Page 84 of Pucking Daddy

"She is." Jaxon's voice softens. "Happier than she's been in a while."

There is weight in those words—history I don't fully know, pain he keeps locked away. I think about Simone's call, about the hearing, about all the ways this could fall apart.

"Can I ask you something?" I keep my eyes on Lily.

"Yeah."

“How did you and your ex-wife end things?”

I feel him go still beside me.

For a second, I think he might not answer.

Then he exhales slowly.

“It wasn’t one moment,” he says. “It was… a lot of small ones that added up.”

That makes sense.

It always is, isn’t it?

“We were never really steady,” he continues. “It was intense. Good, when it was good. But everything felt like it could tip over at any second. And it got worse when Lily was born.”

“What happened?” I ask.

“She struggled,” he says. “Didn’t put it like that, but it was obvious. The responsibility. The routine. Looking back, I think she might’ve had undiagnosed postpartum depression. She never got the help she needed.”

“That sounds hard,” I say quietly.

I don’t miss the way his gaze flicks to Lily before he continues.

“There was a night when Lily was three,” he says. “We fought. Nothing new. But this time… she left. Spent the night with some guy she met at a bar.”

My stomach tightens.

“It was over after that,” he goes on. “She walked out, said she wasn’t cut out for motherhood. And honestly, I was relieved. But for Lily, it was hard. She loves her mom. And she’s been let down by her more than once.”

He drags a hand through his hair.

“I spent the next year rebuilding everything. Our routines. Her trust. My sanity.” His voice hardens slightly. “That’s why I get so angry about what she’s doing now. New fiancé with money, new perspective on what she wants—suddenly she’s going for Mom of the Year and trying to take my daughter from me?” He shakes his head. “No way.”

His gaze drops, then lifts again.

“I want her in Lily’s life,” he adds, quieter now. “Of course I do. But I also want to protect Lily from getting hurt again.”

"Jaxon." I wait until he looks at me. "When I was fourteen, my parents divorced. Ugly, bitter, the kind where lawyers practically move in with you. My mom worked doubles to pay for it all, and I became a parent to my brother overnight."

I touch my pendant again. "Danny was six. Same age as Lily. I know what it costs a kid to be caught in the middle."

His expression shifts—something cracking open behind his eyes. "I didn't know that."

"Not something I advertise." I shrug. "But it's why I do what I do. Why I agreed to this. Kids deserve stability, even when the adults around them can't manage it."

He is watching me differently now. Not guarded. Not careful. Just... seeing.

"I started coaching because I wanted to matter," he says quietly. "To make something that will last. But somewhere along the way, it became about proving I am not my own father." He lets out a breath. "He was in and out of my life until I was ten, then just out. Foster homes after that. I swear Lily will never feel that uncertainty."

"She won't." I say it with more certainty than I feel. "Whatever happens with the courts, she knows you're there. She talks about you constantly. 'Daddy does this, Daddy says that.' You're not a ghost to her."