Daddy Be Mine

Dani

“Alright, that’s everything.”

Aiden turns to give me a winning smile, but it falters at the quelling glare I aim his way. He sighs, raking a hand through his dark hair.

“You know it has to be this way, honey. We have to sell the house. Your mother would want you to go to college—”

“We don’t know that because she’s not here, is she?” I snap before turning on a heel and racing from the room, my heart leaping into my throat.

Childish, I reprimand myself as soon as I take a step outside the house I spent nearly my entire childhood living in. A warm breeze brushes my flushed face and I stare unseeing at the storage unit attached to my step-dad’s pickup truck.

A weight settles in my gut and I wipe sweaty palms along my bare thighs, below the hem of my denim shorts.

We’re moving.

It sounds nice, doesn’t it? But we aren’t moving, Aiden is. In a few months, I will be living on a college campus and he saw no need to keep the three-bedroom house he’d purchased with my mom before she left us both high and dry.

No explanation, no letters—Nothing.

The reminder sends a phantom ache to pierce my chest and I breathe around it, curling my fingers into fists.

“Honey?” I close my eyes against the soft-spoken endearment. With Aiden, I’ve had nearly everything I’ve ever wanted, and it’s beyond cruel to throw my mother’s absence in his face when we’re both grappling with the oncoming changes.

I’m all grown up.

But does he see that?

“Sorry,” I mumble, releasing a slow breath and opening my eyes. Before heat brushes my back, I sense his presence like an extension of my own. Where this sixth sense of him came from, I don’t know, but I’ve stopped fighting, merely wishing he saw me.

“No worries, kid. You ready to lock this place down and get on the road?” He injects false cheer into his voice, as if I’m a child in need of cajoling. I snort.

“Yeah. Any chance I can drive?” I shoot him a smile over my shoulder, his piercing blue eyes on my face nearly causing my breath to hitch. I’d known he was close but…I resist leaning back, to press against him fully.

His eyes crinkle at the corners, dimples flashing in his cheeks as he gives me a more sincere grin.

“Not a chance. But I’ll let you pick the music.” He arches a dark brow, and I roll my eyes with a mock huff.

Warmth settles low in my gut, butterflies erupting as I recall his new home is several hours away, a few minutes away from campus.

A few hours trapped in a car with my favorite person doesn’t sound terrible.

“Alright, old man, but if you get tired,” I jab a finger at him, “you let me take over, okay? My eyes are better.” I snicker and bolt for the car before he can call me out on my bratting, but I don’t think I’d mind one bit if he…punished me.

###

Aiden

A soft smile curls my lips as I glance over at my “daughter’s” sleeping face, her full lips parted slightly and long lashes resting against her cheeks. The way the passing street lights pour into the car to glide along her smooth, brown skin captivates me, my blood stirring the longer I stare.

Look away.

I do, refocusing on the road and shifting in my seat. After Amanda left me with her six-year-old without a word, many people in her family claimed I was unfit to raise her, that it was…suspicious for a single man to care for a child that wasn’t his by blood.

I refuse to prove them right by allowing myself to even acknowledge the attractive woman she’s grown to be. The smile on my face takes on a brittle quality like I’ve swallowed something sour.

You’ll miss her.

True. I made it work, being a single father, by putting her first, ensuring she wanted for nothing. By making her my entire world, I…let life pass me by, opting out of dates or nights with the boys. Just me and my little girl was how I’d liked it, how I’d coped with her mother’s absence.

She’s not little anymore.

Shut up, I command the devil on my shoulder, pulling the car into the parking lot of a gas station, the bright lights affording me a small sense of security.

Still…I place my palm on Dani’s thigh, her warm skin nearly scalding me.

“Hey, hon. I need to get out and get gas. You want anything?” I use the excuse to wake her when I’d really prefer her alert while I’m inside.

“Hmm?” she murmurs sleepily, blinking those chocolate eyes open slowly. As soon as she focuses on me, I swallow, my heart kicking in my chest for some odd reason.

“Snacks? Chocolate?”

“Wine?” the brat sasses and my eyes squint. She blinks innocently, her lips twitching to keep the expression on her face.

“This,” I hold up a finger, “one time and only because I’m damn proud of you for getting into HBU.” My lips twist wryly, even though I suspect the answer to my next question. “Flavor?”

She grins cheekily, her eyes scrunching up from her high cheekbones rising. “Moscato, please and thank you, Daddy.”

My cock jerks violently and I grunt, shutting the car off and scrambling out of the driver’s door.

Fuck. Daddy?

She hasn’t called me that in—Don’t think about it!

My feet pound into concrete as I scurry toward the frosted glass doors of the gas station, keeping my head ducked low and shoulders high.

She called me fucking Daddy. Why does it feel weird now?

I know why, even as I pull the door open, the bell above it jingling to announce my presence to the clerk.

Only little girls call their father’s daddy and I’ve been Aiden—or Dad when she wants something—since she started middle school.

To hear that name on her lips now…I swallow again, aiming a tremulous smile at the woman behind the counter, ignoring the dead bored expression on her made-up face.

Being called Daddy is going to be the damn death of me.