Guardian Angel

Chapter 23

Archie wakes up to the sound of someone crying. It's Everleigh. He rubs his eyes and looks at the alarm clock on the nightstand. It's 3 in the morning. He looks over to Veronica. She's sound asleep, curled into a ball next to him. He kisses her head before he gets up and slowly walks to Everleigh's room.
He turns on the lights and sees the little girl sitting on her bed. She has her blanket wrapped around herself. Tears stream down her cheeks and she's shaking.

"Hey, Ev sweetie. What's wrong?"

"Monsters" she cries.

Archie sits down next to her on the bed which causes one of her teddy bears to fall.
"Daddy!" the little girl screams and jumps into Archie's arms. She digs her little finger nails into his back and hides her face in his chest.

Archie holds her close. He kisses her head and rocks her slowly while trying to realize what he just heard. Did Everleigh really just call him daddy or did he only imagine that. It's the middle of the night, he's still half asleep and trying to calm down a little girl who's for some reason terrified.

"What happened Ev?"

"I saw monsters in my room" she cries "I saw them move"

Archie gets up with the little girl in his arms and slowly walks around the room while bouncing Everleigh up and down a little. He keeps doing it until she calms down. Her grip loosens and her arms are now around his neck.
Archie looks outside the windows. He forgot to close the blinds.

"Look honey, it was only the moon that put shadows into your room. There are no monsters here"

"Do you promise?" Everleigh sniffs.

"I pinky promise. Do you believe me?"

She nods against his chest.

"Okay then lets go back to sleep"

"Noo!" Everleigh says and starts crying again. "I'm scared"

"I'm here Ev"

"Can you stay with me?" she mumbles. "We can share my bed. Please don't leave me alone"

"I won't" he smiles. He closes the blinds before he walks back to her bed and lies down. She snuggles into his side. One arm is wrapped around her and Everleigh holds his index finger tightly.

"You have to protect me, daddy" she whispers.

"I will" he whispers back but Everleigh is already asleep again. He looks down to her with a big smile on his face. She really calls him daddy. He tried to act like it's not a big deal, like this is not the best thing ever to him to not make Everleigh feel weird about it but his heart is racing right now. He can't wait to tell Veronica in the morning. Never did he think a little word like that coming out of her mouth could make him feel like that.

He feels love in his heart. A kind of love he has never felt before, never so strongly.
Even though she's not his flesh and blood, he feels like she is. He fell so in love with that little girl.
He never really thought about that he would be Everleigh's dad at some point in the future but now, he really likes it. He can't wait to do all the dad stuff and tell lame dad jokes when her friends are over. He never wants to pressure her. She can call him dad but she doesn't have to, Archie is totally fine but of course he would prefer dad. Maybe she just said it because she was so scared or maybe she actually meant it.

He runs his fingers through her long, dark brown hair. "Daddy" he whispers to himself and chuckles. "You have no idea how happy you make we when you say that"

He twirls the ends of her little curls and places a couple of kisses on the top of her head.
"I love you Ev, more than you can ever imagine. I promise you I'll always be there for you and your mommy. Even if, for some reason, your mommy and I don't work out, you can still come to me. We can hang out or play. To be honest though I think your mommy is it for me. She's so perfect and you're just like her. I'm really lucky" he whispers and kisses her head again. "Really really lucky"
He keeps stroking her hair until he falls asleep.