Page 45 of Safe With You

“Daddy, watch.”

“I’m watching.”

“No, watch for real.”

“I have been watching for real.”

She narrowed her eyes like she didn’t believe me before hanging upside down from one of the bars.

“Mila.”

“I’m okay.”

“You’re going to fall.”

“I’m not.”

She did not fall.

That didn’t make me feel any better.

I sat on a bench nearby once she moved toward the swings, watching her pump her legs higher and higher until her laughter carried across the playground.

The camera stayed in the bag beside me.

For a few minutes, I let the moment exist without trying to preserve it.

Mila had gotten taller again. I noticed it in the way her feet nearly dragged across the ground when the swing slowed. Her face was changing too, losing some of the roundness she’d carried as a toddler. Every few months, she seemed to become somebody new while still being completely herself.

“Daddy!”

I looked up.

She leaned back as the swing climbed. “I’m touching the sky!”

“You’re not even close.”

Her laughter rang out across the park.

I reached for the camera before I could stop myself.

By the time I lifted it, she was coming forward again, curls lifting around her face and sunlight catching the wide smile she hadn’t grown into yet.

Click.

She heard the shutter and immediately dragged her shoes against the mulch to slow herself down.

“You took a picture.”

“I did.”

“Let me see.”

She ran over and leaned against my side while I pulled it up on the screen.

“My hair look crazy.”

“Your hair always looks crazy when you’re playing.”