“Daddy!” Frankie came barreling out my mom’s door, brown hair a disaster and flying all around her. The kid was sporting that smile that melted me into a puddle of goo. Nothing but sticky sap right at her feet.

She had on a tank top and shorts. Since it was Frankie Leigh, she wasn’t about to stop there. She was also wearing an old pair of suspenders, which she’d gotten God knows where, and sky-high heels she’d pilfered from my mom’s closet that were ten sizes too big.

And surprise, surprise, that damned hot pink tutu.

Couldn’t help but grin.

Guess I really was a sucker for all that Frankie flare.

“There’s my girl.” The second she reached me, I swooped her into my arms and tossed her into the air. Exactly the way I knew she liked. My heart gave an extra boom at the sound of her laughter that rang through the morning. That sound alone had to be my single greatest joy.

I caught her, hugging her to my chest, pushing my nose into her hair, breathing in my little girl.

“I missed you,” I whispered into the mess of hair on her head. I held her to me a little closer, and Frankie wrapped those tiny arms around my neck, the force of her smile touching me even when I couldn’t see her face.

“I misses you, too, Daddy! But mes and Grammy had so much fun. She lets me do my very own skupture, right, Grammy?” She wiggled out of my tight hold, shifting in my arms to look back at my mom, who was standing at her usual place in the threshold and grinning back at us.

“A sculpture?” I clarified as I carried Frankie up the sidewalk.

“Uh-huh.”

“And what did you sculpt?” I asked.

Those brown eyes widened like I was clueless. “A puppy, silly. I told you I wants a puppy so, so bad. Oh, Daddy, can I? Can I have a puppy? I’ll be the best puppy mommy ever!”

A pang hit me hard.

Cutting me deep.

I fought against it, the memories threatening just at the cusp of my consciousness. Since Rynna had come into my life, it felt like everything was right there, trembling beneath my nose, begging to be exposed.

The thought of Missy still killed me, finding my girl dead at the side of the road on the same damned day my wife had left me. I’d had that dog since before I’d lost Sydney, and she’d been my solace, a reason to live when I hadn’t wanted to go on.

But life was brutal that way.

Threatening to take everything in one fell swoop.

If what happened with Sydney hadn’t been enough to make me ridiculously overprotective of Frankie, desperate to keep her safe, the cruelty of that day had solidified it.

I shoved the thoughts down and softened my voice. “Still don’t think that’s the best idea right now, Frankie.”

“When’s a good time?”

“Now we’re sculpting?” I asked when I got within a couple feet of my mom, praying it’d distract Frankie from demanding an answer to that question.

“We dabble in all the art forms, don’t we, Sweet Pea Frankie Leigh? Call us multitalented. Just like your daddy.” Mom ruffled her fingers through my daughter’s hair. There was so much affection in her gaze when she looked at us both, I couldn’t help the surge of love that went crashing through my senses. It was like something inside me had been unlocked, and every sort of emotion I’d tried to keep repressed billowed out without my permission.

The love.

The longing.

The fear.

The regret.

Rynna’s face glided through my consciousness, her touch a faint whisper across my skin, breathing all that beauty and life.

Stirrings of hope shook through me like tremors of warning. Like quivers that staked deeper, demanding more. The ground shifted between the two extremes. Tossing me back and forth with no idea which was going to send me stumbling straight into a free fall.

Guilt throbbed, urging me to take heed of that distorted sense of loyalty. Thing was, I was having a harder and harder time remembering just what I was supposed to be loyal to.

Mom’s head tilted as she studied my face. Saw the second she came to a conclusion, because her brow lifted in a slow, knowing arch. “You have a good time last night?”

I tried to form a quick lie, but it wouldn’t come fast enough. Not before my mom latched on to something in my expression that sent her mouth curling into satisfaction.

“Ahh, I see,” she said. “Looks like you had a really good time last night.”

How the woman still had the power to send a rush of embarrassment flooding my face, I didn’t know. But there I stood like a twelve-year-old kid who was trying to come up with an excuse for his mom finding his dirty magazine stash under his bed.

“Ma,” I said with a huff of a breath as I set my daughter on her feet. The kid wobbled in those ridiculous shoes.

Shit. I felt guilty for even holding her when I was suddenly belted with a thousand memories from last night.

Rynna.

Fucking Rynna.

Little Thief.

Guessed the woman conquering my body wasn’t all that unexpected. But it was the way she’d taken hostage of my mind that was close to sending me into a tailspin. The way she’d stolen a place for herself inside me. A place I didn’t think it was possible for her to keep.

For years, I’d never been tempted. Had never given in, because I knew what I was living for. The reason for every beat of my heart. My gaze dipped to that reason. To the tiny thing that swayed clumsily in her tutu and those heels, her hands over her head as she attempted a spin she wasn’t even close to being capable of pulling off.

