Page 86 of Second Chance Baby

“I do know, in theory. But no man has ever looked at me how Travis looks at you.” She released a watery sigh. “Since it’s too quiet, which always makes me nervous, want to help me look for Biscuit?”

“I sure will.” I stood up and held out an arm to her. “Then once we find them, I’ll help you finish cleaning up too before I’ll ask for a ride home since I have an important date tonight.”

Lacey grinned. “You sure do. Not jealous. Not even a little bit.” She rolled her eyes as she stood to offer me her arm. “Okay, that’s a lie. Big time.”

“Hey, you don’t know what your future holds, either. There might be a wonderful guy just waiting around the next corner for you.”

She snorted. “Yeah, right. You think everyone has your kind of luck?”

I drew her closer. “I am pretty lucky. But it’s your turn to get some of that luck too. Trust your little sister. Think I have an in with the universe just lately, and I’ll put in a good word for you.”

TWENTY-ONE

For reasonsI couldn’t quite explain, while I was waiting for Bridget to come home, I decided after a fruitless trip to the last big box Halloween store in the area—a Spirit in a midsize town just outside Turnbull—to broach the topic of sex with my daughter.

The Spirit had approximately nada left in the realm of cool decorations with troll dolls. I did find a huge illuminated Dalmatian though, and I put him in the passenger seat to amuse myself as I stopped at my parents’ place to find half of my annoying cousins in residence.

Yes, including Cam, who had claimed to desperately need to talk to Christian, though he was currently seated beside him on the sectional and playing tennis on the Wii while not speaking to him at all.

If I didn’t love my damn family so much, I might hate them a little bit sometimes.

Carrington just gave me a strange look when I brought her outside. She assumed I’d brought her out to see the dog, which did give her a giggle. “Amerie will love that. But where’s the Trollz?”

“Hell if I know. Store had nothing. Dalmatian is as good as it gets.”

“You still tried, Dad. She’ll be so happy.” Then she looked around and frowned. “Where’s Mom?”

The immediate trepidation on her face made me regret bothering her tonight. I didn’t want to make her nervous needlessly. Then again, it was something we’d have to get used to. Bridget still had a lot of things to wrap up before we could really settle into our new life, and we’d have to learn to trust she would always come home.

I hoped.

“Listen, kiddo, I have to ask you some unfun questions. Though, honestly, the subject itself is plenty fun if it’s done right once you’re old enough to understand all the ramifications of?—”

She crossed her eyes. “Dad,” she drew out the word with an exasperated sigh. “Mom already mentioned sex to me earlier tonight,” she said patiently.

“What? When?”

Also, if I hadn’t been sure I wanted to love Bridget forever, that she’d tackled that subject already with our daughter would’ve done it.

“Right before you guys left earlier. She saw me playing on the Wii and started apologizing for not being here when I probably needed her then she started talking about girl stuff.” She wrinkled her nose. “Which I know about. I got tampons for myself a couple months ago when I started my period so we’re all good there.”

“What?” I tried to moderate my voice but there was no possible way. She wasn’t even eleven yet.

How could she have her period already? That made her basically an adult.

My baby girl was a woman now, and she hadn’t even had someone to talk to about the changes she was going through.Because no matter how I tried to fill all the vacancies in her life due to her mom being away, the fact was I was still a damn clueless dude.

I looked down at my shoes, feeling utterly inadequate for the first time in my life.

I wasn’t perfect, nor did I have all the answers. But I’d been raised to know I was capable of handling anything that came my way, and if somehow, I messed up, my parents had my back. As did Penn, Christian, Murphy, and Maddie.

No matter what, we were a fucking team.

Was this how Bridget had felt after having Carrington? Utterly helpless and just not enough to face the road ahead? And if so, no wonder she’d chosen to run rather than face this burning shame of feeling like she wasn’t enough.

My shoulders ached with understanding. Finally. I didn’t just get intellectually what Bridget must’ve dealt with. Now I grasped it down to my bones.

“I owe you an apology,” I said in a scratchy voice that couldn’t be helped.

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