Page 6

Mr. Thorne. I needed her to stop saying that. Made my pants tighter every time she did. “Please, call me Dean.”

She nodded. “Sure…Dean.”

“Um…follow me this way. Ada is in the living room.” Leading us down the hall, I described the layout to Eliana. “This hall opens to the living room, the kitchen is on the left, help yourself to anything at any time. Ada’s bedroom is down the hall on the right, and my room is by the bathroom.” I paused as we approached Ada. “Ada, Ms. Eliana is here.”

Eliana crouched down in front of her. “Hi Ada. You can call me, Ms. Elly. How’s that?”

Ada smiled and nodded. “Ms. Elly. I don’t think I could say the other word. But maybe.” Eliana laughed.

Picking Ada up in my arms and said, “Ms. Elly is going to be watching you every day during the week while I’m at work.”

Ada started to get shy and tucked her head into my shoulder. In a whisper she asked, “What about Auntie Flora?”

“Remember, baby, I told you, Auntie Flora is super busy. But I bet she will still pop by and see you. It’s okay though because Ms. Elly loooves playing with barbies and all sorts of things.”

Ada’s head perked up to look at Elly. “You likes Barbie’s?”

Elly walked up to us and poked Ada’s stomach, tickling her. “I love Barbies! Do you have the Barbie house?”

Ada snickered and said, “I do. Daddy buys me the house and the Jeep. They are my favortest.” Ada studied Elly for a minute and reached out for her hair. Finally, she said, “Your hair is like me.”

Elly smiled and reached for Ada’s hair. “What color is our hair?”

Ada giggled. “Red!”

I kissed Ada’s cheek seeing her big smile and said, “That’s right. You both have beautiful red hair!”

Elly glanced at me, smiled, and looked back at Ada. “You hear that, Ada. Your daddy said our hair is beautiful.” She playfully flipped her hair over her shoulder. Ada copied her, making me chuckle hard.

I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time. It surprised me, so I quickly began my goodbye to Ada so I could go to work. “I have to go to work now, sweetie. I want you to enjoy your day with Ms. Elly. I only want a good report, got it?” I set Ada down and put out my fist for a fist bump because of course I’d taught my daughter to fist bump.

She stuck her little fist up and said, “Got it, Daddy.” Elly laughed.

It was beautiful and it caught me off guard every time. Unintentionally, I gave her a serious look as the realization hit me…I was leaving my daughter for the first time with someone other than her aunt. “I’ve left a list on the kitchen counter with details about her and her routine. She doesn’t have any allergies. She’s an active girl and gets antsy when she sits too long. She has zero fears of heights and falling so you’ll want to keep an eye on her. She’s got a hippie free spirit like her aunt. If you have any questions, text me. I’ll respond as soon as I can. If it’s an emergency, call me. I’ll answer right away.”

“Of course. Thank you. We’ll be fine. Have a good day at work.” Somehow, she made me feel less nervous and grumpy about leaving. I thought it wouldn’t be so bad after all, but I was still on edge.

Chapter 6

Dean

Work had been a grind that day, and it was the worst time for us to be busy because I was distracted by Ada’s first day staying with someone new. My logging team and I were working on a decently sized clearing project off the highway. We have guys assigned to four different teams, working on different parts of the project. My fallers cut down the trees. Once the trees are down, the delimbers cut limbs away from the trunk and then and cut the limbs and trunks into specific log lengths. The hook tenders fasten cables around logs to move them, and finally my team of equipment operators run the machinery to move the logs to the landing area where they’re loaded onto flatbed trucks for relocation to a sawmill.

My thoughts were busy with Ada, though. I wondered if she was having fun. So many questions came to mind. Was Eliana being nice to her? Were they playing? What if she hadn’t made her food? What if Ada got hurt and Eliana was in the bathroom and didn’t know? What if Eliana was sitting watching tv and making Ada play by herself. All the worst things ran through my head, so I shot a text off to Flora.

Me: Flo, please go by the house. I have a bad feeling, and I need to know if Ada is okay.

Flo: I’m sure everything is fine, but I’ll drop by there after my appointment. Gimme about an hour.

Me: Thank you!

Checking the ringer volume on phone, I made sure it was set to vibrate and ring before shoving it in my back pocket. They were fine. Everything was fine. I kept telling myself that so I could make it through the workday.

The time passed slowly as I waited for Flora to text me. When the text finally came, I could feel the tension leave my shoulders.

Flora: They’re fine. I did a surprise drop in and used my key. Totally scared the crap out of Eliana but her first instinct was to grab Ada.

I exhaled.