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“All right then, I guess if no one is here I’ll jump in the shower and grab a change of clothing,” I replied.
“Wait. I’m glad you’re home. Want to tell me how long it’s for this time?”
“Indefinitely. It’s time I gave my daughter my full attention. I blew the last three gigs… oh, that reminds me, can you ask William Martin to make a house call this evening on his way home?”
“You sick?” she enquired, her eyebrows shooting into her hairline as her shoulders shot to her ears at the mention of our family doctor.
“No, no, nothing like that. Relax. I just need a note to be written to get out of our contract. It’s for the promoters to give to the insurance company to bail everyone out.” I watched Matty visibly relax and nod.
“Thank the Lord. Right, I’ll be on it as soon as I get this bread in the oven. Go take your shower and take a nap. You look like shit… and have a shave,” she ordered as an afterthought.
Turning to look over my shoulder I smirked. She was right; I did look like shit. “Yes, Mom,” I replied sarcastically and was immediately hit on the back of the head with a small ball of dough.
“What the fuck was that for?” I asked, chuckling through the question.
“For being a smart-ass when I’m trying to pretend not to care too much,” she replied.
“You can pretend all you want, you know you love me,” I informed her, winking and dodging another dough ball. “And you can come and pick this shit off my polished floor in a hurry. If it marks it I’m deducting the cost of the polish out of your wages,” I added, as I took the stairs two at a time before I could gauge a reaction.
Having banter with Matty lightened my mood for a few minutes, but as soon as I opened my bedroom door, I swear Grace’s smell still lingered inside.
Immediately my heart felt heavy, the ache inside still raw with the constant reminders all around me. Harper and Matty had disposed of her clothing long ago, it was something I couldn’t face. I’d taken most of Grace’s personal effects: her driver’s license, passport, jewelry, and placed them all in my personal safety deposit box at the bank until such time when Layla was old enough to have them. So even though there was only a perfume bottle remaining of hers, Grace was still very much present in our bedroom.
Everywhere I looked she was there, because every stick of designer furniture, every luxury patterned fabric and the white throws on our bed, as well as every piece of wall art I saw, had been chosen by her.
Taking another deep breath, I tried to keep a handle on my depressed emotions as I went into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
Whether it was being home or the previous night’s lack of sleep I wasn’t sure, but I was suddenly tired to the bone and didn’t linger under the hot steaming water jets. Drying myself, I slid between my crisp cotton sheets and promptly fell asleep.
“Daddy. Daddy?” The small sweet voice broke into my slumber, but it was like music to my ears. Cracking an eye open I quickly rose to rest my head on my elbow when my tiny gorgeous girl stared me square in the eye, her size exactly the right height to place her head just above the deep spring mattress and level with my face.
“Ah, hey, my little beauty, how have you been?” I asked shifting position to sit up as I lifted her up onto my lap. I leaned back against the headboard, taking her with me, and her ear rested over my heart.
“Good,” she replied not moving.
“Good?” I enquired and waited for more, my hand automatically splaying the length of her body and tucking her little arm behind her.
“Yeah, apart from Jaden peeing in his mom’s huge flowery pot plant in the backyard and getting his tush smacked. His daddy told him he’d get jail time for getting his pee pee out in public.”
Conscious she was lying on me, I tried not to laugh because of how serious her tone was. “Oh, Baby, I don’t know if you should be hanging with boys that get their pee pees out,” I agreed.
Sitting up to look at me, she stared me straight in the eye, her huge gray expressive ones looking into mine like what she had to tell me was highly important. “It’s okay, Daddy. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that because Cressida, that’s his mom by the way, she told him if he did it again, she’d cut his wiener off. A wiener is a pee pee, right?” I nodded, too amused to speak in case I laughed.
“Well,” she started in an all-knowing way, the expression on her face almost making me bust she was so serious, “If I know Jaden Callahan, he won’t listen. His dad says he never listens. So I don’t think Jaden will have his pee pee much longer, because he keeps doing the stuff he’s told not to.”
“Hmm, maybe I need to check out this Jaden for myself. What do you say we invite him and his family over for a cookout this Sunday?”
“Here? In this house?” she asked, her voice rising incredulously.
“Where else, Baby Girl? Of course it’ll be here.”
A frown creased her brow and she shook her head. “I’m not allowed kids over to play,” she argued, as a matter-of-fact.
“Since when?”
“Since Matty told Harper no kids because their mommies all wanted to get into your pants.” Right when Layla told me this; I heard Harper’s voice on the landing.
“Layla, you’re taking a very long time finding the hair clip jar,” she mused.
