Eli POV:

"Daddy!" Lillian, squealed as I picked her up and held her in my arms. We entered the house, I went into the kitchen and sat her on the counter.

"You hungry or anything?" I said opening up the fridge.

"No….." she answered quietly. "Can I go see my room?" She asked excitedly.

"Um, sure," I said lifting her off of the counter.

She bolted up the stairs, obviously all ready knowing which room was hers.

I heard a knock at the door. I opened the large wooden door to see Clare smiling at me.

"Clare, you're early." I said

"Yea, I was just so excited to meet this mysterious, person," she said raising her eyebrows.

"Okay, well hold on a sec." I said as I headed toward the bottom of the staircase.

"Lillian, can you come downstairs please?" I Yelled up the stairs.

I turned around to Clare, "Lillian?" She questioned.

"Uh…."

"Can we make this short? You're cutting into my spongebob time!" Lillian said running down the stairs.

Clare POV:

Who in the world is that? I asked myself staring at the small girl squirming in Eli's arms.

"Lillian, this is Clare, Clare, this is Lillian marie goldsworthy , My daughter ." Eli said.

"Y-your WHAT!" I yelled at him. I looked over at Lillian, she looked horrified.

"You know what? Lillian, why don't you go watch the rest of Songebob and you and I will play together later okay?" I heard Eli whisper to his daughter. She nodded and went quietly back up stairs.

"Thanks, Clare, I think you scared the crap her." He said running his hand through his hair while sitting next to me.

I crossed my arms.

"Please explain to me, I feel like I'm going to explode." I said.

"Okay. Well Lillian is two years old, her mother is…..Julia"

"Your dead ex," stated.

"Yea, she died a few months after Lillian was born. She's been living with my Aunt for the past year and a half. I go visit her almost every weekend. Let me tell you, she's unbelievably smart for her age." He finished.

I was completely in shock. "So Julia had her when she was…"

"15, she was a few months older that me, she would be 17 now."

"Oh….."

"Clare, I'm really sorry that I didn't tell you this earlier, I was just really scared…." He said, looking down at his lap.

"You know, I'm not mad at all. I understand your situation."

"Thanks, Clare. I love you."

"Love you too." I said leaning into him.

"Here's an idea, why don't you me and Lillian go to the park and get some ice cream?"

"Sounds good." I said.

"Lilly bear, put some shoes on, you me Clare and I are going to the park and getting ice cream." Eli yelled up the stairs.

"YYYYAAAAAYYYY!" Lillian yelled coming down the stairs.

.

.

.

We were sitting on a park bench. Lillian was sitting in between Eli and I. When out of the blue Lillian said, "Daddy, even though mommy's gone, does she still love me?"

"Lilly, you know that wherever your mother is, she still loves you and she always will, I bet she's smiling down at you right now." He says sweetly while brushing a strand of brown wavy hair out of her face and behind her ear.

Eli is such a wonderful father, I never really thought that kids would be his thing but here he is taking care of his two year old daughter.