Page 122 of Pelvic Flaws

“Yes,” I said around a smile. “Of course you can.”

“I’m home in three days, so is there any chance you can get my place ready for a four-year-old girl. Decorate her room, buy her some clothes, all that sort of shit. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I want things to be as settled as possible for her when we get back. I don’t want her to have to sleep in a room with an old desk and adult furniture. She’s still fragile darlin’ and I’m petrified that what I’m doing is the wrong thing, so I want to make it as perfect as possible.”

I let out a quiet, emotional sniffle as I heard the fear in his voice. This was as scary for him as it was Savannah. He had no idea how to bring up a child, but he was doing it because he thought it was the right thing to do and what was best for his daughter. Messing it up wasn’t an option, especially as Savannah had suffered so much grief already.

“Of course I will,” I replied, sniffling. “I’ll sort everything out.”

“Thank you, Katie Cat. Thank you so much. You can get my business credit card from the studio – Jethro will get it out of the safe for you, he’s got a key to my apartment too.”

“Okay, let me get a pen and paper and I’ll make notes of what you want me to get.”

Dex laughed. “I have no fucking idea, you’re probably more equipped to know than I am. I just know she loves girly stuff – damn it, I think she has more dollies than a toy store. She likes pink too, but her favorite color is yellow and she loves watching old Tom and Jerry cartoons, they make her laugh loud, like a guy.”

I smiled and felt my heart swell up. “You’ve learned a lot about her already, Dex. That’s amazing.”

“I’ve not done much else but watch her and talk to her for the last week or so, since I made my decision.”

My stomach turned as I realized he’d decided over a week ago, but hadn’t told me, as though it wasn’t important I should know.

Was I just someone to help with the practical stuff?

My non-response must have raised alarm bells with him, because his voice was pleading when he said, “I wanted to tell you, Katie Cat, I really did, but I was scared the department might still turn around and say she was better off with the Henrys or another family. In principle it was okay for me to get custody, James said it was pretty much a given, but if she’d hated me, or I couldn’t engage with her, they could have forced me to give her up.”

“But you’re her dad,” I replied, now understanding his reasoning for not telling me. “You’re on the birth certificate, however Cherry got you on there.”

We’d had a conversation about what Cherry had done, but Dex had been adamant he wasn’t angry about it – her not telling him he was a dad, now that was a different matter entirely.

“I know, but if I wasn’t suitable they’d do what was best by Savannah, and to be honest, I’m glad about that. Shows they’re doing a good job.”

“I suppose,” I sighed. “The main thing is you are bringing her home, so what do you need me to do?”

* * *

As she had a two-year-old sister, I’d enlisted Annie’s help in getting things ready for Savannah, hoping she’d give me an insight of what to buy. I would have been better asking Charlie, because all Annie wanted to do was nosey around Dex’s apartment and check out his sound system – at full blast.

“Seriously, Annie, if you’re not going to help, get the bus back home,” I grumbled, as the metal tape measure flipped up into the air.

“Okay, I’ll help.” She bent down, holding the measure in place, while I jotted down the numbers.

I’d seen some cute white, wooden furniture in a local shop, but wanted to be sure that the bed and dresser fitted in. Luckily the room had a walk in wardrobe, so I didn’t need to worry about fitting one in. Dex had told me to ‘move the shit from the closet and put it in my room’, so that was my next job, once I’d got the measurements down.

“I’m thinking that striped pink and yellow bedding with the matching curtains, what do you think?” I asked Annie as I moved my tape measure to the window.

“Yes that would be lovely, but what about these walls.” She screwed up her nose at the plain cream walls.

I stood back and looked at them. “I don’t think we have time to repaint, so maybe get some pictures and put them in pink and yellow frames?”

“Ooh there’s that shop in town that sells cheap prints. I noticed they’d got some of sweets, donuts, and lollipops, what about those?”

“We can go and look,” I replied, glad she was finally getting interested. Then again, we were talking about spending money.

We then took the next hour moving things into Dex’s room and I only blushed once as I looked at his bed, remembering what we’d done in it the night before he’d left for Texas.

“So this is where the magic happens,” Annie said, grinning at me as she carried in a pile of LP records. “This is where Dex shows you a good time.”

“Annie,” I scolded. “That’s enough.”

She started to giggle and placed her pile on the floor. “We’re not bothered you know, Mum. We’re just glad you’re happy. You haven’t smiled so much in ages.”

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