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“Bunches,” Harper corrected her softly with a chuckle in her voice.
“When can you not be on the cell phone and give me proper huggles?” Her needy question caught me off guard, because she had never expressed anything like it so plainly before. I was immediately thankful that she’d saved it until now to do so, because suddenly not being with her made my heart bleed.
“What would you say if I offered to share your Froot Loops with you tomorrow?” I enquired, dying to tell her I was on my way.
For a second, she glanced behind her at her bowl then turned her attention back to me. A frown creased her tiny brow, as she covered her mouth for a second then sighed. “To be honest, Daddy, I don’t think there will be any left by tomorrow. I’m pretty hungry after sleeping all night.”
A soft chuckle passed my lips when I realized she didn’t have the insight to know what I had meant by my statement.
“Ah, well how many are left in the box?” I asked.
“Harper? My daddy wants to know how many Loop Froots are in the box, can you look? Do you want her to count them, Daddy?”
I chuckled again at her reversing the name, “Harper, are there enough Froot Loops left for me to have breakfast tomorrow?”
“Sure, it’s a new box,” Harper informed me from somewhere behind the cell phone.
“Don’t you want Loops today? We’ll have to figure out how to put them into the cell phone. Maybe if you call on the house phone it would be better because that’s bigger,” Layla reasoned.
“No, Baby, you don’t understand. What would you say if I said I’m coming home and I’ll be there when you wake up tomorrow?” I clarified.
Layla’s eyes flicked up past the screen and I knew she was looking at Harper. “Would it be okay if my daddy came to see me?” When she sought permission from her nanny, my heart sank to my stomach and almost broke, but it wasn’t her fault she was confused at times and didn’t understand how things were.
Not being able to be with her was so hard. I hadn’t seen her for three long weeks, and although her words stung, they made my decision to quit the tour and go home valid.
“This is your daddy’s house, Layla, you know he lives here. Has to go to work, but he just told you he’s coming home. Isn’t that the best news ever?”
Watching Layla’s face as it broke into a huge wide grin made my heart clench. “Amazing news,” she agreed. “Daddy, will you bring Mommy with you? She isn’t inside Harper’s cell phone like you are.”
I choked. For a few indescribable seconds I couldn’t speak, wouldn’t speak, because for the first time since I’d buried Grace, Layla had thrown me a curve ball with her request.
As if Harper felt the weight of Layla’s question, she quickly interjected and covered my silence. “Sweetheart, why don’t you go back and finish your cereal before it gets soggy, like a good girl, then we’ll get ready for our playdate with Jaden and Tom,” she coaxed.
Without waiting for Layla to reply, she added, “Just a sec, Cole, I’m just helping her down from the counter.” Once again she laid the cell phone down, face up on the counter and lifted Layla down, placing her back on the floor. Picking her cell up, I saw Layla scoot around the kitchen counter and she disappeared from sight.
Harper’s interruption had given me the time I had needed to gather my composure before she turned it to face herself.
“Sorry, I’m back,” she informed me, as if I couldn’t see that she was.
“Thanks for that,” I mumbled quietly, without needing to explain what I was thankful for.
“Anytime,” she soothed with a sad smile.
“As you heard, I’m coming home.”
She smiled and widened her eyes like she was excited. “How long will you be here? I’ll let Matty know because she hadn’t planned anything special for dinner this week. I’ve just been eating the kind of stuff Layla does,” she added sheepishly.
“I’m coming home today. I’ll grab something to eat on the plane. Tell Matty not to worry about tonight… we’ll have takeout. I’ll catch up with her then and she can draw up some menus for us all after that.”
“So you’re coming home for more than a day?” she asked sounding surprised.
“Yeah, I figured it was time I got to know my daughter,” I replied, in an apologetic tone.
Harper pouted her lips and glanced over to where I knew Layla was eating her breakfast then looked more intensely back at me.
“You know her, Cole. Don’t do this to yourself. You had all those firm commitments before…” She paused, unsure of how to phrase it. “And Layla… she knows you love her.”
“Sometimes, just loving someone isn’t enough; it’s how you act that’s important.”
