Page 93 of Come Back for Me
I can’t not answer, so I’m going to be vague. It’s a good plan—I think.
“We met at a restaurant.” It isn’t a lie. They serve food there, and I actually took Ellie there for a date last week. It qualifies.
“Did you kiss her?”
Oh, God. Where is Ellie? “I kissed her, yes.”
Hadley mulls that over. “Did you love her?”
“Your mom is very loveable.”
In my head, I just keep hearing the word: evade. I want to evade all possible questions and get the story read. So, I open the book back up and start, but Hadley isn’t having it.
“Do you think you’ll marry her?”
Maybe answering a question with a question is the best bet? “Do you want me to marry her?”
She nods. “Then you’ll really be my dad.”
Here’s where I’m treading again. I don’t want to scare her with the reality of what this all means for her, but at the same time, I want to reassure her that when it comes to me, I’m here for good. I will never abandon her.
“I’m really your dad now. I will always be your father, Hadley. Always. You and I are family in blood and in our hearts.”
She smiles at that. “So, no matter what, I will always be your daughter?”
“Always.”
“Even if you and Mommy don’t get married.”
“Even if that never happens.”
Hadley’s eyes brighten before she drops her head on my arm. “I’m glad.”
“Me too, Squirt. Me too.”
“You can read now.”
And so I do. After twenty minutes and two more books, because I can’t seem to deny her anything, I head out to the living room where I’m hoping to find a happy Ellie.
I find her reading a book on the couch, and I lean against the doorframe to look at her. She’s so beautiful. Her dark brown hair is pulled up on the top of her head, and she has her glasses on. There’s no effort in her beauty, it just is. She chews on her bottom lip and then turns the page.
I want to pull her into my arms and kiss her senseless.
“Reading anything good?” I ask, unable to stay away from her a minute longer.
She jumps a little and then smiles. “A romance about two people who found each other again. They were apart for a while, both of them wondered about the other but obstacles kept them apart.”
“So, it’s an autobiography?”
“It seems a little like us, only less drama.”
I grin and move toward her. “I could do with less drama.”
Ellie puts the book down and then snuggles herself in my arms after I sit. “The drama is what keeps it real, though. Life is filled with ups and downs. It’s the pain that allows us to feel the good parts. If I’d never known the sadness of being with the wrong man, when you came back to Sugarloaf, I don’t know that it would’ve been the same.”
Maybe that is the case, but that doesn’t mean I like the idea of Ellie ever having felt that kind of sadness.
“I would’ve rather found you happy with him than in the hell you were. Even if that meant I could never have you.”
