Page 34 of Taming Drew

DREW

Freya takes my hand at her favorite pizza restaurant. Chloe and I have just celebrated our third month anniversary, and I’m out with Freya for the first time, alone. She flicks her head at the Skee Ball machine, and I smirk. “You’re on. Winner has to fill the dishwasher for the week.” Her sweet smile morphs into a stare that rivals the linebackers I play against.

“Game on, Dad.” She stops and regret slams into her face and my heart falls. “I’m so sorry. I …”

I kneel in front of the little munchkin who’s become my daughter. “I liked it.”

Her sad face shifts just enough for me to notice. “Yeah?”

I nod. “Would you like to call me dad?”

She looks around and leans in to whisper. “I’d like to call you dad. You feel like my dad.”

My heart grows three sizes like the grinch in the movie, and I can’t imagine not having this little girl as mine, like her mother, and the twins in her belly. I nod. “We need to talk with your mom.”

Freya scoffs. “I’ve got that woman wrapped around my little finger.” She holds up her pinky and bends it. “Consider it a lock. You’re my dad, now.”

We walk to the game, and I hand her the first ball. “Make it good, daughter of mine, or you’re doing the dishwasher all week long.”

She sticks her tongue at me and rolls the ball, putting it into the hole with the highest points, whooping about how great she is, as I laugh.

We get home in time to straighten the house before Chloe walks in. She stops and stares at the two of us on the sectional. “What are you two conspiring?”

Freya laughs. “He’s got dishwasher duty all week. I won at Skeeball.”

She shakes her head. “She conned you.”

I nod. “I realized that a little late. But it’s worth it to see her smile.” I’d do anything to absorb that look of adoration she gives me. I’m sure this won’t last forever. She’ll get mad at me eventually, and it’ll break my heart.

Freya holds up two stuffed animals. “I got these for the twins.”

Chloe walks over and kisses her daughter’s forehead. “Thank you. Go put them in the nursery, please.” Freya scampers off, and I put my wife onto my lap. “Thanks for taking her.”

“It was my pleasure. We had a good time.” I stop talking, and Chloe stares at me, knowing I don’t know how to say something.

“Spit it out.”

“She called me ‘dad’.”

Chloe scrutinizes my face. I can only imagine what her brain is searching for.

My body relaxes when Chloe smiles. “I told her she could call me dad.” I pause. “And I want to adopt her.”

She bites her bottom lip. “Are you sure?”

I chuckle. “She’s already my daughter. I didn’t want to be in a relationship, and you got dropped into my lap. Now I can’t imagine my life without you and your little con artist.”

She smirks. “She is, isn’t she?”

“Damn if I don’t fall for her innocence every time. The first ball she hit the high cup, and it just went up from there.”

Chloe snuggles up next to me as Freya runs back in. “I think you should let me name the babies.”

We look at each other. I ask. “What would you name them?”

Freya purses her lips and cups her finger on her chin. “I think we should name them Noah and Nathan. Noah for your mom, Noelle, and Nathan after you.”

I’m overwhelmed by her sweetness. Her mother and I nod as I suggest. “Let’s confirm that they’re boys before we settle on the names. But thank you for thinking of me and my mom.”

Freya shrugs. “Did you tell mom that I get to call you ‘dad’?

Chloe puts out her hand to pull her daughter to sit on the sofa. “Yes, he did. Dad mentioned he’d like to make it official and adopt you.”

Freya squeezes between the two of us. “Of course he’s going to make it official, but he’s already my dad.”

My heart is so full, I think it’s going to burst out of my chest like in theAlienmovie. I chuckle in my head at my joke, hoping to settle my heart and my head that this is my family, and the old Drew is no longer the bad boy. I’m the right man for my future.

THE END

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