“Have a good weekend. You’ve more than earned it,” my partner, Nico, grumbled as I pushed away from my desk.

“I don’t know why you’re so damn cranky, man. You’re off duty the same as me. Your woman and the kids are at home waiting for you. Get the fuck outta here already.”

He groaned and ran his fingers through the dark blond hair of his fauxhawk. “Between our caseload this week and Bax teething while the girls are getting more molars in, I feel like I haven’t slept in forever. I’m fucking exhausted, and I still have to finish up this last report.”

I smirked at him, and it had nothing to do with the bet we’d made that’d left him with our paperwork today. “If you’re that tired, maybe I should swing by your place and see if Sophie needs help with anything before I head home.”

“You’d better get the fuck outta here before I kick your ass,” he growled.

I laughed as I strode through the squad room on my way out the door. Nico was predictable when it came to his wife, and I loved yanking his chain. It was good for him though because most people were too intimidated by Nico to give him a hard time. But the extra inch he had on me and all those tattoos didn’t worry me because I knew how good of a guy he was. Trust was the most important thing to have between cops who were partners, and I wouldn’t have wanted him working with me if we didn’t have it.

I’d always dreamed of being on the police force. From the first time I’d held my pretend badge, a set of plastic handcuffs tucked in my pocket and mirrored sunglasses covering my eyes, I’d wanted to carry the real thing. Anytime I’d played cops and robbers as a little boy running around my family’s huge farm, I’d been the good guy. It didn’t matter how often my childhood friends told me it was fun being a robber; I played the cop every time.

That desire didn’t go away as I grew up, and I sacrificed to make it happen. After playing football in college while earning my degree in criminal justice, knowing I was a sure bet to be drafted by a pro team didn’t tempt me off my chosen path. Neither did my parents’ reaction or their threat to the trust fund my grandparents had setup for me—although they’d eventually come to understand how much being a cop meant to me and supported my decision.

And then there was the strain it put on relationships—or at least that was the excuse my bitch of an ex-fiancée had used for cheating on me. She’d mouthed off some bullshit about how I was never around when she needed me and that’s why she’d been sleeping with her high school sweetheart behind my back for six months before I figured it out. But I didn’t regret becoming a cop, and I wasn’t pissed I’d wasted so much time on Jenna because it gave me Lynn, my beautiful baby girl.

It’d been more than two years since she’d fucked me over, and I’d only made a few half-assed attempts at dating since then. Being a cop and a dad were more than enough for me for now. With Jenna out of my life, my weekdays were about protecting and serving my community and my weekends were all about Lynn. As much as I loved being a cop, I looked forward to when I picked her up from after-school care on Fridays even more.

It felt like a piece of my heart was missing when she was at her mom’s place during the week. My house was too empty without her gone, so I busted my ass at work during those days and tried to limit how much it interfered with the time I had with her. It didn’t always work out for me since crime didn’t take the weekends off, but Cap’ was understanding of my situation and Nico did what he could to cover for me if something came up on one of our cases when I had Lynn. And when it couldn’t be avoided, my baby girl got to spend time with her grandparents out on the farm—something both she and they loved.

It only took me ten minutes to make the drive from the station to Lynn’s school. The second I pushed through the doors into the gym where they kept the kids after school, she raced towards me and threw herself at me.

“Daddy!” she yelled, her thin arms wrapping around my neck after I lifted her up. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too, baby girl.”

“Of course you did, silly,” she giggled. “’Cause you love me most in the whole wide world.”

She didn’t wait for my response, scrambling out of my hold to run over and grab her shiny purple backpack before saying goodbye to her friends. Then she skipped back to me, the sparkly pink shoes on her feet lighting up each time they hit the floor. She slid her hand into mine when she reached me, and I took her bag and slung it over my shoulder as I walked her out to my truck.

“How was school this week?”

“Good.”

“C’mon, baby girl. You’ve got to give your daddy more than a one-word answer,” I teased, helping her up onto the booster in the back seat of the extended cab.

She offered me a sweet smile that melted my heart. “I liked that I got to play with my friends a lot.”

I set her backpack on the seat next to her and waited for her to buckle herself in. I wanted to make sure it was securely fastened, but I was subtle about it because she was in a stage where she thought she could do everything by herself and I didn’t want to crush her growing self-confidence. “I can see why that’d be your favorite part of school since friends are important, but what’d you like least about your week?”

Her little nose wrinkled and she shrugged her shoulders as she answered me softly, “The stupid picture we had to draw for art.”

“Really?” I was surprised since she usually couldn’t wait to show me everything she’d made during art. “Why didn’t you like it? You’re great at drawing.”

“Because,” she sighed dramatically, “we had to draw a picture of our family, and I knew Momma would be mad if I didn’t put her and Jason in it. But I just wanted it to be of you and me, with Granny and Grandaddy. So I did one to give to her and I’ll make one for you when we get home.”

This was the part of what Jenna had done that absolutely killed me. She hadn’t just hurt me; she’d hurt our daughter too. Put her in a place where she had to worry about shit no five-year-old little girl was supposed to think about. And forced me in a position where I had to act like I supported the bad decisions she’d made so our daughter didn’t feel dragged into the middle of it any more than she already was. Like how Jenna moved that douchebag she’d cheated on me with into the house I’d bought and paid for so my baby girl had a safe place to live when she wasn’t with me, and now I had to deal with the fact that Lynn spent her weekdays in the same home with him and felt obligated to add him into drawings of her family at school.

Pictures without me.

Her father.

But I also had to accept my part in it too—for picking the wrong damn woman. “I’m sure it’s a beautiful picture, and your momma is going to love it.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” she sighed. Her frown didn’t disappear until I pressed a gentle kiss against her forehead and she smiled up at me. “Wanna see it?”

“You know I do.”

She dug into her backpack and pulled out a piece of cream paper with the picture she’d drawn on it. I ooh’d and aah’d over it, even while clenching my fists because it pissed me the fuck off to see a family picture drawn by my daughter without me in it.

“You better tuck that back in your folder and keep it safe so you can give it to your momma when she picks you up from school on Monday.”

“Okay, Daddy.” I had the car door almost shut when she squealed, “Oh! I almost forgot!” She grabbed a sheet of bright pink paper and thrust it at me. “You need to take this class, Daddy.”

“A class for me, huh?” I quickly scanned the flyer and chuckled. “What? My ponytails and braids aren’t good enough for my baby girl?”

“I know you try hard, but the teacher has to fix ‘em for me when I get to school on Mondays.”

I tapped her nose with my index finger. “Well, then I guess I’d better plan on going to this class next week so I can learn how to do ‘em right. I don’t want my pretty girl going to school with her hair not done right.”