Page 19 of Despite It All
I feel someone walk up to our table, and I turn to see Jett staring at us. I can’t tell how he’s feeling, he’sso hard for me to read. Is this too much? Are we going to overwhelm him?
“Hey… um… want to sit?” He takes a moment just looking at us, and it makes my heart race in my chest. A beat of silence passes, then he sits in the chair across from Stevie. “Stevie, this is Jett. Can you say hi?”
“Hi, Jett.” Stevie smiles at him sweetly, then looks up at me again. “Mommy, is this who we are meeting today?”
“Yeah, baby.” I take a deep breath preparing to bite the bullet but Winry walks up to our table with our stuff.
“Winnie!” Stevie beams.
“Hey there, Evie Girl. I got a banana chocolate chip muffin for you, and a strawberry muffin for mom.” She sets down our muffins, then my latte and Stevie’s water. Winry turns to Jett hesitantly, “Hi, Jett, good to see you again.”
“Yeah, you too. This is a nice place. You own it, right?”
“Yes I do,” Winry says with pride. “Anything I can get you? Ivy makes some killer coffee and muffins.”
“I’ll take a double espresso, thank you.”
“You should get a muffin,” Stevie says with half her muffin on her face. “They are so yummy. The banana chocolate chip is my favorite.”
Jett smiles. “Okay, and a banana chocolate chip muffin.”
“Coming right up.” Winry walks off to get his order, and I honestly have no idea how to navigate this.
“Mommy likes the strawberry one. Ilike strawberries too, but not peaches, they make me sick.” Stevie sticks out her tongue and shakes her head.
“She has a severe allergy to peaches,” I say, and take a napkin to her face.
The moment my hand moves Stevie adds, “Mommy says I’d need a shot if I eat one.”
Jett glances at me with a hit of fear in his eyes but doesn’t press. “No peaches, got it.”
Winry drops off Jett’s order, and Stevie waits anxiously for him to take a bite of his muffin. “Try it, try it.”
Jett laughs lightly and takes a bite of the muffin. “Mmm, you were right, it is good.”
“I told you, stinker.”
Jett chokes while he laughs. “I thought you were the stinker.”
“Nope, that’s you,” Stevie says as she takes a bite of her muffin. Well, there’s one thing out of the gate he needs to know about his daughter, she's not shy.
Jett smiles at me, and warmth spreads through my chest for a moment, but my head brings me back to reality. “Hey, Stevie, listen, you know how Uncle Graham is Georgia’s daddy?”
Stevie nods. “And Uncle O is Belley’s daddy, right?”
“Yes, he is. Well… uh, Jett is your dad.” Oh, gah. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m fucking this up. I’m going to mess up my kid. Might as well put money aside now for her therapy.
Stevie looks at me confused. “I don’t have a daddy. I have a Papaw, an Uncle Graham, and an Uncle O.”
Jett winces at her words. I know it must be hard to hear. I place my hand on Stevie’s back. “You do have all of those people, baby, but you do also have a dad. Um, your dad has been… working. He wanted to make sure you had everything you needed.”
Stevie turns to Jett, studying him. “Are you really my daddy?”
Jett takes a deep breath. I can't even imagine what’s going through his mind right now. “Yes, I’m sorry I couldn’t be here sooner, Stevie.”
Stevie studies him some more and shuffles in her chair. She doesn’t seem upset, more as if she’s sizing him up. I knew letting Owen take her to watch Annabelle’s self-defense class would bite me in the ass one day.
I run my hand up and down her back. “Stevie, would you be okay if Jett spends the day with us today?”
