Marry Me

Part 5

"Daddy?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you and (Y/N) doing?"

Ricky pauses slightly, glancing back in the rear view mirror at his daughter where she sits in the car seat, curious.

"What do you mean?" He's trying to get her to school on time, but the traffic has become a serious issue. He's eighty-five percent sure she's going to be late and a hundred percent that her mother is going to ream him a new asshole over it.

"Mommy says you're having a party and stuff, but Sam," Sam? Who the fuck is Sam? "--- says that you're getting married."

"Well, uh, we are."

"So does that mean you don't love Mommy anymore?"

Oh jeez.

Oh hell.

Ricky hasn't even had his coffee yet! His fingers tighten nervously around the steering wheel, and for a few panicked seconds, he doesn't know what to say; he honestly doesn't think he ever loved the mother of his child, but then there's moments when he just...

"I still care about her, Chloe, she's your mother. I'll always care, but now it's... different."

"How different?"

"Well, how I feel about (Y/N) isn't... the same as how I feel about your mother." Definitely a lot less contempt, that's for sure.

"Oh."

Oh?

"Oh?" Ricky echoes, thrumming his fingers, eyes periodically looking at her frowning reflection.

"So... what does getting married mean?"

"It means me and (Y/N) are going to live together, that when you get to stay with me, we'll be at her place and not me and Ryans."

"But I like Uncle Ryan!" She gasps, looking as if she'll never get to see the man again.

"I know, and you'll still get to see him. You'll just see (Y/N) a lot more, she'll be my wife."

"And what does that mean?"

Uh.

Why is she suddenly asking so many questions?

"It means we want to spend the rest of our lives together, that we love each other a lot." The words taste sour on his tongue because he knows they're a lie.

"But you don't love Mommy."

"Not anymore."

"So you... does that mean you'll stop loving me one day?"

Oh hell.

Ricky glances forward, seeing the traffic in front of him is going nowhere before he firmly twists, looking back at the little girl in the carseat. Her blue eyes are wide, and her lower lip is trembling like she's about to cry.

"I'll always love you more than anyone else in the world," Ricky says firmly, reaching back to squeeze her cold, sticky hand. "You're the most important person to me, and no one is ever going to change that. You understand? No one. I'd do anything for you, Chloe." He wants her to understand that, know how important she is to him. He doesn't want whatever her mother and this suspicious "Sam" character says to make her think that she's not his universe.

"But Mommy says when you're with (Y/N), you won't want me around anymore." Chloe sniffles, big crocodile tears forming on her dark lashes. "Th-that I'll b-be in the way."

"Oh no, baby, no." He squeezes her hand again, his chest pinching as it grows hot. "(Y/N) loves you too, we definitely want you with us. You can stay every single day if you want, we always want you there!"