Page 130 of Choosing Forever
Moving around her, I put the juice away and steal a yoghurt to have on my way home. She eyes the container in my hand and huffs.
“Let me make you a real breakfast. You need more than a yoghurt.”
I wink while sneaking past her into the hall. “No time, Mom. Where are you hiding my daughter?”
“I’ll never tell!”
My laugh fills the quiet hall. Every door is open besides Poppy’s old one. Even years after moving out, she refuses to give it up and let Mom turn it into her home gym. Unlike me, who made peace with my room turning into our dad’s storage locker.
The soft singing coming from the spare room snatches my attention and makes me smile moments before I see Abbie twirling in front of the bed. She’s using the end of her hairbrush as a microphone and singing the lyrics to a song I don’t know but can guess Poppy taught her. The curls in her hair flop in the breeze she’s creating with her spins, making her laugh.
I step into the room and start to clap. “Encore, encore!”
“Dad!” she squeals before running into my arms and clutching me tight. “You’re already here.”
Smoothing a hand down the frizzy hairs at the top of her head, I give her a squeeze and then let her go.
“It’s seven thirty, you diva. I figured your grandma would make us stay and eat something before school.”
“You’re taking me today?”
“I am. Your mom will be there to pick you up after. We just had to switch things around a bit, but you’ll be with her the rest of the week.”
She tosses her brush onto the unmade bed. “Okay. Can we bring something for Delaney?”
“Bring her what?”
“Breakfast. She eats those crunchy bars in the morning. The gross ones.”
I swallow a laugh, knowing exactly which bars she’s talking about. They’re the same ones Sasha keeps trying to put in Abbie’s lunchbox despite her smashing them to bits inside the wrapper and bringing them back home.
“You can sure try.”
“I like her,” she states bluntly.
“Delaney?”
“Yep. She’s nice. I teached her how to make my bracelets, and she liked them.”
“She’s pretty great, sweetie. You should tell her what you told me. I’m sure it would make her happy.”
“Grandma likes her too. She said so.”
Abbie skips past me out of the room after dropping that bomb, and I follow quickly after her. She makes it to the kitchen mere seconds before I do and starts talking to my mom.
“Grandma, Dad said we can bring Delaney good food,” she urges, taking a seat at the table.
“That’s not exactly what I said.”
My mom spins to face me, an all-knowing grin on her face. “Oh, don’t take it back now, Darren.”
“Mom,” I warn lightly.
“What? I think it’s great that your daughter is enjoying herteacher so much. That bond is an important one,” she says, eyes twinkling.
I stand in the same spot and stare at her, trying to reveal what I’m thinking without having to say it in front of my daughter. Delaney doesn’t want her to know about us yet, and as much as I wish we could tell her already, I know that’s the right call. While I’m certain about her, that doesn’t mean she won’t change her mind, and my daughter can’t be a casualty of that. Not when she’s still got to sit in the same room with her for the rest of the school year.
“Abbie, how about you go tell your grandpa to leave the shed alone and come inside for breakfast,” Mom says.
