Page 41 of A Night To Remember

“She’s extremely bright, but I started teaching her things right off the bat. I did whole flash card, and baby reading program thing. She watches age appropriate television. You wouldn’t believe how much she’s learned from some of these shows. She even knows what a dodecahedron is.”

Jake scratched his head. “Wow. I’m not sure what that is myself. What is it?”

Charlie grinned. “Don’t worry, I didn’t either until she told me. It’s a twelve-sided shape. It also helps that I read to her every night. I know I’m probably one of those overzealous parents, but I just want her to give her a head start. Besides, she likes to learn and she’s very mature for her age.”

“She’s two going on thirty.” Jake laughed.

“Don’t say that,” Charlie groaned. “I don’t want my little girl to grow up so fast. As much as I love Kristy, I’m already dreading her teenage years.”

“I bet. That kid is going to be beating the guys off with a stick.” Jake sighed, remembering what he was like as a teenage boy. He had a feeling that he would be in for a lot of gray hairs.

“Please don’t remind me, Jake.” Charlie shook her head. “I’ve already thought about it. As a matter of fact, just before I started working at MBF, Kristy got into a little trouble for punching a little boy on the nose. He was trying to kiss her apparently and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“Really? That’s my girl.” Jake grinned, imagining his tiny daughter belting some kid.

“I don’t encourage violence, Jake, but it was kind of funny. I felt so bad because I had to lecture to her on why we shouldn’t hit, all the while I was laughing on the inside.” Charlie smiled in recollection. “Kristy’s really a good girl. She hardly ever gives me trouble and she always has a smile on her face. She has lots of friends at daycare and everyone who meets her tells me how well behaved she is.” Charlie babbled.

He realized she was putting him off, but the time had come to get down to business. “Charlie, we need to talk.” He took her hand and led her to the couch.

"What about?” A wary expression marred her face.

“Well for one thing, we need to figure out how we’re going to work out visitation arrangements.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Jake waited until Charlie made herself comfortable then took a seat on the couch next to her before he continued. “Obviously I would like to see her as much as possible, but I’ll respect your wishes as well. I was thinking of having her every other weekend, holidays, and maybe a whole week once a month.”

“But the weekends are when the two of us do things together and our holidays are special,” Charlie protested. “Maybe you can have her one weekend a month and every other holiday?” she offered.

This wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought.

“Be reasonable, Charlie, you’ve had her all to yourself up until now. She’s nearly three and I’ve missed so much of her life, like her first steps, her first tooth and her first words. I don’t want to miss anything else,” he pointed out, hoping Charlie’s sense of fairness would kick in.

“I really think we should start off with one weekend a month and then we’ll see.”

“What?” Jake jumped to his feet.

Charlie flinched.

“Just until she gets used to you,” she amended in haste.

“At that rate she’ll never get use to me.”

Charlie looked down on at her feet. “I think my offer is fair, Jake.”

“Fair to whom?” he demanded. What was Charlie playing at? Considering what had happened to them earlier that day, he thought that she would be more cooperative. He took a deep breath. Calm down Jake, we can still work this out amicably.

“Jake, keep your voice down or else you’ll wake Kristy up,” Charlie shushed.

“Look, Charlie, I know you’re probably worried I’ll encroach on your time with Kristy, but I just want to share in her life. Please see this from my point of view. I only found out yesterday that I have a daughter, but crazy as it may sound, I love her. When she opened her arms to me earlier today, I didn’t want to let her go. Charlie, I’d like to spend some time with her and I know we can work something out to both our satisfactions.”

Charlie was silent for a moment before she spoke. “Jake, it takes two to compromise. Okay, we’ll do every other weekend but we’ll split the holidays. I think that’s somewhere in the middle of what we both want.”

Jake would have liked more, but he knew the deal was fair. If he had his way, he would have his daughter all the time along with her mother. “You have a deal, but eventually I’d like to renegotiate to have her more often. I see no reason why we shouldn’t go to every other week, but for now we’ll go with this. Can I have her next weekend? I promised my nieces I would take them to the zoo and they won’t let me forget it. I think Kristy would enjoy it.”

Charlie paused.

“Charlie?”

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