Page 141 of His Surrender

I look up at him. His smile is soft.

“I’m not letting go.”

Something inside me melts. “I wasn’t asking you to.”

“Good.” He lifts our joined hands just slightly. “Because I plan on holding this all afternoon.”

I smile. “I think I can live with that.”

Our first stop isn’t the dress boutique. Instead, we go inside a children’s clothing store.

Dean pauses outside the window. Tiny holiday outfits cover miniature mannequins.

One display has matching family pajamas. Another has velvet dresses no bigger than my forearm.

He glances down at Liana. “I think she needs another sweater.”

I laugh. “She has six.”

“She could use seven. It feels like she outgrows them every week.”

I shake my head. “You’re impossible.”

He nods his head. “I’ve accepted that.”

Inside, he somehow becomes even worse. Every few minutes, he’s pulling another tiny outfit off a rack.

“What about this?” he asks as he holds it in front of Liana.

“It’s adorable.”

He continues, “And this?”

“Also adorable.”

“And this one?”

I laugh. “Dean …”

He holds up an impossibly tiny yellow-colored cable-knit cardigan. “Tell me this isn’t the cutest thing you’ve ever seen.”

I open my mouth but close it again when I really look at it. “Okay … it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I knew it.”

Into the basket it goes.

Liana watches the entire process with complete indifference, perfectly content to chew on one of the carrier straps while her father debates between two nearly identical pairs of tiny winter boots.

I laugh so hard that I have to lean against him. “You’re ridiculous.”

“I prefer enthusiastic.”

The cashier smiles knowingly as she rings everything up. “First baby?”

Dean looks down at Liana before looking at me.

We are going to have to get used to people assuming we’re a family. It’s just easier not to correct them.