ME AND MY DADDI - Season 4 Episode 6

She bit her lip as Patrick closed the bedroom door behind him. Standing in the middle of the room, she looked around. She was thinking that any minute she’d wake up and know it was all a dream. The thought of knowing it wasn’t real tore at something in her heart.

She made her way into the bathroom attached to her room. It was pink like the bedroom and just as beautiful. She showered, brushed her teeth, and pulled on the gown. Then she took a good look at herself in the mirror and grimaced. Her hair looked horrible. It was all different lengths and choppy. Her father hadn’t done a good job cutting it, but then he hadn’t cared how it looked. She was afraid if there had been hair shears handy, she would have been bald.

Eve wondered if she could ask for a pair of scissors and see if she could make it look better. Her father had cut it over a month before, and it had already started to grow out. It wouldn’t look as bad if she could make it even.

She turned off the bathroom light and walked into the bedroom. The overhead light was off, but the light by the bed sent a warm glow through the room. She noticed the bed had also been turned down.

She leaned up against the headboard and had just pulled the blanket up to her chest when a knock sounded on her door. “Come in,” she called out.

Patrick opened the door and smiled. He took several steps to the bed and sat on the side by her hip.

“How are you doing, baby?”

“Good.”

“It’s been a long, eventful day, hasn’t it?”

“It’s been the best day of my life, sir.”

****

Patrick felt equal parts happy he’d given her that but then was pissed that it took so little to make her happy.

“I’d like you to call me Patrick if you could.”

A spark of excitement and joy brightened her eyes.

“Would you like me to read a bit to you?”

Her eyes filled.

He scooched up to sit beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

She wiped the tears that ran down her cheeks. “No, it just made me think of my mother. She used to read to me. She died in a car accident a long time ago.”

He didn’t say anything. There was time to inform her that her mother was alive and very much wanted to be a part of her life.

“How about you go pick out a book,” he told her.

She nodded and scrambled off the bed. It took her a good five minutes to pick one out because there were so many.

As he watched her, his feelings for her grew by the minute. She was everything he’d been looking for, and he’d do anything to keep her with him and happy.

He smiled when she jumped back up on the mattress, slid under the covers close to him, and then handed him the book.

He grinned. Cinderella. The story of a young woman who lived a horrible life but found the prince, and he saved her—a fitting tale for their situation.

“Once upon a time…”

He knew precisely when Eve fell asleep against him, but he continued to read, not wanting the night to end just yet. At the end of the book, he closed it and set it on the nightstand before lifting Eve and moving her down, so her head lay on the pillow. He covered her up and then stood over her.

She looked so peaceful and even had a smile on her face.

He turned the bedside light off but made sure the nightlight was on by the bathroom. He also kept the door cracked open so he could hear her if she needed him.

After showering and getting into bed, Patrick lay back and thought of all the things he wanted to do with Eve and everything he wanted to give her. Every smile she gave him felt like a special gift, and he knew he’d never take them for granted.