Southern Sunshine by Natasha Madison

Chapter 31

Reed

"Do you want to go and put her to bed?" Hazel asks as she gets up from the table and takes the plates away. “She looks like she’s already half asleep." She motions with her head toward Sofia, who holds her head up with her hand.

"Yeah,” I say, looking over at Hazel, who has been quiet all night long. Actually, she was silent all day long.

"Do you need me to help you clean up?" I ask, and she just shakes her head, her eyes not even meeting mine.

"I’m fine,” she says nonchalantly.

"Okay, my girl,” I say to Sofia, clapping my hands together. “Time for a bath and bed."

I hold out my hands. “Okay, Daddy,” she says, and her eyes can barely stay open. She stopped calling me Uncle Daddy Reed and then just went with Daddy. I swear to God I thought my knees would give out, and I would fall into a heaping mess while I sobbed like a baby.

I walk with her to the guest bathroom. "Bath or shower?" I ask as she puts her head on my shoulder. "How about we do a nice hot bath?” I say. "And then you can climb right into bed."

Turning on the water, I set her on the toilet, and her head falls forward. “Dad, do I have to take a bath?"

I peel off her socks, and dust comes out of them. “Yes,” I say and stand her up. The bath is as fast as I can go, and when I tuck her into bed, she’s asleep before I walk out of the room. I leave the door ajar and turn on the night-light I put in the hallway for her.

When I walk back into the kitchen, it’s spotless and very, very empty. I look around and then find her sitting outside on the back porch. “Hey," I say, pushing open the door. "I was looking for you."

She looks over her shoulder. “Just watching the stars." She looks up. “Is she sleeping?"

"Out before I even left the room,” I say, sitting next to her. I look down at my hands. If it was last night, I would have put my arm over her shoulder and pulled her to me. But today, telling her I love you was a mistake. Not that I regret telling her, but that maybe she wasn’t ready to hear it.

"I have to tell you something,” she says softly, and I can feel her pulling away from me. My heart is starting to beat erratically as the thought of losing her becomes so much more real.

"No," I say, my tone coming out a bit harder than I want it to. “Before you say anything." I look at her. My heart yearns to touch her, but I'm not sure she'll let me. This woman, who didn’t hold any grudges toward me for bailing on her when she needed me. This woman, who, without a doubt, saved my fucking soul when I was drowning, yet I didn’t even know. "I’m sorry about this morning."

"What happened this morning?" she asks, confused.

"I told you I love you." I repeat the words.

"So you don’t love me?" Her eyes fill with tears, and the torture of seeing her in pain is too much to bear.

"Of course I love you,” I say. “God, I love you so much, but I know you aren’t there yet." She holds her hand up to talk, but I shake my head. “I know it’s too soon. I know we just got back together and you probably aren’t ready for it. I mean, we weren’t really together before." My own tears come to my eyes now. “I want to remind you of what I said before. I’ll go wherever you go, whenever. I don’t care as long as you two are there."

She puts her palm on my cheek. Her touch calms my nerves. I turn my head and kiss the palm of her hand. “Is that so?" she asks with a little smirk. "What if I told you that I’ve decided to stay here?"

"What?" I whisper.

"Being here with Sofia and seeing her flourish with all the love she has around her." I reach out to wipe a tear rolling down her cheek. “It would be crazy. Her not knowing what it’s like to grow up surrounded by her cousins. Her not knowing what Sunday really stands for. Everything I thought I wanted to run away from is exactly what I want to teach Sofia." She lowers her eyes. “I’m going to open a business," she says, her eyes lighting up, “with Savannah in town. A little coffee and bakery shop."

"How?" I ask, shocked now.

"She came to see me a couple of weeks ago, and I turned her down,” she says. “But then everything just fell into place, and I knew I couldn’t leave here. I know you always hated it here, and I was hoping you would maybe think of staying. But if you absolutely say you can’t, we can leave."

"Where would we live?" I ask, wondering if she had all these plans. I also want to tell her that I’ll fucking live in a barn as long as she’s there.

"We can live at Pops' house." She cuts in now. “I know it's smaller than this house."

"If you want to live at Pops' house, we are going to have to renovate,” I say. “That’s nonnegotiable."

"We can do that,” she says. “But it does have two bedrooms."

"Exactly,” I say. “I don’t just want to live here with you. I want to grow a family with you. I want to have more babies with you."

"Is that so?" She laughs, and I lean in and kiss her lips.

"We made a pretty amazing one without even trying. Can you imagine if we put some effort into it?" I smirk at her, and she throws her head back and laughs. "So yeah, I want to have more babies." And I wait to break the next news to her. "The house needs to be knocked down and rebuilt."

"It’s not that bad,” she says, rolling her eyes.

"I can’t even stand in that shower. I would have to put my head to the side," I joke with her.

"Fine," she huffs out. “We can add another bathroom."

“And family room," I add. “And playroom."

"Okay, okay." She puts her hands up. “It’s not ideal."

"That’s my girl,” I say. Putting my arm around her, I pull her to me and hug her.

"Reed.” She says my name as she buries her face in my neck.

"Yeah, baby." My cheek rubs her head.

"I love you, too.” She pulls her head out of my neck, and my gaze meets hers. “I was going to tell you this morning, but you ran out of the house like your tail was on fire."

"I didn’t run out of the house." It’s my turn to roll my eyes. “I left." She laughs as she kisses my lips. “In a hurry."

"Okay," she says. “Whatever you say."

I stand and hold my hand out to her. “Let’s go to bed,” I say, and she looks at her watch.

"It’s six thirty," she says, laughing.

"Well, I haven’t had dessert,” I say. “And then I want to make love to you and hope I put a baby in you."

She puts her hand into mine. “Well, when you say it like that." She laughs, and I pick her up as she squeals with laughter.

I carry her to bed, where I make love to her over and over again while I thank her over and over again for giving me everything I didn’t know I needed.