Page 25 of Daddy's Double Surprise

“Stay with me for the day. Let me take care of you.” I pushed some strands of her hair off her face and tucked them around her ear. She blinked slowly, fatigue weighing on her. Even if the only thing she did all day was sleep, I’d feel better knowing she was being cared for properly. At home, she would lock herself away and suffer in isolation.

“Alright, but I’m not staying in bed all day. I want fresh air. I think it will help me.” Sunny sighed softly. I could tell she was exhausted, but the fight in her wouldn’t quit. She was right, however, some fresh air would do her good.

“I know just the place,” I told her and smiled.

Two hours later, after a shower, a piece of dry toast, and a long drive, we pulled up to one of my favorite spots in all of California. The orchard in Moorpark had been around for ages, and I used to visit every fall until Hope died. Sunny’s eyes lit up at the sight, and I knew I’d made the right choice.

“Oh my gosh, it’s so cute,” she squealed, but she couldn’t hide the tiredness in her eyes. I knew she was feeling miserable, and I hoped the sunshine and fresh air would help her feel better.

“Yes, and we’re going to pick fruit and have a walk, but if you get tired or you’re not feeling it, you let me know.” I unbuckled my seat belt and angled my body to face her.

“I promise,” she said, and the smile on her face lit up the car as she opened the door.

I took her hand, and we walked into the barn where rows of shelves stacked full of produce and jars of products made from it lined the walls and center. It felt more like a grocery store than a barn despite the dirt floor, which gave it a unique home-grown aesthetic. Sunny’s eyes scanned everything, and her fingers weaved through mine.

“Oh gosh, I just love it.” She stopped by some bright green apples and picked one up, but I clicked my tongue.

“This isn’t where we pick them, silly.” I nodded at the door out the back of the barn and smiled. “Out there…” I didn’t think her smile could get any brighter. I put my hand in the small of her back as she set the apple back down, then we stopped by the counter and took a pale green basket for our fruit.

She rested her head on my shoulder as I led her through the rest of the barn, where handmade crafts and leather works were displayed, and into the sun on the back side.

“How did you know about this place?” Her hand rested on my stomach, arm wrapped around my back.

“Oh, I learned about it years ago and used to come here a lot.” I thought of Hope, how I wished she was here to enjoy the sunshine and picking fruit. She’d have been old enough to eat some of it now all on her own, but life never gave us that chance. I was happy, though, to share this with Sunny.

“Thank you for bringing me here,” she said, and then she pulled away with a playfulness to her gait. She snatched my hand and started pulling me, and we ran like kids toward the apple grove where fruit trees sprawled their branches out, laden with heavy fruits ripe for picking.

Before our basket was even full, Sunny’s phone started to ring. She didn’t pull it out. Instead, she kept reaching for more fruit, and I paused to ask, “Aren’t you going to get that?”

“It’s just Dad. He’s just going to lecture me again.” Her words helped me see the frustration she’d been going through, something I wish I could remove from her shoulders. He was her father and he cared, and while I didn’t necessarily agree with his tactics, I did think she misunderstood him.

“Sunny, you should answer.” I held the basket back and offered a gentle look of disapproval and she sighed, dropping another apple in the basket.

“Fine,” she huffed as she pulled it out, but her eyebrows went up. “It’s not Dad.” Her face blanched as she swiped across the screen, and I didn’t get a look at it before she held the phone to her ear and said, “Hello, Mrs. Baker.”

I didn’t immediately recognize the name, but I could see it was something that was affecting her. We walked away from the grove, toward a bench near the fence line leading back to the barn. Sunny sat as she listened, every once in a while glancing up at my face. The longer she listened with the phone pressed to her ear, the longer her face looked, until the same fatigue from this morning had returned to etch itself across her forehead.

“Yes, thank you for calling me. It’s good to know.” I sat beside her and put the basket on the ground at our feet as she ended her call with a goodbye, and my hand instinctively went to her back as she sat slouched over, staring at the phone.

“Is everything okay?” I was concerned, but not overly so. Sunny was a strong woman, and though she’d been through a lot, she was handling it better than most people.

“It was Kira’s mom,” she said, looking up to meet my gaze. “They know what happened.”

After learning from Rick that Kira had been involved in one of our drug trials when she died, I braced myself for this news. Ithought it would come from Joseph or Rick even, not Sunny. But fate ordained that we’d be together today during this call, and it meant I had to be strong for her and leave my worries out of it.

“Do you want to talk about it?” My hand smoothed circles against her back as she toyed with her phone, unlocking it and locking it again over and over. Her head hung again, and I watched tears drip to her knees and dampen the fabric of her shorts.

“They said there was a complication, something about the drug she was trialing and a comorbidity.” Sunny sniffled and then looked up at me. “They didn’t test her for diabetes, and the drug was hard on the kidneys. I never knew she was diabetic. I don’t think she knew she was diabetic either…” Sunny’s lip quivered, and I pulled her against my chest as she started to cry.

Of all the things to happen, this was a major failure on the part of the company. The team should’ve done the proper testing and not just taken a person’s word for things. This should have never happened.

“That’s really tough,” I said, not knowing what to say. Guilt flooded my chest, consuming my thoughts. I should have been there for her, but I was fighting myself now.

“She had a heart attack because her kidneys shut down. I should’ve seen it, Carter. I should’ve helped her.” Sunny was a blubbering mess. I gripped her by both shoulders and pulled her back to look her in the eye.

“This is not your fault, okay? You didn’t do this, and there was no way you could have known.” My words came out a little forceful, but I couldn’t let her blame herself, not for this. It was the same way I felt when Hope passed, like I could’ve stopped it, or seen the signs. But there was no way for anyone to predict what would happen in either circumstance, and it took me months of counseling to fix that one tiny thought.

“Look, let me take you back to my place.” I stood and took her hand. Suddenly the basket of fruit didn’t seem so important anymore.

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