All Chapters of The Single Dad Next Door Loves Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

112 Chapters

Chapter 1 Mia's Pov

The cabin looked like it belonged on a postcard.That's the first thought that came to my mind when I saw it. Snow clung to the roof in thick layers. Icicles hung from the gutters like teeth. The porch light glowed weakly through a frosted glass shade, making the steps look softer than they were.I parked my rented SUV in the narrow clearing and sat there a second, hands still on the wheel, listening to the engine tick down while I continued to look at the cabin. Silence reigned as I did so. It was not the city kind of silence. Not the Boston kind where sirens and shouting exist even when you swear the street is asleep. This was a silence that pressed against the windows like a living thing. And I liked it. Scratch that, I love it. “Okay,” I whispered. “Okay, Mia. This is what you wanted.”My phone buzzed just then as if it was retaliating against what I had said. I sighed and looked at the screen. ‘SOPHIA HALE’ was flashing across the screen and I rolled my eyes. Of course, I

Chapter 2 Mia's Pov

The light looked closer than it was.I learned that the hard way as I saw that no matter how I walked, I was nowhere near it. I pushed forward, one leg at a time, snow swallowing my boots like it wanted to keep me. The wind kept slamming into my shoulders, trying to turn me around. The flashlight beam shook because my hands shook. Every time I lifted my knees, the snow grabbed at me again in a heavy, wet and relentless way. “Okay,” I breathed to myself. “Keep moving.”I had no choice but to fucking keep moving. My scarf was damp from my breath. It clung to my mouth. My cheeks felt numb. My eyelashes had little crusts of ice on them which would have been funny in any other context. I could almost hear myself telling my best friend back in Boston, 'You should see me right now. I look like a frozen raccoon with a mortgage.’Except there was no one to tell. Not here. Not with no signal. Not with nothing but trees and white blur and that one stubborn yellow glow.The ground dipped, the

Chapter 3 Mia's Pov

I did not sleep at all that night. I lay on the couch that Ethan had offered me, wrapped in a blanket that smelled faintly of laundry soap and woodsmoke, staring at the ceiling while the storm argued with the walls. Every gust rattled something and every crack of ice outside made my muscles jump.This was not my space, I thought and it sat heavy on my chest.The fire had burned low and the room glowed dim orange, shadows stretching and shrinking with each pop of the logs. Somewhere deeper in the cabin, a floorboard creaked. I wondered if Ethan heard it too. I wondered if he was lying awake like me, cataloguing every sound, every risk.I turned onto my side just then. The couch was comfortable enough, but it was not comfort I missed. It was permission. Permission to relax. To exist without feeling like I was intruding.My phone lay on the coffee table next to me, useless and dark.I closed my eyes finally after several minutes.Sleep came in fragments. Short, shallow drops where my b

Chapter 4 Mia's Pov

The next morning, the cabin felt like a different place.Not because the storm stopped. It didn’t. The wind still shoved at the windows. Snow still crawled up the glass like it wanted to cover the world and erase it.It felt different because I did.I woke with Ethan’s voice still in my head, low and soft, singing to his daughter in the dark. The sound clung to me like smoke. It followed me down the hall. It sat in my chest while I brushed my teeth with the spare toothbrush Lily had proudly handed me from a drawer.“Daddy keeps extra,” she’d said like this was normal.I shook my head at myself because to me, nothing about this was normal.I stood at the sink, staring at my face in the mirror. My cheeks looked less pale than the first night. My eyes still looked tired but there was something awake in them now. Something that hadn’t been there in Boston.Something warm and dangerous at the same time. I stepped into the hallway and nearly collided with Ethan.He wore a flannel shirt and

Chapter 5 Mia's Pov

I woke with Ethan’s breath still on my skin.That made no sense because he hadn’t touched me. At least not really. But my body did not care about logic.I lay there staring at the ceiling, heart racing, replaying the moment by the fire over and over again. The brush of his hand against mine. The way his fingers had stiffened like he’d been burned. The fear that had flashed across his face before he pulled away.Fear, not disgust.That mattered more than it should have.I rolled onto my side and buried my face in the pillow. It smelled faintly of detergent and pine. You came here to heal, I reminded myself as if I needed to hear it now. You came here to breathe.You did not come here to fall for a man who flinched every time you and his daughter play together or when he mistakenly touched you. No, Mia, you didn't. I sighed deeply. Then I stood up and dressed quietly before I stepped out into the hallway.The cabin was still. The storm had softened overnight but the snow remained pile

