The one who sent me the Periwinkle costume for my birthday.”

Oh.

Whitney.

He felt a different pang now. One tinged with guilt.

“Daisy’s god-momma,” she emphasized.

He smiled crookedly, pushing back a lock of silky dark brown hair from her face. It was strange how this little person could make him feel so much. He’d been accused of being cold and detached by his girlfriends at various points in the relationship. You’re selfish, Cormac. You’re the Ice Man, cold and heartless. But Daisy brought out the protector in him. Daisy made him care.

“Daisy’s god-momma,” he repeated, still enchanted by the way she’d speak of herself in the third person. She did it less and less now, but as a toddler it was her favorite way to communicate. Daisy wants this. Daisy needs that.

Daisy needs…

His smile slipped, aware that Daisy needed so much in her life…so much more than just him. The incident at her school had proven that.

She didn’t need a mother and a father rolled up in an independent bachelor. She needed a mother and a father. Two parents. She needed sisters and brothers. Cousins. Family.

“God-momma Whitney,” Daisy added, clasping his chin firmly to keep his attention.

“You remember her name.”

“Yes.” Daisy’s frown deepened. “Have I met her?”

“Many times when you were a baby and still living in Denver. Whitney and your mommy were best friends.”

“Where is Denver?”

“It’s in a state called Colorado. You have to fly to get there.”

“Is that why she doesn’t come see me? It’s too long a flight?”

His chest, already tight, squeezed into a hard knot. His conscience warred with him. “Would you want to see her?”

The little girl hesitated. “Does she like me?”

Again his conscience smote him. “Yes.” His voice dropped, roughening. “Whitney loves you.”

“Then why won’t she see me?”

He didn’t know how to explain to a four-year-old the complicated situation. He didn’t know how to unravel the messy tangled threads that tied him to Whitney. That tied them to Daisy. But then, he didn’t even know how to explain to himself how something that had once been so good, became so bad. “We just live really far apart. But maybe once we’re in Montana…maybe we can try to get you two together then.”

“Is Montana where Mack and Molly live?”

“Yes. And it’s where we’re going to be living in just a couple weeks.” He kissed the top of her head.