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He squeezed my hand tighter. “You’ll be fine. More than fine, actually. It’ll be great.”
I nodded and inhaled again. “Yeah. It’ll be great,” I said, a little less enthusiastically than Jake. It wasn’t that I wasn’t excited about today, it was that I had built it up for so long that I was worried the fantasy wouldn’t mirror reality.
“No matter what happens today, I’m here for you. Always. I will be by your side to cheer you on or pick you up. Whatever you need. And if a trip on the yacht will make you feel better, I’ll be happy to oblige.”
I laughed. He’d been hinting at taking a trip on his yacht for some time. It just never seemed like the right time, but I realized sometimes you just have to do it anyway. “Let’s plan it.”
He chuckled. “Leave the planning to me. Now that I’ve got the go-ahead, I’ll take care of everything.”
My smile faltered a bit when Jake turned onto the suburban street and I recognized the name. We were almost there.
Large trees lined the street, and children rode their bikes along the sidewalk. It was exactly as I’d pictured it in my mind.
My stomach dipped when Jake pulled into the driveway of the two-car garage home with rose bushes out front.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
I nodded, “Yes.”
He turned off the car, and I got out. My boots landed on a cobblestone driveway and I followed it to the front door. A porch swing sat still while the flowers in the pot next to it swayed in the breeze.
Finally, I raised my fist and knocked on the wooden door.
My heart hammered in my chest and my whole body shook from the anticipation and nerves coursing through my veins. Just when I thought I would throw up, a tall middle-aged man with a few strands of silver in his jet-black hair opened the door.
He inhaled sharply and smiled. “Nikole,” he breathed, and his voice cracked.
I steadied my voice and tried to keep calm, but the tears rushed out anyway.
“Hello, Daddy.”
He reached across the threshold and pulled me into his arms. There were no more bad dreams and no barriers between us. He’d been so moved when I had reached out to him wanting to reconnect, and now here I was in his embrace with tears streaming down my face.
His body trembled next to mine, and he pulled me away to look at me. “I’m so happy to see you,” he said, and the utter joy on his face was exactly as I’d pictured it.
Jake’s hand on my lower back reminded me that there was no need to have worried.
With him standing beside me and my father smiling in front of me, my reality had surpassed even my wildest dreams.
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