Lily pulled an amused brow. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah…”
“I like you, Frankie. You and I are going to be best friends,” Lily said.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
Owen laughed with his head back and said, “All right. We’re out. See you all later!”
After leaving Sharp Lines, Frankie suddenly pulled on his sleeve. He held still on the sidewalk and waited on Frankie to tell him what bothered her.
“If I get best friends here, do you think Mommy will get mad?”
He tried to read in her light blue eyes why she would even think that. “Why would Mommy get mad at you for gaining a new friend?”
“Because…”
He raised Frankie’s chin with his forefinger. “You can tell me anything, Fluff.”
She nodded but didn’t say a word. Owen got on one knee in front of his daughter and said, “I’m your dad, right?”
Frankie nodded.
“Even though I haven’t been around in the past, I promise you that from here on out, I’ll always be there for you. If something or someone is bothering you; you can talk to me, okay?”
“Okay…”
Owen kissed her forehead and held her eyes as he pulled back. He wasn’t ready for Frankie throwing herself into his arms. He caught her and hugged her tight.
“Mommy wants me to be careful with strangers.”
Owen released the breath he was holding. “I agree with your mother, sweetheart. But you can trust my family, okay? You can befriend them if you’d like. I know they were excited about getting to know you, Fluff.”
“They are?”
He smiled. “Of course! Who wouldn’t want to get to know you? Come, let’s head over to the store and get you some winter clothes.”
“Are we going to snowboard soon?”
He suddenly felt nauseous by the idea of Frankie going up the slopes. He’d been practically raised with a snowboard under his feet, but now that he was a parent he didn’t like the idea of his Fluff going up.
“Chloe already invited me, so you can’t say no.”
Owen groaned. Just his luck that the snowboarding she-devil herself had to be his younger sister.
“I’ll think about it.”
Frankie rolled her eyes. “You sound just like Mom when she doesn’t want to say no.”
He opened the shop’s door and held it open for Frankie with a smile on his face. It seemed to him that he was a quick learner in this parenting thing.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Tara joined Jenny on the bench at the halfway point on the winding road leading up to the big house of the Mills Bed & Breakfast.
Tara had been walking for over an hour with Caitlin and Jenny on the surrounding hike trails after their breakfast. After spending this morning with Caitlin, Tara understood why she was the one to make Adam Mills settle down.
Caitlin had been the first one in Jenny’s to approach her with her warm smile and immediately had put her at ease. Caitlin also proved to be understanding and adequate when Tara almost lost her shit with Owen.