Like A Drug ✔️

Bonus Chapter {Valentine}

Maddison Barnes

Every time I see Lillian get out of the car before me it feels as if something cracks in my chest—in my heart. The backpack resting on her shoulders was almost the same size as her. My daughter. The mix of me and Charles. Me and the person that turned hate into love.

Today I watched her step out of the car with a red rose in her hand. She insisted on buying it for her own money that she had earned while walking door to door in our neighborhood selling the cookies she had made the night before.

She had woken up earlier than normal and shook me awake just to ask me to put up her hair in a way that made her feel like a true princess. We had spent half an hour in the bathroom before she was happy. The front of her hair was pulled back with a sparkly clip. We curled the rest and let it hang over her back.

We had been done just as Charles walked out of our bedroom. The smile rising on his lips every time he saw her. His gaze always fell on her first before it came to me. Always. It's never the opposite. When he looked at me—after looking at our child—there was a spark in his eyes saying that she is all of us. It warms my heart everytime.

I stepped out of the car after my daughter. The air was fresh and cold. It made me pull my coat closer to my body. My hand rested on the top of my flat belly that is carrying the beginning of our second child.

Lillian had run to the fence gate and started to climb over it when I reached her. She giggled when I grabbed her around the waist and lifted her back down to the wet pavement. "I won't fall and break my arm again." She whined as I opened the gate for her instead of letting her climb over it as she waned.

"I'm not taking that risk." A few years prior she had climbed a fence at school which led to her forearm snapping in half. I've never heard someone complain as much as she did during the period where she was wearing a cast.

She didn't care to answer or she didn't listen. Once the gate was closed I saw her skipping forward until she reached the blonde haired kid that was in her class. A guy she had been talking about ever since her first day here. He had been sitting alone on a bench by the school entrance.

My daughter held the rose in front of him. The boy's slumped face turned into a smile when he looked up from the ground and saw her. He took the rose in his hand—eyes never leaving the red crown—and my daughter sat down next to him.

I had stopped a few feet away. Far enough to not walk into their space. I waved to her. She didn't wave back, she just looked up at me before turning her gaze to the little boy. I took that as my sign to leave and get back into the car.

•••

The small red paper bag was set on the table just as I heard the front door creak open. Charles walked into the kitchen shortly after. He was dressed in the sweatpants he uses when he works out and a simple white t-shirt that stretched around his muscles.

"Hello regina del mio cuore <queen of my heart>." His lips turned upwards and his eyes lit up. My body filled with heat—a burn he always starts in my body—as his lips touched mine. His arm slipped around my waist and pulled me closer to his body that was damp with sweat.

The feeling of his body shifting against mine made a shiver run down my spine. "Happy valentines day." I felt him whisper with a smile against my lips. My body swooned as I whispered it back to him just before our lips crashed together once more. This time slower, softer. A gasp came out of my mouth as he pressed me closer—if that was even possible.

Desperation filled my body. Even if I was pressed against him, I want to be closer. Nothing separating us from each other. "You're so beautiful." He mumbled against my lips. A few years ago he would never have said it in a language I understand. Now he can say it in English or italian—he taught me to be able to communicate with people when we visit his friends there—and everything is open and bare for each other.