Prologue

PROLOGUE

I t was love at first sight.

I didn’t know how else to explain it.

The small swath of brown hair. The pink cheeks. That tiny nose. Those blinking eyes and grasping fingers.

I was in love.

With an hour-old baby.

And his mother? That wasn’t love at first sight, but it was love.

I had no idea when it started. Maybe the day I’d watched her lay out a customer who thought it was his right to grab a woman. I hadn’t even been able to open my mouth before he’d hit the floor.

Maybe it had been that night when I’d heard her singing, a rare glimpse into an unguarded moment while she had cleaned up. I’d hidden in the corner, so she wouldn’t notice how I’d watched her rocking side to side as her voice, lovely and melodic, carried to me. A surprise and yet not. After all, every new piece of information I learned about her was a revelation. A puzzle wrapped up in ripped jeans and a leather jacket, and signing Lady Gaga’s “You and I.”

Or maybe, very likely, it was the day she’d told me she was pregnant. That’s when it had all become clear.

That I loved her.