“Me too,” Emily said, her sweet smile running through me like an electric charge. I might have bought all the supplies that Maddie needed for soccer, but I felt unprepared and exposed all the same.
“Well then. Hi, Maddie. I’m Emily.” She flicked her eyes to me and smiled. “It is great to meet you. I’ve known this guy for a long time—” Emily jerked her chin in my direction “—so it’s nice to meet his little girl.”
My chest tightened at Emily’s comment. This was another problem I hadn’t anticipated. I’d hoped to stop people withan explanation before they’d mistake us for actual father and daughter and make my niece feel even worse.
“You did? You were friends?” Maddie asked, a deep crease in her forehead as she looked between us.
“Yes,” Emily answered before I could figure out what the hell to say to that. What Emily and I had been was a lot more than I could ever explain to myself, let alone an eight-year-old.
“We were friends a long time ago,” I added, the hurt flashing across Emily’s face mimicking the sour pang in my gut. I wasn’t sure if it was dread, nerves, sadness, or a debilitating concoction of the three.
Jeffrey rushed over to us in my periphery, grabbing Maddie’s arm.
“Hey, Maddie! Want to see me kick a goal? I can make the net jump!”
“Go ahead,” I said, waving my hand and wanting to hug the kid for offering to show off to my niece and distract her for a few minutes. I hoped he’d kick the ball enough times to give me a chance to get through the short version for Emily.
“Wow,” she whispered when the kids were out of earshot. “She looks just like Tessa. Right down to the butterfly earrings.”
For a moment, I forgot the turmoil in my gut as a chuckle escaped me. Jeffrey took Maddie by the shoulders to place her in the perfect spot as he set up the ball and ran up to kick it.
“How is Tessa? I missed your sister.” She said, still focused on the kids. “Maybe even more than you since I wasn’t mad at her.”
I pushed a weak smile across my mouth at her smirk.
Jeffrey screamed a “Yes!” as Maddie’s expression lit up with wonder. Emily’s comment about Maddie’s resemblance to her mother hit hard as I remembered Tessa making that same face when she was excited.
“It’s unbelievable,” Emily said, shaking her head. “Tessa could be her twin.”
“She was,” I finally said as Emily’s face twisted with confusion.
“Shewas? I don’t understand—” My stomach bottomed out when her jaw went slack. “Is Tessa oka?—”
“She’s gone,” I whispered, keeping an eye on the kids over her shoulder as I inched closer. “Passed away. Tessa was Maddie’s mother, and now…I’m her guardian.”
Turned out, I could sum up a short version of the story, but it didn’t make it hurt any less.
“Jesse, I’m so…” Emily’s eyes filled with tears as her jaw trembled. She sank her teeth into her bottom lip and reached for my hand, sliding her palm against mine. “I am so sorry. So incredibly sorry. I’d thought at the reunion you were talking to your daughter and that’s who the little girl on your phone screen was. I assumed, and I shouldn’t have and…” She trailed off, pressing her hand to her chest.
“You weren’t wrong. For all intents and purposes, sheismy daughter. The transition is a little tough from uncle to father, but we’re putting in the work.” I smiled, squeezing her hand before I dropped it. I was too tempted to pull her to me and bring her into my arms for my own selfish comfort, so I took a half step away from her instead.
“It’s all still new. We’re adjusting. It’s why Caden and my mother pushed me out of the house a couple of weeks ago, even if it was to go to my high school reunion.”
“I’m glad they did,” Emily whispered, sniffling as she held my gaze.
“I’m glad they did too. Tessa loved you. She didn’t speak to me that whole summer after we broke up. I’m sure she’s getting a big kick out of this right now.”
Emily sputtered out a watery laugh. “I loved her too,” she said, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand.
Someday I would be able to talk about our situation without wanting to bawl like a baby, but something as simple as holding Emily’s hand had quelled that constant storm tearing through me, at least for the moment.
“Maddie. Her full name is Madison, right?” Emily asked.
“Most people assume Madeline, but yes. How did you guess that?”
Her face crumpled as if she was about to sob.
“All of Tessa’s dolls were named Madison. I gave her Madison Three, remember?”
