Page 12 of Delilah In Discretion

“I feel offended,” Kimi said, walking past my room as she was on her way to go home.

“Love you, Kimi,” I said back to her, and she only hummed as she walked away.

“Learn another language. Your father is still learning new languages in his free time. It’s not too late to catch up to him.”

“That’s because he’s insane.”

She nodded. “I know. It sucks for me, too. He forced me to learn Spanish and French in our second year of marriage.”

I laughed at her words, feeling slightly sorry for her. “But you love him.”

She sighed as she stared blankly at the wall. “Sure, I guess.”

I rolled my eyes at her answer, and she giggled as she spoke again.

“I’m just kidding. I love him, even if he is on the verge of being clinically insane.”

“That is your version of some sick joke, right?”

In response, she just smiled at me and kissed my head. “Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes. You can go freshen up. I’ll let your brother and sister know, too.”

She left my room, and I went into the bathroom to prepare for the night. Pulling my hair into a loose ponytail, I put on my cropped light blue long-sleeve and a pair of gray tights.

Hearing the door open, I laughed as I heard footsteps running to the door and the scream of my sister Ivory.

“DAD’S HOME!” she said excitedly, and I lightly jogged to catch up with her.

We see him every morning and every night, but it’s always been this way. Since we were younger, we always cherished him being home, as there were times when he would need to go overseas unexpectedly, and he’d been gone from home for a while.

We went down the stairs to see him still at the door as he held Trinity and Tyler, who were saying “Da” continuously as they patted his face. He kissed both of them on their foreheads and handed the two over to Benjamin as he gave Ivory her long-awaited hug.

“Hi, Daddy,” she said, and he kissed the top of her head.

“Hello, my darling. How was your first day?”

“It was great! I first went to homeroom, which was boring as usual, but then we got to see—”

And that’s when I started to tune her out. After a good minute of her rambling, Dad chuckled. “That all sounds great, sweetheart. Let’s talk more when I’m settled, hmm?”

She nodded and pulled away.

I walked over to him, and he smiled. “Hey, Dad.” I hugged him, and he hugged me, swaying us back and forth slightly.

“Hello, sweetheart.”

“I’m beginning to think there’s some favoritism going on here,” Zachary said, interrupting the moment, and I rolled my eyes as I stepped out of my dad’s arms.

“Don’t be jealous, Zach.”

He scoffed, “I’m not jealous.”

“We all know you are, honey,” Mom said as she came over and hugged Dad. Zachary rolled his eyes as he mumbled a few choice words that, thankfully, our parents didn’t hear.

Soon, Mom pushed us away to the dining room so we could sit at the table for dinner. I squealed as I saw Uncle Blaine standing by the fridge in the kitchen.

“Uncle Blaine!” I said happily, and he looked over at me.

“Hey, kiddo,” he replied, and I walked over to hug him.

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