19. Noah
Chapter 19
Noah
T he scene I walk into makes me stop dead in my tracks.
Nellie is sitting between Mom and Lilly at a tiny table in the kids’ section of the library. All three of them have ginormous smiles on their faces while Nellie jabbers about something I can’t hear.
My heart thumps in my chest.
Since Lilly left all those years ago, I never let myself imagine what the future had in store for me. I figured I had plenty of time to just sit back and let the chips fall where they may. Given that the last time I tried to make life plans they blew up in my face, I wasn’t too particularly excited to make new ones.
Standing here, watching my daughter laugh with my mom and the love of my life, I truly believe this is where we were always supposed to end up.
The question remains, how do I keep them here with me? How do I get Lilly to see me as more than just Noelle’s dad?
“It’s quite the sight, isn’t it?” Dad’s voice precedes his hand on my shoulder.
I look over at him, the emotions I’m experiencing reflecting back at me in his eyes. “It’s overwhelming in the best way.”
Dad smirks at me and makes a face of understanding. “Come introduce me to your girls.”
My grin grows as I lead him over to the tiny table. Our movements make Nellie look up from her art project, and my heart stutters at the smile she beams my way.
“Dad! Grandma Natalie works in a library! I can’t even believe it.”
I laugh at her enthusiasm. “Pretty cool, right?”
“Definitely.” Nellie goes back to coloring while I squeeze a hand to Lilly’s shoulder. She tilts her head back to look at me, and I can’t help but lean down and press a kiss to her forehead. Her cheeks flush pink at the gesture. When I look up, Nellie is watching us with a small smile on her face. I lean down and press a kiss to the top of her blonde head, and she giggles. I finally get around to Mom and kiss the top of her head, as well.
“You’re such a little charmer,” Mom teases. Her joke doesn’t quite have the same impact with the tears welling in her eyes.
I wink at her and then squat down behind Nellie’s chair. “Baby Bee, I want to introduce you to my dad. Are you up for meeting him?”
She shrugs, continuing to color in the section she’s working on. “That’s fine.”
I wait until she turns toward me in her chair. “Nellie, this is my dad, Tucker.”
Dad moves closer to us and squats down next to me. “Hey, kiddo. I’m really happy to meet you.”
She takes him in the way she did me before saying, “You’re a firefighter like my dad, right?”
“That’s right. We’ll have to take you to the station one day.”
Nellie’s eyes brighten. “Can I sit in a firetruck?”
Dad grins. “Damn right, you can.”
“Tucker!” Mom scolds.
Dad makes a face at Nellie. “Sorry, Little Bug.”
She grins and starts asking Dad questions about being the fire chief. I look at Lilly to gauge how she’s feeling about all this.
Concern hits me hard when I find her pressing her fingers into her lips while tears are on the edge of falling from her lashes. I push to my feet, moving to her side within seconds. I grab her arm with a gentle tug and pull her to the other side of the kids’ area.
“Hey…” I frame her face with my hands. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”
She laughs humorlessly, wiping her eyes of moisture. “Nothing, I’m being silly, that’s all.”
“If it’s making you cry, it’s not silly,” I point out.
“It’s just… in five minutes, your parents have shown more interest in Noelle than my parents did in a week. They loved her. I know that without a doubt, but they weren’t hands-on grandparents. My mom would never have sat at that table and listened to Noelle drone on and on about some mundane fact, let alone colored a picture with her.”
I tilt my head with a grimace. “Mom got a lot of practice with me. I used to do that every day after I came home from school.”
Lilly laughs. “Like father like daughter.”
“Seriously. It’s kind of scary how alike we are.” I swipe my thumbs across Lilly’s cheek a final time. “Look, I can’t say anything about how your parents interacted with Nellie, but the one thing I am certain of is how much they wanted the best for you. There is no doubt in my mind that they did everything they could to ensure you both had the best life you could. It might’ve looked differently to how my parents would go about it, but the important part is they took care of you. That’s the thing that matters to me the most.”
Lilly nods. “Thanks for saying that. I needed that reminder.”
I look over at Nellie, who’s gone back to coloring while my parents stare at her in a way that’s both precious and creepy at the same time. “We should probably go save our daughter from the creeps.”
Lilly snorts. Her hand slaps at my chest in chastisement. “They are not creeps. It’s the first time they’ve gotten to meet their granddaughter. Of course, they’re going to stare. The good thing is Nellie isn’t typically aware of that kind of stuff. Or she’s the one doing the staring.”
An idea pops into my head. “Hey, how many visits would it take for Nellie to be comfortable spending an evening with my parents alone?”
Lilly frowns. “I’m not sure. There would be several steps involved, not to mention how quickly she warms up to them. Why?”
“Well, I was kind of hoping I could take you out to dinner again, just the two of us.”
“Why?”
“Because I’d like to start dating my daughter’s mom. See if we could maybe do this the right way this time.”
“Noah…” Lilly sighs. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“It just complicates an already complicated situation. What if we have nothing in common anymore? What if we give Nellie false hope that her parents will get back together and then we break up again?”
“What if the chemistry we always had is still here, and we make it work? What if you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and we get to spend the rest of our lives as a family?”
Lilly opens her mouth to reject my idea, but she can’t hide the desire in her eyes. The longing matches my own, so I see the moment she’s about to accept.
“That night after Donna’s plays on repeat in my head every single day. We went up in flames, Bumblebee. You know we did. And even though the night ended with some heartbreaking realizations, I finally felt like the missing piece inside me had been found. Give me a chance to remind you how amazing we can be together. Please .”
“Okay,” she whispers.
A full-wattage smile breaks across my face. I feel like picking her up and spinning her around.
“But your parents don’t need to watch Nellie. Aunt Christine told me this morning that she’s decided to stay a little while longer in Sonoma. She’s going back to Greensboro in a few days to get things settled at her store, then she’ll be back to help me with Nellie when I need to work.”
“That’s amazing. I’m glad she’s going to stay. Nellie must be ecstatic.”
“Very much so. She was getting anxious about her leaving. Christine has been a part of her life since she was born. I think we both would’ve been lost without Christine staying with us.”
“Then I better get to planning. I’ve got a woman to woo and not very much time to do it.”
Lilly rolls her eyes, but her pleased smile gives her away. “Come on Casanova, let’s go see what your daughter has created.”
I take Lilly’s hand. “Gladly.”