Chapter 6 Mia's Pov

Days passed. Days that felt longer than when I sat at the office desk sending countless long reports to Sophie, seconds slower than three and more breaths.I struggled through time back then but now, it was much harder.With each passing day that went by, I grew even more attached to the child than I had ever done with someone in my life. Even my own parents.Lily liked me too, she told me her secrets, her dreams, her little fantasies of visiting a real life Disney museum when she was older and the time when she wished she was a fish so badly.I laughed harder than a jackass. The child was funnier when she didn't even know it.“I wanted to be a princess too.” I told her at some point.“Really?” Her eyes turned brighter than a torchlight. “You wanted to be a Barbie princess who is also a mermaid.”“Uhmm.. not exactly.” Her eyelid lowered like she was disappointed we did not share the same dream. “What kind of princess did you want to be?”It was hard to tell her the kind I wanted. Not

Chapter 7 Mia's Pov

“So…” I continued after I slipped the cup back in place, splashes of water dotted my gown. Dishes were never my thing. “Lily seems better than when I first met her.”Ethan quieted. He stuck a few more plates into the rack, wiped the counter with a rag– then turned to me. His expression calm, relaxed.“She has always been quiet, she's just more… fun now.”Fun.“And chatty.” He added. “That's not how I trained her to be.”“I can see.” I could not see, Lily was a child, like any other child, she should have been noisy. Surprising how she acted less like a six year old and more like someone my age.“Dinner.” He mentioned, his fingers pointed at the basket of the remaining fresh vegetables he had. “We should be able to make something from that, next we'll need portion control.”“A soup or a sauce?” I thought to join in. Not that I was the best cook. “A sauce.” He decided. “Lily is allergic to tomato soups.”“That makes perfect sense. I'll wash and prepare the tomatoes and then I'll get to

Chapter 8 Ethan’s Pov

“Daddy….”Lily's voice brought me back to reality. I glanced back at her. “Lily…”Her expression was warm, her eyes soft. She looked at me intensely. “Why did you do that?”“Do what?”“Be mean to Mia.”Sometimes I wondered where she picked these words. Clearly not me. I could feel my forehead wrinkling.“This is grown up stuff, Lily. You shouldn't be meddling in grown up business.”Lily did not care. She shook her head gently. “You always said to treat people kindly, Daddy and now look what you did to her.”Her words stabbed my chest. Lily was right. I pride myself with teaching my daughter good manners and here I was acting this way.I lowered my head in shame but Lily couldn't see that part. She got busy with the towel and the juice box, sipping with her pills in her hand.“Are the dreams getting better?”“No.” “But the doctor said it should have cleared up within three weeks.”She shrugged, her shoulders lowered slowly. “Maybe I need more than that.”Obviously. I turned to the oth

Chapter 9 Mia's Pov

“I didn't mean what I said the other day.”I leaned forward, perched on my doorframe.“Come again?”He found my eyes, his expression grim like someone had die. “I'm sorry if I came up as rude. I'm just not use to… to people having my daughter’s attention. I apologize.”His apology was brief. Better than nothing actually.I studied him for a while, my mouth wounded in-between two teeth. Ethan looked away, his lips parted like the rest of the words lingered somewhere inside.“I'm not trying to take your daughter away.” I started. “I think Lily is a lovely girl and she's a great child, I would never do anything to take her away from you. You have to know that, please.”“I apologize.” He insisted and when I nodded, a sign of acceptance, he walked away without any more words.I slept that night better than I did the hours before. I settled into bed with my pajamas feeling cozy and calm in this stranger’s bed.It was a nice feeling, being apologized to, especially from a man as rigid as Et

Chapter 10 Mia's Pov

Dinner passed quieter than I expected.Not awkward...just… careful. Like we were all learning how to exist in the same space without stepping on invisible lines.Lily sat cross-legged on her chair, swinging her feet as she ate, humming softly between bites. She didn’t complain once, which I took as a victory. Every now and then, she’d glance at me with a small smile, like we were sharing a secret only the two of us understood.I liked that.I liked her.Ethan sat across from us, eating slowly, methodically. He didn’t say much, but he didn’t look uncomfortable either. His shoulders were relaxed, his jaw unclenched. That alone felt like progress.I watched him when I thought he wasn’t looking.The way he cut his food precisely. The way he paused whenever Lily coughed, his eyes flicking to her instinctively. The way he drank water like he was reminding himself to breathe.This was the same man who had laughed softly beside me during movie night. The same man whose knee had brushed mine i

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