The Single Dad (The Dalton Family, #3)

by Marni Mann

“Hey, hey,” I whispered into her face. The heat from her crying thick like steam. “I know you don’t know my voice or the feel of my arms, but I’m going to tell you something.” I pressed my lips against her forehead, breathing her in, her scent so clean and powdery. “I’m never going to let anything happen to you.” I held my lips there, my eyes closing, my heart pounding away. “I promise.”

i have daddy issues ok? stop it

You want to kiss me”—her voice was soft, breathless—“in the middle of the bar?” With my hand still on her cheek, I aimed her mouth up to mine. “It’s not just that I want to.” I lowered my face until we were only inches apart. “It’s that I have to.” The feeling inside me was so brutally overwhelming that I couldn’t leave this bar until I had her taste on my tongue. Until

My stare dipped to her feet and slowly rose, and I moaned, “Magnificent,” as I reached her face. “You’re too much.” “Nah.” I paused, my cock fucking throbbing. “My words barely do you justice.”

Instead of asking any of those, I softly said, “She’s lucky to have you.” “Nah, Sydney.” He stilled, his voice so coarse. “I’m the lucky one to have her.”

“But it wasn’t about the extra money they were offering,” she continued, “or the additional time off or the less responsibilities. I loved my job—that’s not what made me leave. I just knew it was time for me to come back and start school and be planted in one place for a while.” And meet me.

“Once she knows, things are going to change. I’ll be able to touch you whenever I want. Kiss you. Have you sleep in my bed. Not all at once, but eventually, as she gets used to us.” He paused. “I want Everly to see what a relationship looks like. I don’t want to hide it from her.”

I was so grateful for this moment, the way she had accepted me into their lives from the very beginning. How she was accepting me now. Those feelings only increased when I heard, “Love you, Syd.”

“AB?” The nurse paused, confusion filling her face. “In my thirty-two years as a pediatric nurse, I’ve never seen or heard of a child having O positive if one of their parents is AB.” He took a breath, holding it in. “That’s because I’m not her biological father.”

She nodded so hard that her hat almost fell off. But she held it on tightly and said, “Syd, Daddy and I want you to be our ever and ever.”