Sheltered (Yours to Keep #2)

My sister just left her newborn on my doorstep.

With a note that read, “I love you. I can’t come back. Please take care of her.”

My ex walked out three months ago and took all of the savings it took me seven years to build.

I have forty-one dollars in my bank account, and I don’t know how I’m paying for rent this month.

I was supposed to go on a date with a firefighter tonight, but when he showed up at my door, I told him I had to cancel.

He’d brought his daughter with him, because she wanted to meet me.

He looked down at the newborn in my arms, and her tiny hand curling around my finger.

He lifted her from my arms, kissed the top of her head, and with his other arm, pulled me in close and kissed my forehead.

His little girl tugged on his coat and whispered up at him, “Daddy, does she not have a mommy either?”

He looked down at his daughter, then back at me, and growled,

“She does now.”