Page 37 of Unbreakable Love

I risked a look at Penny. She was still smiling at my daughter but as if she felt my eyes on her, she twisted her neck. A quick little wink, like we both understood the joke I didn’t say and then that cute pink was brightening her cheeks before she refocused on her meal.

“Avery’s mom is a really good cook, too. She cooks every night for them.”

Something tight coiled in my chest as I peered at my daughter. She was often vocal, loved conversation and hated silence and could entertain a crowd of fifty without dropping a sweat. But she rarely talked about Avery’s family. Or her mom’s cooking schedule. I couldn’t remember the last time she’d been over there, and she wasn’t over there enough to know Michelle’s cooking routine.

“That’s lovely,” Penny chimed in. “Does your dad like to cook? What’s your favorite thing he makes for you?”

If she thought that was enough to deter Josie from whatever squirrel she was currently chasing, Penny didn’t know my daughter nearly well enough.

“He makes good lasagna. But Avery’s mom makes good lasagna too and so does my grandma. Do you think you can make good lasagna?”

It wasn’t an inquisition. There was a tone behind her question, like Josie needed Penny to make good lasagna.

And it clicked. Too slowly. Far too slowly because Josie opened her mouth and said, “Yes, I think I make good lasagna,” and my daughter’s entire face lit up like the sun on a cloudless summer day.

“That’s great! You could make it for us someday like all the good moms do!”

Shit on a stick. This was bad.

I should have known. This was exactly what I’d been afraid of happening.

I dropped my fork and it clanked to the table while Penny gaped at my daughter like she was an alien freshly landed from her spaceship.

“Josie,” I scolded, but the damage was done.

My daughter was bouncing in her seat with a wild and untamed glee. “It’d be so much fun, Miss Pesco!”

“I… what…” Penny’s brows tugged in and she shook her head. “Josie, sweetie… I’m your teacher.”

“And wouldn’t it be great if you could be both?”

“That’s enough,” I snapped and immediately regretted my tone when Josie’s happiness vanished, and her face crumpled up.

“But, Daddy…”

“Miss Pesco isn’t your new mom. She’s your teacher. And our neighbor.”

“Oh…” Penny whispered. “Josie…”

“It’s not fair!” Josie screeched and pushed back her chair. “Everyone else has one and I don’t, and I never get to do all the fun mommy daughter things like Avery and everyone else and all I have is you!” she screamed at me, face turning scarlet with her grief and her anger at the unfairness of it all and damn it…

There was nothing to say to it. I was on my feet, shoving my chair back with such force it slammed into the wall, and as I reached for my daughter to calm her down, she took off.

“No!” she screamed again. “Stay away! You’re just a dad and I want a mom!”

Her bedroom door slammed with the force of a shotgun. I cursed, staring at my bare feet as rage and anger and embarrassment, and Josie was right, the unfairness of it all, crashed into me.

I hadn’t done this to her, but there was no way to fix it.

“I’m so sorry.” Penny’s whisper was pained, but I couldn’t bear to look at her. Couldn’t bear to see another female upset. “I had no idea that’s what she was thinking when she suggested I come over.”

There was the quiet scrape of her chair and then the soft thud of her steps moving toward the kitchen.

“I’ve gotta see to her,” I told Penny.

“Of course. Go.”

“You should, too.”

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