My perfect Tiny Dancer.

“Go get your stuff, Sweet Pea.” My voice was quieted, muted to the point where the only sound was my devotion flooding the room.

“’kay.” Frankie scooted across the room, heels catching on the carpet, the little thing disappearing at the head of the hallway.

I jerked with the soft hand that suddenly landed on my forearm. “Hey,” Mom said. Her voice was the same gentle command as the one she’d raised me with. All the innuendo she’d been teasing me with had vanished. “What’s going on with you, Rex?”

Looking at my boots, I roughed a palm over my mouth, like it might have the power to seal in all the things I was itching to confess. “Nothin’,” I said.

“Don’t nothin’ me. You think I don’t know you? My boy? My son? My kid, who’s worn that same expression since he was seventeen? You think I don’t know when you’re terrified? And that’s something that just about never leaves those eyes, Rex. But today? It’s different, and I know you know it, just as well as I do.”

I forced myself to meet her knowing gaze.

“When are you going to realize you deserve to be happy?” she prodded.

My head shook. “I’m trying, Ma. But I’m terrified of doing something stupid. Making a wrong choice, the way I always do. Of doing something that jeopardizes Frankie.”

“And you finding happiness again threatens that? That just sounds foolish to me. The way I look at it? The happier you are, the happier she’s gonna be.”

Guilt flamed all around me, worry closing my throat. “You think she’s unhappy?”

Her brow creased into the few lines that showed her age. “God, no. Not at all. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that child adores you. Thinks you walk on water. Thinks you can do no wrong. But there’s gonna come a day when she’s old enough to see the shadows in your eyes. The ones that are chased away just by looking at her. She’s your life, Rex. We all know that. Finding happiness again won’t mean that you love her any less.”

She moved to stand closer to me. She set her hand over my heart. “This? It’s missing something. It’s been for a long, long time. Long before that bitch ever up and left you two. Maybe it’s time you find it. You can’t move forward without moving on.”

Emotion ran my throat. Stinging and burning. I attempted to swallow it down, but the words were scratchy when I released them. “But what if being with her is wrong? What if I fuck up again and chase her away? What if Frankie falls for her?”

What if I do?

Couldn’t even bring myself to state the last because I already knew I was well on my way.

Glee flashed in Mom’s eyes, her grin victorious. “So you’re saying there is a girl?”

“Ma.” Affectionate frustration. She knew exactly how to goad me.

She softened again, her smile going gentle, understanding brimming in the warmth of her eyes. “There are no certainties in this life, Rex. We fail, we win, and we straight up lose. You know that first hand. But what you haven’t accepted is that the only security we have is how we use the moments we’re given. We waste them or embrace them. We cherish them or we let fear taint them. And yeah, some chances are higher risk. Of course they are, and I’m not saying to run out and be reckless. You don’t have to rush in or make any big decisions. You can protect your daughter while you test the waters. But you aren’t ever gonna know unless you try. You just have to decide if this girl’s worth giving her that chance.”

Chances.

I almost smirked. Almost wanted to tell her she sounded just like Rynna.

Rynna.

Fucking beautiful Rynna.

“I don’t even know where to start,” I admitted through a sigh. “Been keeping people at arm’s length for so long, don’t have the first clue about how to get back in the dating game.”

But there was something about me and Rynna that felt like we’d already surpassed all of that. Our connection went deeper than testing the waters. Bigger than dating or seeing how it went.

Something strong blazed between us. A connection that shackled us together.

Unavoidable.

Irresistible.

Truth was that last night I’d felt closer to her than I’d felt to anyone in so damned long, and I wasn’t talking Frankie or my mom or the guys.

This was about being united with someone. Bonded. Tied.

That connection had lit into a frenzy when I’d sat in the darkness of her room and watched her sleep.

Fuck.

She was gorgeous.

The kind of gorgeous that wasn’t just skin deep, even though that body made me crazy with need.

I was talking about the goodness that poured from her.

Sunshine and sweet.

I’d watched her until the sun started to show, like it was drawn to her the same as I was to this girl. Finally, I’d forced myself from her bed so I could clear my head.

Thing was, the confusion had only grown the more distance I put between us. That gravity calling me back to her while all my resolutions and dedications had warned I was making mistake after mistake.

“You could start by doing something nice for her,” Mom said.

“Nice?”

She laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re so far gone you don’t know what nice is? There’s gotta be something you could do for this girl to let her know you care. That you’re interested. Doesn’t have to be extravagant. Just show her you aren’t the uptight, grumpy pants this whole town thinks you are.” A smile slipped into the words.

My brow rose. “Grumpy pants?”

Frankie was suddenly right at my side, dancing around, singing, “Grumpy pants, grumpy pants, my daddy is a grumpy pants,” over and over again.

Maybe Frankie could see it better than I’d thought.

And maybe it was fucking time I did something about it.