Only, that fear dissipated in seconds. This one…this one lingered as a dull nagging sensation.
Tessa was already out of the car, pulling Sophia from the car seat when Zach finally cleared his head enough to open his door.
“One!” Sophia’s yell drew Zach’s gaze. She was pointing at the monkey on the sign, a big smile on her face.
Tessa laughed and glanced over at Zach. “You’re off to a good start.”
Zach’s brain seemed to freeze-frame the moment—Tessa and Sophia looking up at the sign, the late afternoon sun sparkling against the mountains in the distance.
“You’re better than friends. You’re my family.”
He hadn’t realized how right the words had been until he’d said them earlier. And now, in that instant, he relaxed into the idea. He’d loved the way Tessa hadn’t gotten pissy over Kerry and Candy, even though she’d had the right. He especially appreciated how patient she was with him. He was still getting his mind around his depth of gratitude over her willingness to bring him into Sophia’s life. She could have been a royal bitch about it. In fact, Zach couldn’t think of any other woman he’d ever been involved with who wouldn’t have been a royal bitch in the same situation.
Zach didn’t care much about what that said regarding his choice in women. Compassion and kindness hadn’t been qualities he’d cared much about when he was only looking for sex. But he was starting to wonder if his lack of interest in those important areas had kept him from falling for a woman over the years. Because as Tessa covered Sophia’s hand with her own and traced the letters of Monkeypod in the air, saying each letter with the little girl to help her learn, Zach felt like he might be falling. Hard.
“Zach.” His name pulled Zach from his thoughts, and he found Sophia looking at him. “Zach, look, I know the letters.”
She repeated the letters as Zach walked around the front of the car to meet them.
“Very good,” he told her. “And what does that spell?”
Sophia drove her little fists into the air over her head, scrunched up her face, and yelled, “Monkeypod!”
Both Zach and Tessa laughed. In the setting sun, he could see Tessa had gotten some color, despite her attempts at keeping her skin covered in sunscreen. She looked young and happy and vibrant, just like Sophia. A whole lot younger, happier, and more vibrant than she had when he’d first seen her in the bar. Yet even then, he’d found her attractive. Now, she looked radiant.
He wrapped his arm around Tessa’s shoulders and walked his girls inside the restaurant.
My girls.
Yeah. He liked the sound of that.
The restaurant was busy, as usual. He’d been here at least a couple of dozen times since he’d started filming the series, but this was the first time he’d noticed that the restaurant was in fact half bar, half restaurant. Literally. Funny how having a three-year-old with him could make him see things differently. His confidence where Sophia was concerned took another hit.
To Tessa’s credit, she didn’t say anything about the fact that he’d brought them to an inappropriate place for a child. She just grinned at the commotion and said, “Wow, popular place.”
Sophia was entertained with the noise and the people and the televisions for about five minutes. Once they were seated—as far away from the bar as they could get—his three-year-old turned solemn and grumpy. But it was when Sophia refused to eat anything on the menu that he realized Tessa’s idea of dinner at home would probably have been the better plan.
Once they ordered to a litany of Sophia’s “No, Mommy, I don’t want that,” “No, I don’t like chicken nuggets,” “Ew, fish,” “I just want shave ice,” Tessa settled Sophia into a comfortable lull with crayons and a coloring sheet. By which time, Zach was exhausted.
“Man,” he said, rubbing a hand over his face. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“Practice.” Picking up a crayon, she started coloring on an edge of Sophia’s paper. “Sophia, Zach and I have a surprise for you.”
We do?
Zach tried to read Tessa’s mind only to find he couldn’t even read her expression.
Sophia’s tired eyes gained a new spark as she looked between them. “What?”
“Well,” she said, “you know how I’m your mommy?”
“Yeah.”
“And you know how a lot of families have a mommy and a daddy?”
Sophia looked a little confused. Her fingers worried one of Pegasus’s ears. “Um…yeah. Or two mommies, like you and Corinne.”
Zach scraped his lower lip between his teeth. His stomach wavered a little. There was something about Sophia calling her real mother Corinne that reminded Zach why they were all here tonight, together, and guilt hit him hard. “Tessa,” he said softly, “We don’t have to—”