I cracked my eyes open and saw the sun was barely above the horizon. No creepy stalker watching me, and that meant I could go right back to sleep. My nightmare was different this time. I could still smell the warm cinnamon rolls in the oven, but I hadn’t woken in a cold sweat. Instead, I’d be able to roll back over in my warm new bed and go back to sleep.

I’d just closed my eyes again, when something huge landed on my side.

“Oof!” The air rushed out of my lungs.

“Good morning, Mel!” she said, so chipper, like she hadn’t just tried to collapse one of my lungs. I flipped the blankets down to get a good look at her.

“Good morning, Esme.” I glanced over at the clock on the nightstand. “Isn’t it a little early?”

She was still in her heart-and-dragon pajamas, complete with a little robe and slippers. Her little arms wrapped around a white stuffed bear. My heart thudded as I looked at it. It wasn’t the same one, I knew that was impossible, but it was so familiar it nearly brought tears to my eyes.

“No, not too early. My daddy said I’m not allowed out of my room until the little hand is on six, and it's past that already. What are we going to do today?” She vibrated with the energy only kids possess.

“I’m not sure yet. Maybe we should see if your dad has anything planned.”

“Okay. Can I have some breakfast?”

“Sure, why don’t we leave your stuffed animal in your room and I’ll get you some food.” I hated how much it got to me. How much it hurt to see that bear. I rolled out of the bed and Esme grabbed onto my hand.

We dropped off her bear and walked to the kitchen. The whole time she swung my arm back and forth, as she came up with all her plans for what she thought we should do today.

“Kiddo, we only have twenty-four hours in a day and it’s almost winter. I don’t think a day at the beach, plus the zoo, plus going to the library and stopping for ice cream are going to get done. Why not pick one of those and we’ll put the rest on a list. What do you want to eat?” I stood in front of the wall of cabinets and a fridge that looked big enough to hold an entire side of beef.

“Can I have some pancakes?” Of course, she would start with the hard stuff. I opened a few cabinets, like a short stack would appear behind one of the doors.

“What about a cup of coffee or something?”

“I’m only little, Mel. I can’t have coffee,” Esme said, laughing like it was the funniest joke in the world. I pulled out my phone. Pancake recipe coming up.

“You have to help me, though. I can’t do it all on my own.” I grabbed the flour and other ingredients.

“Sure.” Esme scooted a chair across the tile floor. I cringed, the sound of Esme’s chair screeching across the floor loud enough to wake the dead. When Esme hopped up on the chair, I felt like I was like staring into a looking glass. It wasn’t Esme there, it was me. So small and happy. I gulped past the tightness in my throat.

“I’ll crack the eggs, but I’ll need your help with the stirring.” Esme nodded her head enthusiastically, sending her hair flying all over the place. “Should we add some chocolate chips?” She jumped up so fast she nearly fell off the chair. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

After the first ten pancake-flipping failures, I finally got the hang of the flipping. Esme gobbled them up almost as fast as I could make them, so I tried to keep them small. Bacon sizzled in the other pan I had going. I put some music on through my phone and did a little morning cooking dance, and Esme hummed as she shoveled the pancakes into her mouth. The snick of the syrup bottle being opened made me turn around. She drowned those semi-burnt oddly shaped pancakes.

“No more syrup. You’re going to—” but it died in my throat. It wasn’t Esme. It was Rhys. He stood beside her at the table. His hair a tousled mess, in pajama pants and no shirt, his tanned, muscled chest taunting me.

“Am I not allowed to have any?” he said, plate in hand.

“Of course, you can. I…I was just letting Esme know it wasn’t a good idea to add another metric ton of syrup to her pancakes. They are already pretty sweet.”

“They sure are.” He cut off a small piece of the chocolate chip pancake and slid it into his mouth. My body heated up, like fire across my skin, and the spatula nearly fell out of my hand. “You’re on fire, Melanie.” She sure was, but how did he know that?

“What?”

He pointed his fork behind me. I turned to see a fiery brick of charcoal in the middle of my pan, flames dancing around the edges of it. Oh, shit! I grabbed the pan off the burner and thrust it under the faucet turned on high. A cloud of steam and smoke blew up into my face. I washed the remnants of the pancake down the drain, dried off the pan, and went back to the burner, ladling some more batter and turned down the fire on the sizzling, popping bacon.

