Page 28 of Something Like Shelter

I was almost hesitant to let Adelaide go back to Willa, even though I knew I had no right to ask to hold her for any longer. I also had no business agreeing to having dinner with Willa, even if I hadn’t had time for dinner. I had a job to do. Sharing a meal with her would only delay that.

I couldn’t seem to bring myself to care, though.

I worked until I heard the bell, making me drop everything to rush downstairs.

“Let me get it,” I said as Willa slowly got off the couch with the baby in her arms.

“I can—” she started, but I was already at the door.

She’d already paid, but I tipped before closing and locking the door.

“You really shouldn’t be answering the door,” I said as she put down the baby and joined me in the kitchen.

“I usually don’t. But this place didn’t have an option for no-contact delivery. I try not to take any chances with Adelaide in the house now. My name is Will on all my delivery apps,” she admitted with a smile.

“Good. I’ve heard some horror stories about delivery drivers and single women.”

“So have I. But you don’t have to worry about me. I’ve been trained in mixed martial arts since I was a toddler.”

I paused in pulling cartons out of the brown bag. “Really? You don’t strike me as the mixed martial arts type.”

“More a yoga and Pilates vibe,” she agreed. “My parents, aunts, and uncles all insisted on it. A lot of them have been in really scary situations back before they had skills, so it was important to them that all the girls in the family learned how to protect themselves. I’m decent. Gracie is a killer.”

“Little Gracie?” I asked, waving a hand down by my chest.

“I know, right? But she’s fierce. Not that she needs that now. She’s dating a biker that is roughly twice your size. He’s a brick wall.”

“A biker, huh? How’d she meet him?” She didn’t seem the type to frequent biker bars.

“He is a member of her father’s biker club.”

“That must have been awkward.”

“Her father isn’t an active member of the club anymore. And I think he knew how right they were for each other. Not on the surface, but underneath it. She’s so happy. I mean, she’s always a ray of sunshine, but he’s made her smile even wider.”

There was a trace of longing in Willa’s voice.

I knew I couldn’t ask, but I couldn’t help but want to know what had happened with Adelaide’s father. How could things have gone so sideways that he didn’t want to even be a small part of his daughter’s life? Who could just walk away from their child like that?

But that thought was quickly followed with: my own father.

I’d been three when my old man walked out on me and my siblings, making my mother move home with her parents for help raising us.

I guess the world was full of men who were capable of walking away. Even if I couldn’t wrap my own head around the idea.

Maybe that was why I’d noticed the absence of Adelaide’s father more than I should have.

I’d spent most of my life telling myself that I didn’t care about my old man walking out. What was the point in wasting energy on someone who’d made his choice?

But I’d also spent most of my life making sure I was the exact opposite kind of man.

If I said I would be somewhere, I showed up. If someone needed me, I answered. If something broke, I fixed it.

Easy as that.

Maybe that was why seeing Willa with Adelaide had hit me so strangely. Because there was no question in my mind that this little girl was worth showing up for. And somehow, without meaning to, I’d started wondering who else I wanted to show up for.

Willa shook off the mood that caused the look.