Page 358 of Safe With You

He started gathering the plates. “Because I figured I’d ask you.”

“Of course.” I glanced toward the hallway with a smile. “Bug’s my girl.”

Ellis looked at me.

“What?”

He shook his head, but there was a smile pulling at his mouth. “Nothing.”

A few minutes later, Mila was tucked beneath her blanket with her rabbit beside her and a book open across my lap.

I only made it six pages before she interrupted me.

“Daddy does the voice different.”

I looked down at her.

“Do you want Daddy to read it?”

“No.”

“Then this is the voice you get.”

She smiled.

I kept reading.

By the time I reached the end, her eyes were heavier than they were when I started.

I closed the book and set it on her nightstand.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Miss Luna.”

I stood.

“Love you.”

I stopped.

The words came sleepy and easy, already halfway buried in her pillow.

I leaned down and kissed the top of her head.

“Love you too, sweet girl.”

Her eyes were closed by the time I turned off the lamp.

Ellis was in the hallway when I pulled her door almost shut.

One look at his face and I knew.

“You heard that?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

I glanced back toward Mila’s room. “She’s never said that to me before.”