Rhys and Esme chattered about all her plans for the day. Esme popped up at lease twice more for pancakes. I had no idea where she put the mountain of pancakes she devoured. Her body had to be about seventy-five percent pancake at this point. I just tried to focus on not burning the place down. I refused to turn around, keeping my focus solely on the pan and the pancakes. A chair scraped along the floor. I would have to cut her off. I didn’t think it was right for a kid to eat twelve chocolate chip pancakes in one sitting.

“Can I take over?” It wasn’t Esme, though. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I tightened my grip on the spatula. I glanced over my shoulder and my heart thundered. He nodded toward the pans and spatula.

“Sure, go right ahead,” I said, handing Rhys the spatula before scooting my chair up to the table. His eyes were on me the entire way. I didn’t have to look up to know. His gaze was hot and intense, and waited for Rhys to slide a pancake onto my plate. I thanked him, keeping my eyes firmly on my plate. Maybe I could drown out the feelings rushing through my body with a hearty helping of carbs and sugar. I stole a peek at him as I lifted the first bite to my lips. Mistake!

His muscled back, as he moved deftly from pan to pan, flipping pancakes and sliding the bacon onto a plate, drove me to distraction.

“Mel, can we go to the zoo? I decided.”

“Sure, kiddo. We can go to the zoo.”

“Daddy, are you going to come?”

I nearly choked on my food. I grabbed a glass of orange juice with both hands and gulped it down. I wasn’t sure which was better, if he came or not.

* * *

RHYS

Waking up was always rough. Never being able to fall asleep unless I was at the point of exhaustion meant mornings were never my favorite. When I opened my eyes, the sun wasn’t peeking over the horizon as it usually was when I first woke. It was in the sky. I checked my clock. After seven. Esme rarely let me sleep past the first crack of dawn.

I hopped up out of bed and raced to her room. My heart pounded in my chest. She wasn’t there. The smell of bacon and sweetness snapped me out of it. Mel! How could I have forgotten?

Esme sat in her chair, wolfing down pancakes like they were going out of style, as music played from a phone on the table. Mel danced at the stove, her attention on the sizzling food in the pans. It hit me right in the chest, seeing the two of them there together. A deep ache for how things should have been. It all felt so normal. So right.

I kissed Esme on the top of her head as she shoveled pancakes into her mouth. Syrup stuck to the tip of her nose. Once Mel noticed I was there, she relinquished pancake duty to me.

I stood at the stove, spatula in hand. Esme and Mel sat at the table behind me, talking and having fun. I couldn’t suppress my smile. It was so normal.

“Daddy, are you going to come?” Mel made a small choking at her question. So innocently asked, but Mel’s reaction let me know exactly where her mind was. It was the same place my mind had gone when I walked into the kitchen and saw her in those pajama shorts and tank top, with her hair up on top of her head. Beautiful.

I wanted to go with them, but I couldn’t. Duty called.

“I can’t today, sweetheart, but I’m sure you’ll have a great time with Mel.”

The rest of breakfast went along quickly. Mel finished her plate of pancakes, not looking up at me once. Esme had her full attention. Every question, every comment, she was right there giving Esme her complete attention. It wasn’t even something that I could do all the time. And Esme glowed under the attention. She was livelier than she’d been in quite some time.

Derek walked in like he did every morning ready for whatever the day had in store for us. Esme didn’t talk, but she didn’t close in on herself like she usually did.

“Derek, Melanie and Esme are going to head to the zoo today.”

“I’ll have the car ready as soon as you ladies are good to go,” he said to Melanie.

“Great. Thanks. What do you say we go get ready, kiddo?” She wiped her mouth on a napkin and they cleaned up their dishes. “I can take care of this later.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.”

And just like that, they were gone from the kitchen to go get ready.

“She looks pretty comfortable,” Derek said, checking out the table and the rest of the kitchen. It had a lived in feel it hadn’t had before.

“It would seem so.”

“Are you sure you want me to go with them? I can have five guys here in under an hour.”

I didn’t want anyone else watching over them but Derek. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be in my office all day. At least with them, you’ll get some fresh air.” I’d be going through files. Making phone calls. Trying to make sure these challenges weren’t going to screw up anything with my inheritance.

“If you say so,” Derek grumbled as I walked back to my room. I passed by Esme’s room and the sounds of laughter and talking were music to my ears. The apartment wasn’t filled with silence anymore. Joy filled it to the point of overflowing.

I wanted more of that. I wanted more of that for Esme, and I wanted even just a sliver of it for myself.