Page 82 of Roughing the Player
“I brewed it while you were in the shower.”
A peace offering? Maybe. “Thanks.” I pour the java into a cup, add in cream until it’s the shade I like.
“You guys were awfully loud last night.”
Where’s she going with this? “Were we?”
“The way you were going at it, I should have a little brother or sister in no time.” She’s made of tough stuff, my daughter.
But I’m tougher. “God willing.”
She squints. “I’m not going to take care of it.”
Leaning back against the counter, I sip the fragrant brew. “You won’t have to. I’ll hire a nanny.”
She scoffs. “Yeah, right. That’s not going to happen. Mom would only allow Grandma to take care of me.”
Ellie had shared some of Kaylee’s upbringing, but I’m curious to hear her side of it. “What happened after you were born, Kaylee?”
“Well, obviously I was too young to remember, but we all lived in the same house—Mom, Grandma, Steve, and me. While Mom attended community college, Grandma watched over me. When I turned two, Mom got a partial scholarship to Duke University and transferred over there. But I was too little to go with her, so I remained with Grandma. She hated being away from me. Although she tried to hide how sad she was, one day I caught her crying in her car. That’s my earliest memory of her.”
Damn it. If Ellie had told me, I could have given her money so she could have hired a nanny and kept Kaylee with her. But from what Kaylee says, she wouldn’t have allowed that.
“When I turned four, she couldn’t stand being away from me anymore, so she brought me to Durham. We lived in this tiny one-bedroom apartment, slept on the same bed. Every once in a while, she’d make this big production number out of eating noodles and peanut butter. I loved it.”
“Did you?”
“Yeah, I did. Weekends, Grandma would visit so Mom wouldn’t have to worry about me while she studied.”
“I wish she’d told me about you. I could have made your lives easier.”
“It was fine, Br—I mean Dad.” She doesn’t seem comfortable with the dad bit.
I take another coffee sip. “You call me whatever feels comfortable to you, except Mr. Parker. That just sounds odd.”
She grins. “Then Brock it is.”
“Fine.” Can’t expect for her to call me dad when I’ve been her father for all of five minutes.
Her brow scrunches. “I don’t have to change my last name, do I?”
“Only if you want to.”
“I don’t.” She hitches up her chin.
She might look like me, but that gesture is pure Ellie. Seen her do that a million times.
“Can I ask you a question?” she asks.
“Sure.”
“How was Mom as a teenager?”
Tit for tat. She opened up about me. So I need to do the same about her mom. Can’t really fault her for her curiosity. “Pretty much the same as she is now. Only younger.”
“Was she always so serious?”
“Yes. She studied all the time. Got straight A’s in school.”
