Page 42 of Enemy Daddy Next Door

When I reach the last name, Yasmin, and I press the red-fonted “Delete Contact”, I feel lighter than air. I never anticipated that getting rid of these names in my phone would be so freeing. But now, those names, numbers, and faces that were cramming the edges of my brain all disappear. And everything, truly this time, is Amy.

“Daddy! Hurry up! We’re ready!”

I look up to see Jessica’s head poking through the front door. Slowly, Amy appears over her, hair done in two plaits down her shoulders, face glowing with the kiss of shiny sunscreen. Her lips are curled in a serene smile.

My heart grows at the sight of her. “On my way, girls,” I say, swiping the picnic basket off the counter and heading toward the front door.

Let’s do this.

* * *

“I didn’t know you could cook, Hunter,” Amy remarks, taking a final bite of a potato salad from her plate.

“Daddy’s a great cook,” Jessica announces.

“It’s just potato salad,” I say shyly.

Amy shakes her head. “Don’t be modest. I can barely boil an egg.”

I laugh. “Is that so?”

“Not that I’d want to. Hard boiled eggs make me sick.”

“Yeah, me too! Blech!” Jessica announces.

I eye my little girl. It’s cute when she’s trying to get people to like her. I know for a fact she loves hard boiled eggs. But this whole afternoon, she’s been trying to be like Amy. Sitting like her, putting the same things on the plate as her even if she won’t eat it all. She even asked Amy to braid her hair the same way. Now the two of them are like darling twins.

If there’s one thing I like more than liking Amy myself, it’s Jessica liking Amy.

“I want to go swimming,” Jessica says, looking out at the wide Malibu beach.

“You need to digest for a bit, Jessie,” I say. “Maybe make a sandcastle instead.”

Jessica harrumphs. “But I want to go swimming.”

“Just half an hour.”

“That’s so lonnnng,” Jessica complains.

“Tell you what,” Amy says, pulling out her phone. “How about you try and make the biggest sandcastle you can in fifteen minutes?”

Jessica’s hazel eyes grow big and she smiles.

“Then after fifteen minutes, we’ll come to help you make it even bigger. I’ll set a timer on my phone and everything. In no time, we’ll get to splash in the water.”

I try not to swoon at how easily Amy interacts with Jessica. She makes parenting look so easy and she’s not even a parent herself.

“Okay! Don’t look, though. I want it to be a surprise,” Jessica says and leaps to her feet, running to a patch of sand not too far away. Immediately, she starts digging like a dog looking for a bone.

Amy and I both laugh as sand flies through the air.

We’re alone now.

For the first time since the date started, we’re alone.

Not completely, of course. Jessica is only ten feet away.

But it’s more than before.

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