really let her go. There was no closure to be found for us because I’d finally admitted to myself that there was nobody else for me but her.
I’d either be happy because she was mine.
Or miserable because she wasn’t.
I might have been hurt and pissed off for the last nine years, but I’d held on to all the young love we’d had back then.
Yeah, we’d both grown up. But somehow, the woman she was today had only strengthened my resolve.
She was strong.
She was independent.
She was definitely resourceful and smart.
And I wanted her even more than I had when we were barely grown.
“Dad! Hey, Dad!” Maya bellowed as she came down the stairs.
I caught her up as she ran to me, and I hugged her hard.
This kid was still a miracle to me.
Mine and Skye’s.
And I’d learned so damn easily to love her more than I loved myself.
“Hey what?” I asked as I rested her on my hip.
“I get to stay with Aunt Brooke and Uncle Liam while you’re gone with Mom. They’re taking me to the zoo today. And Uncle Seth is coming, too.”
“I know. They’re pretty excited,” I explained. “Your aunt Brooke wants to do things with you before she has to go back to the East Coast.”
Maya let out a little-girl sigh. “I love having family. And I have so much of it now. I love Aunt Brooke, Uncle Liam, and Uncle Seth. They’re super cool.”
I smirked. “Because they let you eat cookies right before dinner?”
Brooke had given Maya a plate of cookies at the reception, and then Skye had wondered why our kid hadn’t eaten her dinner. But I had known why. I probably should have told Maya’s mother about the cookies, but I hadn’t. Aunts were allowed to spoil their nieces once in a while. And Brooke and Liam would be headed back to the East Coast soon, so it wouldn’t happen often.
My daughter looked at me earnestly. “Not just that, Dad. I think they really care about me like family should.”
My chest ached because Maya had been deprived of family for so long. “They do,” I assured her. “All of your new family does.”
“Where are you taking Mom?” she asked. “She never gets to go anywhere.”
“It’s a surprise,” I explained. “And I’m trying to take care of the problem of her not going anywhere. Even grownups need a break once in a while.”
“Do you think it will make her happy?”
It nearly killed me that even my daughter had been able to sense some of her mother’s past trauma.
I nodded. “I hope so, Princess.”
“She’s getting better now. But she used to be sad. She tried to hide it, but I could tell. Mom tried to do everything to make me happy, but I always knew something was wrong when we lived with Marco.”
Out of the mouths of babes.
Maybe it was just an observation, but Maya couldn’t be more spot on with her simplistic theories.
I bounced her up and then caught her again, making her squeal like the child she was. “I promise I’ll do everything in my power to make you both happy from now on,” I vowed.
She shrugged her small shoulders. “I’m already happy. I have you and all the rest of my family. Really, I was never unhappy. I just wanted to go and do more things when I was younger, but Mom was always a good mother.”
“Was she?” I asked.
My daughter nodded. “The best.”
It was pretty amazing how well Skye really had shielded Maya from everything ugly when her daughter was younger. She didn’t hesitate to love or trust. Maybe she had sensed that something bad was happening, but she’d never been caught in the middle of any of that. If Maya had any issues, she wouldn’t have been able to accept people into her life so readily.
“So you don’t mind that we’re going to take separate little vacations once in a while?” I asked Maya.
“Nope!” she said immediately. “Can I tell you a secret?”
I nodded, hoping it was nothing bad.
“I hope you and Mom decide to get married. I know you don’t have to for us to be a family. But it would be so cool,” she said hopefully. “Then we could all be Sinclairs.”
“Do you want my last name?” I asked huskily. “Do you want to be a Sinclair?”
She thought for a moment before she said, “Only if Mom does, too. I have Mom’s last name, and I don’t want to hurt her feelings.”
Maya’s comment made me more proud than it