Page 21 of Mind Pucked

The rest of the afternoon with Amelia is great. Even though Hayden had never worked on colors or the alphabet before, she’s rocking it, completely cooperating with Amelia as if she’s just playing another game. And Amelia seems to know exactly when to stop—as soon as Hayden starts fidgeting and looking elsewhere.

As Amelia starts cleaning up the material, Hayden looks between us. “Park time?” Her eyes widen at the thought.

How long has it been since I took her to see the ducks at the park? She probably doesn’t even remember. Now I feel really bad.

But maybe I’ve just been too afraid of her getting hurt. She’s so little. She seems even more delicate than most kids her age. Or maybe that’s just me.

“Yes. As long as your daddy says it’s okay.”

Amelia’s words bring me out of my thoughts.

I stand up and go to grab my keys. “Of course. You did such an excellent job today, princess. We’re definitely going to the park.”

“To feed the ducks?” she asks, her eyes getting even wider with excitement.

Amelia laughs affectionately and stands up, helping Hayden up as well.

“Yes,” Amelia tells her. “We’ll get to feed the ducks. But you have to make sure you’re properly dressed. Good shoes to run around the park in.”

Hayden looks thoughtful for a moment and then runs up to her room. She brings her Princess Belle tennis shoes down and shows Amelia how she can put them on herself. They’re Velcro, of course.

Amelia holds out her hand for a high five. “Good job. You’re such a big girl. You’re so much smarter than I even knew. You might be teaching me soon.”

The two of them giggle like conspirators.

We all hop in the car and go to the park, and Amelia rides shotgun. I turn the AC up, blasting it on me. Amelia seems perfectly comfortable turning one of the vents away from her.

I keep catching myself looking over at her, even though all she’s doing is looking out the window or sometimes pointing things out to Hayden.

“Look, there’s an orange car. Finally.”

Hayden claps. They’re playing a game that Amelia callsrainbow cars.

“Now, let’s do yellow!” Hayden announces, so the two of them start looking for the next color car.

I doubt they’re going to find yellow, unless we come across a bus, but the game keeps Hayden occupied in the car. Why didn’t I ever think of something like that?

We get to the park, and the two of them are out before I can say anything, running off with the birdseed. Amelia’s keeping up, so I hang back and give them some space. I find a bench in the shade where I can still see them but I’m not hovering over them.

I wonder how Amelia feels about me breathing down her neck like a paranoid freak all day. If she does this well when I’m watching her, what can she do when she’s left to her own devices?

I have to start trusting her. She’s showing me that I can. This will be good. Maybe the guys can even stop bugging me about the fact that I never come out with them anymore.

And the team has an event tomorrow—a photo shoot in a park. I always like to bring Hayden with me, because I want her to be cultured and I want to get as much time as possible with her. There’s supposed to be a movie playing in the park afterward. I’ll have to make sure Amelia’s on board for all that, though.

I look up when I hear a squeal, and I stand up, feeling a pang of worry. The two of them are being chased by a duck, one who looks really eager to get more food. It keeps trying to peck Hayden, but Amelia gets in the way and chases it off, leading it toward her instead.

The father in me wants to intervene. My body seems to think that there’s danger even though it’s a duck.

Just a duck, I tell myself.Seriously, calm down.

But then I watch as both of them fall over. Hayden gets back up, but Amelia’s still on the ground laughing.

That leaves Hayden to be chased by the duck again all by herself.

I march over there, my face practically purple from anger. Somewhere inside, logic lets me know that my reaction is inappropriate. Especially when I see that Hayden is just fine. She’s just throwing seeds to the duck and laughing.

“Are you good?” I ask, looking down at Amelia.

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