And everything about Sunshine was unforgettable.
FOUR
Sunshine
My heart raced faster in my chest the closer Mitchell got to me.
“Daddy, come make cookies with us,” Zoe called out without thought that it was likely the first time she’d used that moniker.
I couldn’t resist seeing his reaction and looked up from the curtain of my hair. I caught his surprise a second before our eyes met. A rush of heat flooded my cheeks and turned my attention back to the precious little girl who had stolen my heart.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice hitching in the process. Zoe didn’t notice, but I did.