“I just want them to be happy, and I haven’t seen my sister smile so much in years, so yeah. We’re okay, Axel. As long as you remember what I said.”

“Gotcha. I’m still keeping my door locked at night.”

Beau smirked and said, “Wouldn’t stop me.” Yikes! Seriously, dude was scary AF.

We walked over to where Carrie was finishing her motorcycle ride, and Beau plucked her off the seat. He snuggled her to him—yes, Beau Atwood, badass extraordinaire, was snuggling—and said, “I’ll see you tonight, baby girl.”

“I’m not a baby, Uncle Beau,” she said, socking him in the chest with her little fist. He pretended to wince and then gave Carrie a kiss.

“Go to your daddy now,” he said, handing her off to me with a smile.

“I’m about to school you in Whac-A-Mole, kiddo,” I told her. “You will be dazzled by my skills.”

Beau gave us a final wave and started to walk off. He turned back and asked, “Do you need my booster seat for Carrie?”

“Nah, but thanks, man. I bought one today.” He nodded as if I had passed some kind of important Dad test and left. I looked at my little girl and said, “Hey, I’m buying a new car. Something a little bigger so that you, me, and Mommy can go do things together. Will you help me pick out the color?”

“Really?” she asked, her eyes wide and excited. “I get to pick the color of the whole car?”

“The whole car,” I confirmed, walking us back to the counter. I ordered a large mushroom pizza and then looked at Carrie. “What does Mommy let you have to drink?” I didn’t want to screw up on my first night having Carrie alone.

“I can only have Sprite at nighttime so I don’t get too hyper. Mom says Coke gets me wired up like a spider monkey.” I laughed and ordered us each a Sprite.

We sat at the table Beau and I had vacated, and I pulled up the BMW website on my phone with Carrie on my lap.

“Okay, baby girl. They have this one in these three colors. Which one do you like?” I asked, pointing to my phone.

“Ummm, not the black one because your other car is black. The white is okay, but I really like this blue one. Is that okay?” she asked, blinking up at me with her big lash-rimmed eyes.

“Sure,” I said. “Whatever you want.” I was grateful they didn’t have a purple one, or I knew I would have been cruising my ass around Dallas looking like fucking Prince. I dialed the dealership and asked the salesman to have the blue one delivered tomorrow.