I jerked my front door open to come face to face with a very jumpy Cori and two tiny ballerinas. Cori jumped, squealing like a guilty woman before putting a hand on her chest. Her fake smile couldn’t fool me, but I didn’t say anything. When her phone went to voicemail, I knew something was wrong so grabbed shoes, not bothering to change from my flannel pants. Mom yelled at me, swearing Cori would kill me for leaving. It was probably true, but an hour had come and gone. Then she wasn’t answering her phone.

“Sorry, we brought you yogurt.” Cori kissed my scar and pushed past me to go in. I knew something was wrong, but fought my nature to fly off the fucking handle. “Why are you off the couch? Get your butt back into a reclined position.” Cori glared.

“I got worried when you didn’t answer.” I shrugged, closing the door, locking it behind them. Cori told the girls to change and set the bag of yogurts in the freezer. I caught her as she stepped back, my arms circling her waist. “Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

“We can talk later, now go sit. I need you better for Harriet’s wedding in two days. No worming your way out of that one, buddy.” Cori spun in my arms, running her hands up my chest, putting light pressure on my piercings. The woman knew it drove me fucking crazy when she did that.

“You can’t distract me right now, even with sex, so start talking.” I pulled her body flush with mine, making sure she felt exactly what she did to me. Her whiskey eyes dilated and her cheeks flushed. Sick or not, I could take care of business, and if Cori thought she could tease her way out of the conversation she was wrong. Maybe.

“Daddy, we brought you strawberry!” My jaw literally went slack and I tore my eyes from Cori to settle them on the tiny voice calling me Daddy. My arms came away from Cori. Daddy. Celia let me scoop her up in my arms and I had to restrain to keep from crushing her. My princess called me Daddy.

“You did?” Celia bobbed her head. “That sounds like exactly what I need, Princess. Was dance fun?” Axel made her way upstairs, reaching for me to carry her too, and they told me all about the class while I took them out to the patio. I put them at their picnic table, trying to listen to the name of some new ballet move, but all I heard was one word. Daddy. For months, I had craved that word, hearing it was so much sweeter than I ever imagined. It was perfection rolling off my little girl’s sweet lips.

Cori brought the yogurt out, settling next to me and handing it out. “Can I call you Daddy?” Celia licked her orange spoon.

“Yeah, Princess.” I wanted to drop to my knees, to beg her to say the word over and over again. No other word in the world mattered but that one. I felt like shit, missed dance class, and something was wrong with my woman, but my baby girl calling me Daddy washed every bit of it away, sending the rest of the world to the back of my mind. “You can call me Daddy anytime. All the time.”

I ate every bit of the pink yogurt then Cori brought me out some herbal tea. It was like she knew my throat was killing me even if I would never admit it. It was bad enough having to cancel my personal training for the week and all my tattoo appointments for the next few days, but admitting I was in pain would have been too much of an ego blow. Before Cori could sit next to me I settled her in my lap.

“Congrats, Daddy.” Cori winked at me, smiling, and I kissed her temple.

“How did I get so fucking lucky? Sexy woman to take care of me, beautiful little girls running around my house, strawberry yogurt to make me feel better.” I took a long drink of the tea and Cori giggled. “But you aren’t off the hook. I still wanna know what happened between yogurt and here to make you look so scared.”

Cori swallowed hard, sighing. I could read her like a book and I had a feeling her druggie ex-husband was to blame for the reaction I was getting.

“Did he call you?” I dropped my voice to a whisper.

“No, he was outside FroZone. Please don’t get upset. I handled it, it just rattled me.” Upset? Not even close. More like fucking livid and murderous. “I told him to stay away and if he needed to contact me, to call my attorney. Then we left. It wasn’t a scene or anything. Rich begged me to talk to him, let him see Ax, but I left.” I saw red.

“He fucking followed you?” I growled, clenching my teeth.

“Honey, please stop. I said I took care of it. You’re sick, Celia called you Daddy, Harriet is getting married in two days, so can we just focus on the good stuff, please?” I wiped the tear off her cheek. “Richard has a point, though. He should be able to see Ax. He’s her dad and he’s not the one who attacked me. Maybe letting him get to know her would placate him.” I pinched her chin between my fingers and turned Cori to face me.

