Page 98 of Untroubled Heart

“Well, that was weird,” Gage says, muffling a yawn behind a fist while Briony sleeps soundly in his gigantic arms.

I look at my watch. “Dude, it’s barely eight. Why are you so tired?”

“Briony’s going through a sleep regression.” He covers another yawn.

“Looks like the perfect little angel to me.” Dad runs a careful finger over her cheek, and Gage’s eyes flare wide as he sucks in a breath, waiting to see if she’ll stir. She doesn’t.

I look down at Navie, happily sitting in my arms while sucking on one of her teething biscuits. “Navie sleeps a full eight hours.”

“She’s six months old,” Isabelle says. “She probably went through it at four months, and according to my baby book, they go through another around eight to ten. Let us know how you’re going then.” She chuckles.

“Nooo.” I twist Navie in my arms and lift her above my head, tossing her up just enough to make her giggle. “Not my baby. You always sleep perfectly for Mummy and Daddy, don’t you?”

I toss her up again before bringing her in to nuzzle her cheek. She grips my face in her little hands, curling her body against my chest. My heart warms every time she cuddles into me.

It takes a good few seconds before I realise the room has gone quiet, and everyone’s looking at me.

“What?”

Gage and Caleb stare with their mouths hanging open, while Dad and my grandparents look proud, and Mum, Izzy, and Lex all look teary.

“Helloooo. What’d I miss?” I try again when no one answers me.

“You just referred to yourself as Daddy,” Caleb says.

I’m certain the whole room can hear every slow beat of my heart as it slams against my chest, but when Navie leans her head down on my shoulder, it shatters completely. This little girl is so deeply embedded in my heart, it’s impossible to think of her as anything but mine. I’m with her almost every morning and night. She’s as much a part of my day as Callie is. When I imagine my future, it’s not just Callie I see, it’s a thousand different moments with Navie too. Of course she’s mine.

“Why is it so quiet in here?” Beth and Callie stand in the doorway.

Navie hums and points her little finger at Callie, but she doesn’t lift her head.

“Is that Mama?” I say as Callie rejoins us with a smile, brushing a hand through Navie’s hair.

Callie kisses the tip of her finger, then Navie drops it to my chest.

“Who’s that?” Callie says playfully. “Is that your Mason?”

I am hers. I’m both of theirs.

Derek signed the paperwork, accepting the money and his absence from their life from now on. It came with the condition that he wasn’t allowed to ask for anything more. I truly hope it’s the last we’ll ever see or hear from him, because I refuse to let anything mess this up. Not now that I’ve found the girl of my dreams. I won’t let anything stand in the way of me giving her everything she ever dreamed of.

Chapter thirty-six

Mason pats Navie’s back as he sways with her, talking sweetly in her ear where she’s milk-drunk on his shoulder.

The man has assumed the dad role, and I have zero complaints. Watching them together makes my heart burst. She loves him so much, and he loves her back, in the same way I craved to receive from my own father. It really shows that intention is everything. If people want to show up, they will. And sometimes, the people we don’t expect go out of their way to prove their loyalty.

Mason lowers Navie into the cot in his lounge room. This is the first time we’re staying at his place. It’s only a one-bedroom penthouse, but there’s a corner of the room, not too close to the windows, where he’s set up a cot and a simple change table. A mobile with blue hearts and gold stars hangs over Navie’s head.

I stand from my spot on the couch, where Mason just gave Navie her bottle while I expressed another one. Mason often gets up before me to feed her in the morning when he stays at my house, but I’ve never caught him doing it.

Everything about the simple act has my heart beating in overdrive. I can’t take how he is with her; it all feels too good to be true. I don’t mourn the lack of her biological father in her life, not when she so clearly already has one that would move mountains for her.

My chest meets his back as I wind my arms around his middle. His hands rest on the sidewalls of the cot as he stares down at my daughter with a smile.

“You’re so good to her,” I whisper. “To both of us.”

His hand covers mine, thumb running back and forth over my wrist.