A tender moment reveals happiness at the core

On Thursday Willow and I lay in her big-girl bed, reading a book and listening to her glow worm chyme its lullaby music.
Willow was sleepy, I could tell, and she was ready to drift off to sleep. I could have left her in the bed, and I think she would have fallen asleep by herself, but I was enjoying myself and decided to lie there with her.
Willow was lying parallel to me, her head in the nook where my left arm met my chest, turning page by page or her book. She rubbed her right eye then looked up at me. She reached out her right hand and patted me on the cheek.
"I happy, Daddy," she smiled. "I happy."
"Me too, Willow."
Seconds later, she fell into her slumber, and I slipped from the bed.
My heart beat calmly in the rhythm of "I hap-py I hap-py I hap-py ..."

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