Come Back for Me (Arrowood Brothers #1)(66)

My mouth opens, but words don’t come. I can feel my palms start to sweat, and I feel like a kid again, not the grown man I am.

It’s nerves and excitement and adrenaline and anticipation.

“Are you not ready?”

“No, I am,” I say quickly. It has nothing to do with being ready. I’ve never been more ready for anything. “I’m sure, and I want to tell her. I just didn’t think you were.”

“It’s time.”

She’s right. It is time. “Let’s head out to the tree house.”

Hadley comes running outside, carrying a basket and her doll. “I brought cider, cups, and cookies.”

“Where did you get the cookies?” Ellie asks.

“The kitchen.”

“I asked for that.”

I hold in a chuckle because Hadley has great timing for a seven-year-old. The three of us make the trek out to the tree that has come to mean more to me than I ever could’ve known. Here is where I hid when I was scared and found what I had lost.

Now, hopefully, it’s where yet another piece of my life will fall into place.

We walk quietly, well, Ellie and I are quiet, Hadley chatters about puppies and pumpkins until she spots the tree house. Then she’s off like an arrow and climbs the staircase I built for her. It’s nothing like any tree house I would’ve ever had. It has a roof, two windows, and a small porch on the back, which was my addition to it this week.

I don’t want this place to be somewhere she hides, I want it to mean something else for her. The tree house should bring her joy and be a place where memories are formed. So, I’m probably going to end up giving her a bathroom, kitchen, electricity, and plumbing by the time I’m done.

“You put a deck on?” Ellie asks.

“I have no idea how that got here.”

She rolls her eyes. “You know she was happy with just the piece of plywood as a floor as long as you came out here with her.”

That is exactly why I’ve gone above and beyond with building this place. “I do, but she should have everything I can give her. That kid has been through hell, and if this is the one thing I can do that makes her smile, I’ll do it.”

Ellie takes both my hands and stares up at me. The words she said to me earlier still echo in my heart, and I am anxious to hear them again.

Both of us are oblivious until we hear Hadley’s voice from beside us. “Are you going to marry my mom?”

No one can ever say this kid is subtle.

“Maybe someday, but right now, we’re taking it one day at a time.” I hope that’s the right answer.

“Would you like Connor to be in your life forever?” Ellie asks, and it’s clear where she’s planning to transition this conversation to.

I choke back my nerves. If Ellie thought telling her that I’m her biological father would upset her, we wouldn’t be out here right now.

“Yes! I love him, and he’s my best friend. Plus, he’s funny and handsome, and he is going to get me a puppy.”

“I never said that.”

“You will, you love me and I’m adorable.” She bats her eyelashes and her lips are a tight line. She is adorable, and I have a feeling she’s probably right. I’m a sucker when it comes to her, hence the deck on a tree house.

“Well, be that as it may,” Ellie says swiftly, clearly unimpressed with her charm. “What if I told you that a long time ago, before you were born, I met Connor.”

“You knew each other?” Hadley looks back and forth between us, and I nod.

“We did.”

“We met once, and it was . . . well, it was very special,” Ellie continues. “You see, your grandma and grandpa had died not too long before that, and I was very sad. Connor made me feel happy and helped my heart that day.”

She looks to me and smiles. “Like he did for me?”

“Exactly,” I cut in. “I happen to like making you two happy.”

Ellie releases a shaky breath. “What I want to tell you is that . . . well, that night, God gave me a baby.”

“Me?”

She bobs her head quickly with a smile. “Yes, you. My beautiful, perfect, sweet little girl. Connor and I got a test that told us he is actually your real dad.”

“But . . . I already have a dad.”

I squat beside her. “You do, but you and I have the same blood.”

Ellie gets to her knees and takes Hadley’s hands in hers. “We didn’t know until a few days ago, and your dad and I got married right after I met Connor. But Connor is your father, not Kevin.”

We both are still as stone as we wait for Hadley to say something. She stands there, processing what she just found out.

“Daddy isn’t my daddy?” she asks, her voice quivers a bit.

Fuck, this is breaking my heart. I love her, and I don’t want to cause her pain, but at the same time, I’m glad we’re telling her.

“No, baby, but you don’t have to stop loving him. I don’t know when you’ll see him again, but he can always be in your heart.”

I think about what he said to Ellie and have to force back my demand that Hadley not even give him that much.

She’s kindness and everything good in this world, and he is nothing but poison.