Page 99 of Tattered (Lark Cove 1)

“It’s good. Not as good as David’s Table, but the next time I want to take you there, we’ll just go the two of us.”

The smile on her face fell as she chewed.

All right. Forget that idea.

I’d taken many women to that restaurant over the years and each one had been thoroughly impressed by the food and atmosphere. But Thea wasn’t like any woman I’d ever met, and if she wanted fast food over gourmet, then we’d come here on our date nights.

Charlie belched and slapped a hand over her mouth, then giggled. “Excuse me.”

“Feeling better, peanut?”

She nodded. “My tummy was hungry.”

“Now that we’re back to normal,” Thea set down her burger and gave Charlie a stern look, “I think you need to apologize to your dad. You weren’t very nice when we were at his favorite restaurant.”

Charlie’s shoulders fell as she twirled a french fry in her ketchup. “Sorry, Daddy.”

“It’s o—” Wait, what? Did she just call me Daddy?

My eyes snapped to Thea, whose mouth was hanging open. Never had a word sounded so good. I’d always hoped that one day Charlie would want to call me Dad and she’d love me as much as I loved her. But I’d been prepared to wait years to get us to that place.

“I, um . . .” I paused to recover, then placed my hand on her knee. “It’s okay. You don’t have to apologize. I should have thought about it more before taking you there for dinner.”

She peeked up from underneath her lashes.

“I like it when you call me Daddy, but you don’t have to. Would you rather call me Logan?”

Say no, Charlie. Please, don’t take it back.

She shook her head. “I want to call you Daddy.”

Relief and pure happiness surged. I fought the urge to yank her out of that chair and crush her to my chest by eating another fry.

Oh, fuck it.

I flew out of my chair, sending it sliding backward a few feet. Then I scooped Charlie off her bench and hugged her close.

She didn’t hesitate to wrap her arms around my neck.

Over her shoulder, Thea swiped her eyes dry.

“I love you, Charlie,” I said into her ear.

I’d known I loved her the moment she pulled me into her fort. Or maybe the first day I’d seen her beautiful brown eyes as she’d taken a frog from my hands. I could barely remember my life before Charlie, and it was just weeks ago.

“I love you too,” she whispered back.

I smiled. That was one of the Landry girls down, now I just had one to go.

“Are you all done eating?”

She nodded against my suit.

“Let’s get you home.”

Her legs around my waist cinched tight, so I wouldn’t put her down. “Okay, Daddy.”

One night later, I’d jumped from one end of the dining spectrum to the other. Logan and I were at the fundraising gala, sitting in the middle of the nic