Page 128 of Fierce-Colson

Without thought. Without worry.

That said everything she needed to know.

That his fight was her fight.

“You won’t be alone when you do.”

He looked at her. Really looked at her this time.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly that,” she said calmly. “If you want me there when you tell her, I’ll be there. If you want it to be just the two of you, I’ll wait in the next room. If you want to talk it through first, rehearse it, yell about it, sit in silence about it. Whatever you need. Whatever you want. I’ll be there waiting for you to tell me.”

He stared at her like he was trying to process the fact that she meant every word.

“Really? I can’t ask you to do that. I can’t ask you to take this on⁠—”

She put her finger to his lips. “Stop. I’m in your corner, Colson. I’m not going to lay it on thick that I’m insulted you’d think otherwise.”

Her thumb brushed under his eye. Caught the tiny bit of moisture that she was positive would mortify him.

“Thanks,” he whispered.

She was sure it had to do with her words and not the runaway tear, but she could be wrong. “You don’t have to carry all of this by yourself.”

“I’m used to it.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it.”

He exhaled slowly, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.

Maybe some of it leaving hers with it.

“Bella has already been through enough,” he said. “First her mother leaving her. Hell, just being born to the two of them. Being left with a drunk more interested in his next shot than what his child needed. Then the asshole dying. Moving in with me. New school. New everything.”

“And in the last few years,” she said gently, “she had you. You gave her something she had never had. Something maybe she didn’t even know she needed.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“Why?”

“Because what if that’s not enough this time? She’s already asked me before if something happened to me in my job, what would happen to her.”

“And?”

“I told her she’d be with my mother. I took care of it. But now, with Holly returning, that could be something else to worry about.”

Marly shook her head softly. “You’re getting ahead of yourself. You have the law and courts on your side and you know it. It’s hard to think logically right now.”

He didn’t answer for a beat. “It is.”

“You gave her stability,” she continued. “You gave her a home. You gave her someone who shows up every single day. That matters more than you realize. She’s old enough to choose.”

“Which scares me. I don’t know what is going through her mind.”

“You do. She’s a smart kid. She knows what she needs. You just need to let her find her way when the time is right.”

His jaw tightened slightly. “I just want to protect her.”