“That bastard deserves nothing. Not you, not Axel, and certainly not visitation. No, he didn’t attack you, Cori, but, where was he? Out at some drug den getting high while you got the shit stomped out of you. Ax may not be mine, but I’ll be damned if I see that little girl anywhere near him. You got me?” The tears came in full force, blotching her cheeks and turning her face red.

“Yeah, honey.” If anything was worth fighting for, it was keeping my girls away from that sick bastard. Maybe it was too soon in our relationship to be making those demands, but I didn’t trust the man, and Cori didn’t, either. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, just listen to me.” Cori kissed my scar and I threaded my hands into her hair to kiss her. I was sick, but if my woman needed attention, she got attention.

Cori broke the kiss, patting my arm lightly, “Get back in there and rest. I need a date for the wedding.” With another quick kiss, I let her up, making my way in to go to bed. My throat ached; my head was pounding. Cori had washed my sheets and put some shit in my room that smelled like menthol. I wasn’t thrilled about the smell at first, but when I realized I could breathe better because of it, I shut my mouth. I chugged some cold meds and laid back down, hoping I woke up to better news than she came home with.

* * *

Two days after the Richard run in, I found myself in a dress shirt driving Cori and the girls to the Layton twins’ place. Cori had on this black dress that was long enough to be classy, but short enough for me to push it up her hips and fuck her in it. Her brown hair was up in curls, and with her lips so glossy, I kept picturing them around my cock.

“Could you watch the road, Griffin?” Cori swatted my arm, and I jerked my eyes from her, back to the road. I mumbled an apology and grinned, while my woman called me an animal under her breath. If by animal, she meant completely insatiable then, yes. The girls were in matching dresses in the back with flowers in their hair, ready to be flower girls. Axel hadn’t quit talking since we left the house to drive to the other end of our neighborhood, and if the kid had been bouncing any faster, she could have vibrated.

I parked the Jeep behind Briggs’s Prius and we unloaded the girls. Cori fussed at them about getting dirty, sending them in with Rae. I snatched her hand just outside the door, jerking her into me.

“You look fucking beautiful.” I nuzzled into her neck, smelling her, and biting gently. Cori gasped, digging her red nails into my shirt. “When we get home, I’m gonna shove you into a wall so I can fuck you in that dress.” My girl hummed, nodding into my chest, backing away. Her cheeks were pink and the blush disappeared under the neck of her dress.

We made our way to the back of the house, her hand in mine, and Cori covered her mouth when she saw the yard. The woman had spent three straight nights over there, fixing it up, decorating, but still acted shocked. It did look nice. White and blue flowers and burlap with lace was everywhere. It looked like a wedding was about to happen and I was suddenly overwhelmed. Harriet was the one swearing she would never get married, but there we were. Cori hadn’t mentioned any want or need to get married, neither had I, but looking at the scene laid out in front of me, I was not against the idea.

Cori went to find Harriet and Briggs handed me a beer. I expected a tux, but instead he was in a button-down shirt and slacks. “You next, man?”

I felt the smile trying to break through and nodded. “Yeah, maybe. Getting married is sounding damn good right now. No more split houses and all that bullshit.” Briggs clapped me on the back, agreeing that Cori and I were taking too long to move in together. With the girls in play, I didn’t want to push shit. Cori got weird when it came to discussing the future, but seeing a wedding unfolding in front of me made me ready to move it along. Rich being a constant weight on her mind worried me. I knew she was terrified that somehow her no good ex would find a way to get Axel, or use me against her. If we got married, there was nothing anyone could do or say to make me out to be the bad guy. Cori would be tied to me, forever.

An hour later, I sat with Jacob, watching my woman with my little girls standing at the white archway while Briggs and Harriet got married. Cori wiped her eyes with a tissue, sneaking looks at me through the ceremony. The way she was crying and looking at me with one hand on my daughter’s shoulder, I knew it was time. It was time for my ring on her finger and her in my bed every night.