Call Me Michigan by Sam Destiny

her upstairs after turning off the kitchen light.
    “Don’t tell Dad I’m scared,” Becca pleaded against her shoulder, and Taylor inched her feet toward the bed, not yet familiar with the layout of his bedroom, then she placed the child underneath the sheets and crawled in next to her.
    “Thank you,” Mason’s daughter muttered sleepily as Taylor pulled her close.
    “Always,” she assured her, kissing the dark hair while cuddling the girl to sleep.

    ***

    Mason finally returned home at the first light of dawn. The storm had taken its toll on him and the team, grounding them longer than he had hoped. He was exhausted, but he was too wound up to think about sleep while his body was ready to drop. His mind was playing the pictures of last night on repeat. Blood, so much blood, he was sure he’d be washing it off his hands for the next decade to come. He needed a smile to replace those memories and quick.
    As always, his first way led him into his daughter’s room, only to find her bed empty. His heart rate accelerated in worry. Becca hated storms and had a tendency to hide in the weirdest places. Searching, he went to all the possible and impossible hideouts, drawing a blank. Panic had him in its tight grip. Where the hell was his daughter?
    Realizing that he had left Taylor here as well, he decided to ask her. Gently pushing open the door to his room, he stalked into the room with every intention of waking her when he spotted his little girl curled up next to Taylor, Becca’s little hands wrapped around Taylor’s arm.
    He took out his phone and couldn’t resist snapping a picture. Then he moved back to the door, his clothes brushing the doorframe with a light rustle.
    “Dad?” a small voice asked, and he looked back at her.
    “Hey, sweetie. Wanna go back to your bed?” he wanted to know, waiting.
    “I stay with Tay now,” she decided almost instantly, wiggling closer to the woman in question. Mason nodded, returning to the sofa downstairs. He grabbed a book, figuring it would keep him awake until Becca didn’t want to sleep anymore. It couldn’t be more than an hour or two since she never slept in and the sun was already coming up on the horizon.
    Only when giggling woke him did he noticed that he had fallen asleep after all.
    “Look, Daddy. I made Tay’s hair!” Without a care in the world, Becca jumped into his lap, making him drop the book to catch her instead.
    Following his daughter, Taylor came in, wearing his hoodie and sweatpants, showcasing a weird mix of ponytail and bird’s nest on her head, presenting his daughter’s non-existing design talent.
    “Your daughter will be a great hairstylist one day,” Taylor promised, and as quick as Becca had been in his lap, she was gone again, jumping into Taylor’s waiting arms. Only then did Mason registered the carefully crafted French braid on his daughter’s head. He got up, wondering why he had never thought it possible to fall even harder for Taylor, when in truth, watching her dance around the living room with his baby girl in her arms made it clear that so far what he had felt wasn’t anything compared to what he could feel.

“Ash, I know we haven’t been on the best of terms, but this is about Tay, so please don’t hang up!” Calling his ex hadn’t been easy, but he had a plan, and he couldn’t do it alone. A few guys were already there for the hard work, but he needed a few women who knew Taylor.
    “Mason …”
    “She’s sleepin’ on the sofa, not touching her parents’ bedroom. She’s out all day today. I wanna make that room hers. How is she ever going to feel like it’s home if she’s a visitor in her own house?”
    After a long pause, Ashley finally answered. “I cannot imagine how she must feel. Everythin’s the same, yet nothing is as she knew it. If she sees us together, Mase, your chances will be slimmer and slimmer. She wants to make it right for us and …”
    “That’s not what this is about,” he