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.”

“But when I was out at the bar tonight and the guys were giving me a boatload of shit for not being with you, they were putting the fear of God into me that I’d waited too long, and I knew they were right. You were going to find someone else, and that would be my fault. I pushed you away, and I’d deserve that. But”—I held her so steady, getting lost in those icy-blue eyes—“I’m not going to let that happen. You are going to be mine.”

“I made you choose, and you picked right. I never should have given you that ultimatum. I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry, Sydney. But you don’t have to choose now. You can have both of us … if that’s what you want.”

You can’t judge a person for the decisions they make even if it’s right or wrong in that moment. What matters is how they handle it.”

She hadn’t realized I’d gotten on my knee. That I was holding out my hand. That I was asking, “Be my wife?” “And my mommy,” Everly chimed in. I slipped my other arm around Everly, glancing at my daughter as I added, “Be ours.” I took the ring from Everly, and I positioned it over Sydney’s finger. Waiting. It took only seconds for Sydney to reply, “Yes.” Once the ring was on her finger, she bent down and threw her arms around us. “Forever and ever.”