A great big thanks to everyone who has supported this story by faving, following and reviewing. Just a note: I intend to chop and change between present day - with Lester and his Daughter, and past with Lester and the Mother. I'll try to label clearly.

Chapter 2

Present Day

"Once upon a time there was a headstrong woman," I began with a sigh, choosing my words carefully as I settled my gaze on the ceiling above us.

"What's headstrong?" Mackenzie asked, leaning up to look at me.

I shook my head. Sometimes I forgot she was only five. She was so confident and articulate. I'd met twelve year olds that were less knowledgeable than my daughter. But, of course, she was still little, and despite the grown up conversations we often had, she was still learning words and phrases and what they meant. "Headstrong," I repeated slowly. "Means she knew what she wanted and also knew how to get it."

"Like Auntie Steph?" she enquired sweetly, relaxing back into my shoulder. "Uncle Los-Los says she always knows what she wants, and she always gets it even when he says no."

Caught off guard, I let a chuckle burble up through my throat and burst out my mouth. Kenz had a way of saying the unexpected. "Yes," I agreed. "Auntie Steph is also headstrong. But Mommy was different to Auntie Steph."

She rolled over, always so restless. It was impossible to get her to stay still. "How?" Her elbow dug into my rib as she folded her arms under her chin so that she could watch my face as I spoke.

I'd stuck my foot in it already. What I wouldn't give to be able to just flat out tell her all the differences between her mother and her aunt. But that was like giving her a one way ticket to Mommy Issues. More story editing was needed. More forethought, on my part. "Mummy was more…" I searched for the word I was after, scanning the familiar divots in the ceiling plaster. They didn't hold the answers I was seeking, though. "Mommy was more…"

"Mean?" Kenz suggested.

"What?" I started, sitting up and almost dislodging her from her position. "Honey, why would you say something like that?"

She shrugged, and crawled into my lap, pushing her hair out of her face. "Uncle Cal said Mommy was a meanie," she explained quietly, not meeting my gaze. "He said if Mommy were nice, she wouldn't have left me." Her voice was soft, but there was no mistaking the emotion behind her words.

Taking her face in my palms, I gently guided her forehead to my lips, and then pulled back a bit so I could look her in the eye. "Sweetie," I said earnestly. "Mommy didn't leave because she was mean."

"Did she like me?"

There are certain things you hope your child never has to ask. This was one of them. I had hoped that I had showered her with enough love and affection in the last three years that she would never doubt that she was important to me. The other guys seemed to have the same idea. They always had time for Kenz. But there was the question, laid out so plainly. Her heart on a platter. Waiting to be crushed to a million tiny pieces with nothing more than a wrongly placed syllable.

Careful, Santos, I told myself.

"She loved you," I assured her, solemnly. Which was the absolute truth.

Kenz's eyes brightened a little at that. "More than you love me, Daddy?" she enquired, perking up.

"No one could ever love you more than I do," I assured her, hugging her tightly to my chest. She was breaking my heart. "How about I continue the story?"

"Okay," she agreed, and quickly spun around so that she was leaning back against my chest.

"Where was I?" I asked her.

"Once upon a time there was a headstrong woman," she recited readily.

"Right," I nodded, twirling one of her tangled locks around my finger absently. "Once upon a time there was a headstrong woman and a devastatingly handsome man."

"Daaaddyyyy," she groaned, covering her face with her hands, even as she giggled. This was her typical reaction whenever I stated how attractive I am. She either didn't believe me or she got embarrassed.

"It's true," I told her seriously. "No matter how much you deny it, you will always have to live with the fact that your Daddy is the best looking man in the world." She shook her head at that, and proceeded to poke me in the side, but I continued the story. We'd gotten perilously side tracked once already, and I'd barely begun. "Once upon a time there was a beautiful headstrong woman and a devastatingly handsome man. They lived vastly different lives. He worked and lived with a group of men that were dedicated to keeping Trenton safe. She sold houses to rich people. And one night they met at a party."

"What kind of party?"

"One with lots of music and dancing," I told her. "The devastatingly handsome man had been dancing with a lot of women that night and he was tired. Ready to go home. But then the headstrong woman caught his eye and beckoned him over. The man told his friends to go on home without him so that he could talk to her without them all crowding around and throwing off his groove. He went over to talk to her."

"What did he say?" Kenz asked wistfully.

"Are you a magician? Because whenever I look at you, everyone else disappears."

Mackenzie gasped, thrusting her head back to look at me again. "WAS Mommy a magician?" she asked excitedly.

I laughed and shook my head, ruffling her hair. "No, Daddy was just being silly, trying to get Mommy to like him."

"Did it work?"

I nodded. "Well enough," I confirmed. "So, anyway, eventually the headstrong woman and the devastatingly handsome man left the party together and hung out for a while."

Kenz was still staring up at me, utterly rapt in the story I was spinning. "What did you do?"

"Played games," I said. Well it wasn't technically a lie.

"What games did you play?" she insisted.

Shit. Now look what you've done! "Uh, leapfrog, I think," I told her. "And maybe Twister." Luckily she accepted this answer without any follow up questions – a rare occurrence, indeed – and I was free to continue uninterrupted for a while. I told her how her mother and I had spent the next twent-four hours together. Playing. Before the headstrong woman had to dash off to her job. It was kinda Cinderella-esque the way I said it, which appealed to her sense of fantasy and kept her from asking too many more questions.

"Then what happened?" she asked.

"Um…" I thought for a bit, trying to both remember details and edit them as they came, rather than simply blurting things out. "Not much, really," I admitted to her. "We didn't see each other for while after that."

"But weren't you friends?" she insisted. "You played together."

"Sometimes things just aren't that simple," I reminded her. "It's getting late and you have school tomorrow, how about I tell you the rest of the story next time?"

"But Daddy!"

"No buts," I said sternly, slipping out from underneath her and tucking her under the covers all in one fluid movement. "Time for sleep." I pressed a kiss to each of her eye lids and then her nose. "Good night, muffin-head."

"Good night, Daddy," she yawned, holding up Teddy for me to kiss as well.