Before I can so much as breathe a word of reason, she’s already gone, sprinting to the kitchen like some sort of dessert-fuelled menace.
I sigh, scrubbing a hand over my face.
Lucy giggles. “She’s fast.”
“Definitely when it comes to ice cream,” I laugh.
Lucy just shrugs, clearly unfazed by Ivy’s unstoppable ice cream agenda. Then, without warning, she scrambles onto my lap, settling in like she has done so many times before.
She rests her little hands on my chest, looking up at me with those same big brown eyes she’s had since the day she was born, and suddenly—I know.
I know something big is coming.
I swallow. “What’s up, Ladybug?”
Lucy hesitates, fiddling with the hem of her T-shirt. Then she leans in, her voice a whisper against my ear.
“I’m okay if I don’t get a pony,” she murmurs.
I raise a brow. “Oh?”
She nods. “Or presents. Or even cake.”
I blink. “That’s… unexpected.”
She presses her lips together, gathering her thoughts, and then—quietly, like she’s testing the words—she whispers, “But can Ivy be my mum?”
My breath catches.
I lean back slightly, looking down at her small, serious face. “Why are you asking me that, Lu?”
Lucy shifts in my lap, still twirling the hem of her shirt between her fingers. “Sabrina at school,” she says carefully, “her mummy and daddy sleep in the same bed. And they’re mum and dad.”
I nod slowly. “Right.”
Lucy bites her lip. “Ivy sleeps in your bed, Daddy. And I want a mum too.”
My throat tightens.
She looks up at me with quiet hope. “Can she be my mum?”
There’s something so simple about the way she says it. No big declarations. No confusion. Just the innocent certainty of a six-year-old trying to put her world into order.
I take a deep breath, smoothing a hand over her hair. “We should ask her,” I murmur. “Only she and you can decide that.”
Lucy exhales, like she’s been holding that question inside her for ages.
Then, just as quickly, she straightens, suddenly looking nervous.
“Okay,” she whispers. “But you have to ask her for me.”
“You don’t want to ask her yourself?” I frown.
She shakes her head fiercely. “No. I have nervous bugs in my tummy.”
I chuckle softly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Alright, I’ll ask her for you.”
Lucy sighs in relief, settling back against my chest, completely at ease now that she’s passed the responsibility onto me.
