Always Only You by Chloe Liese (z-lib.org).epub

“Hi, Ziggy Stardust,” he whispers, wrapping his arms around her.
“Hi, Daddy.” Ziggy glances over at me and repositions herself on his lap,
like it isn’t comical someone so grown and long-limbed is draped over her dad.
It’s sweet and innocent and entirely Ziggy. She’s still a girl in a lot of ways.
Very much how I was as a teen.
Dr. B rests his cheek on her head and sighs, his eyes crinkling happily. “You
know who Ren’s named after?” he asks me.
I nod. “Kierkegaard.”
“That’s right. I was reading his Works of Love toward the end of Elin’s
pregnancy with him. I’d read aloud to her while she soaked in the tub, after I’d
put Freya and Axel to bed. It just fit. The name, his philosophy…”
“I’m not familiar with Kierkegaard in any detail,” I tell him honestly.
Dr. B glances up at the fading daylight and smiles. “‘To dare is to lose one's
footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.’”
“The other one, Daddy,” Ziggy say quietly.
He kisses her forehead. “‘The most common form of despair is not being
who you are.’”
Ziggy smiles. “That’s my favorite.”
“And my favorite,” Dr. B says, as he shifts Ziggy on his lap, “is—”
A new voice breaks in. I glance over my shoulder to see Ren smiling down at
me, hands in his pockets. “‘To cheat oneself out of love,’” he says, “‘is the most
terrible deception; it is an eternal loss for which there is no reparation.’”
My throat’s dry as a desert. I lick my lips and feel myself melting in the heat
of his stare. “That’s a good one.”
Ren nods. “Yes, it is.”
“Frankie!” a voice yells from below.
I turn and lean against the deck rail, squinting to find who said it. “Yes?”
Viggo waves. “Come down here. I need a partner.”
I glance across the field. They’re setting up…badminton? Oliver and Axel
stretch the net with Ryder’s help. I don’t see Freya’s husband, Aiden, anywhere.
When I glance up at Ren, I see he’s glaring down at Viggo, his jaw tight.
As I stand, I shuffle out from between the table and chair and salute Dr. B
and Ziggy both. “It was good talking to you. But now, it’s time to go get my ass
handed to me at badminton.”
Dr. B grins and pats Ziggy’s back, his eyes holding mine. “Go on and show
’em how it’s done.”
Peering up at Ren, I smile. Hands on his hips. A flush in his cheeks. Angry
Big Red stance. I thread my arm around his waist and smile up at him.
Ren frowns as I hold on to him while we walk down the deck stairs to the