A Chance Encounter

“You can tell anyone you want, as long as I can tell people you’re my daughter.”

Her smile widens. “You can tell people.”

“Good, now eat your cupcake. We have some music to make today.”

Dash: I need your help. What time will you be home?

Me: Within the hour. Everything okay?

Dash: Yeah.

“Can I stay with Grandma and Grandpa?” Kendall asks. The second my mom heard K call me Daddy, she jumped on the name train and insisted Kendall call her Grandma, which led to her calling my dad Grandpa.

“Please, Daddy.” She bats her lashes and between that and her calling me Daddy, I don’t stand a chance. Plus, it’s Friday night and I’m okay with having some alone time with my fiancée.

“All right, you can spend the night.”

“Yay! I get to spend the night!”

“I’m going to get going,” I tell my parents. “Sophia texted she needs help with something. Want to meet tomorrow for breakfast? We’re going shopping for the nursery.”

“Sounds good.” My mom kisses my cheek.

“I’m really loving that song,” Dad says. “Keep writing like that and your album is going to kill it.”

“Thanks.” I give him a hug then fist bump Reggie. “Good work today, man. Those instrumentals were on point.”

He grins. “You make my job easy.”

Twenty minutes later, I walk through the door to find Sophia sitting on the couch flipping through a magazine.

“Did you have a good lunch with Naomi?”

“Hey, yeah. Almost everything is planned for the wedding. Thank you for being okay with keeping it small.”

“Of course.” I sit next to her and pull her into my arms. “The only thing I care about is making you mine.”

“I’m already yours. Umm, where’s Kendall?” She sits up straight, realizing her mini-me isn’t with me.

“She begged to spend the night at my parents, and I couldn’t say no… Especially when she batted her damn eyelashes, like you do, and called me Daddy.”

“What?” She gasps. “She called you Daddy?”

I explain what happened at school and at the studio, and by the time I’m done, she’s practically in tears. “I know we were going to talk to her together, but—”

“No,” she cuts me off. “It’s okay,” she chokes out, hugging me. “Thank you, Easton.”

“You don’t have to thank me, baby.”

“I know, but it’s just…everything you’ve done. The house, your love, the way you make us feel safe, and how much you care about my daughter.”

“Our daughter,” I correct. “She’s mine too.”

“See? That’s what I mean. I feel like I’m living in some kind of fairy tale.” She swipes away her tears. “I just feel so lucky.”

“It’s me who’s the lucky one. I meant what I said on that post. I was lost and now I’ve found my way. Finding you was a game changer, Dash. And I’m going to spend every day showing you how much I love you and our daughter.” I kiss her forehead. “So, what is it you needed help with?”

“Oh! This.” She grabs a huge box and opens it, exposing several small pieces of…cake?

“You need my help eating dessert?”

“Not eating dessert…Picking out the flavor for our wedding cake.”

She doesn’t have to tell me twice. Everything else she’s asked my opinion on was hard as hell—linens, color scheme, invitations, the venue. So many decisions to make. All I want is to say ‘I do.’ Everything else is just details. But I also want her to have her dream wedding, since it’s the only wedding she’ll ever have, and according to my mom and sister, the wedding is important to the woman.

“Try this one.” Sophia lifts a piece of cake up to my lips and I open, making it a point to bite down on her flesh before she can retract her hand. I chew for a few seconds, tasting it. The flavor is chocolate with peanut butter filling. It’s moist as hell and melts in my mouth.

“Delicious.”

She smiles and grabs another piece. “Try this one.”

It’s vanilla with some cream filling. Also moist. “Delicious.”

She smiles again.

“Okay, how about this one?” she asks, after I take a gulp of the milk she grabbed for me.

I take a bite. Red velvet with cream cheese frosting. Perfect mixture of sweet and tart. “Delicious.”

Her brows dip. “How about this one?”

Marble with fruit filling. Very refreshing.

“Delicious,” I tell her, making her glare.

“Easton, they can’t all be delicious.”

“But they are.” I shrug.

“Which one tastes the best?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure…” I pluck one of the samples from the box and swipe it across her lips. Her eyes widen, and then my mouth is on hers, sucking and tasting her. “Mmm… this one is the best.”

She snorts out a laugh. “Everything is done but the cake. Help me pick. I can’t decide, and Kendall is with your parents, so she’s no help.”

“Let me try them again,” I tell her, snatching up another piece and smearing it across the side of her neck. “Don’t move,” I say, my voice serious. “I’m on a mission to determine which cake tastes the best.” I growl playfully and attack her neck, nipping the sensitive area just above her pulse point. “Yep, that’s it. This one is the best.”