“Thanks, Daddy,” Hailey answered, swinging her legs hard enough to shake the table.
Devon put his hand on her closest knee. “Only if you settle down and eat.”
“Yes, sir.” She turned to Chloe. “We’re going to see Mommy today.”
Yes, his heart could still clench in an uncomfortable way. Why did Chloe want to tag along for something like that? He did his best to eat and not dwell on it. Surely she had her reasons. It wasn't as though he was against her accompanying them, he just couldn't understand her reasons for visiting a stranger’s grave.
With eggs and bread sitting in his gut like lumps of coal, Devon cleared the table and washed the dishes. Chloe and Hailey had gone upstairs, and maybe it was because Chloe knew he needed breathing room. Since Hailey was already dressed with her hair smoothed into a French braid just the way she liked, he didn't know what they were really doing.
Hailey bounced into the room. “Ready!”
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Devon commented as he took his coat off the hook by the back door.
“Right as rain, like Grandma says!”
Devon chuckled, watching Chloe come toward them with her coat on. “Ready?”
She nodded.
The car ride couldn't have been silent with Hailey in attendance, but she held up the majority of the conversation. Chloe was in the front seat, but she mostly looked out the window. Devon wondered yet again why she’d wanted to come.
Thankfully, Merrimac was a small enough town to keep the ride short. When they parked, Hailey barreled out of the car and in the direction of her mother’s gravestone. Chloe and Devon got out more slowly, and he felt the urge to question her motives. He was constantly looking for something sinister, thanks to Vince.
“Why are you so scared?” she asked as they strolled to the spot where Hailey crouched in the brown grass.
Devon whipped his head in her direction. “Why do you think I’m scared?”
“From the minute Hailey asked to visit her mother, you’ve been distant. You shut down on me, and I thought we were past all that.”
Considering, he ran a shaking hand through his hair. “I’m as boring as they come, Chloe. Visiting a grave on a Sunday shouldn't be a fun time. I don’t know why you’d want to come along.”
“Visiting a grave is an acceptable way to pass time, and your daughter wanted to come. That doesn't make you boring.” She stopped just out of Hailey’s range of hearing, causing him to stop with her. “You don’t think you deserve a second chance at love?”
He swallowed. “Who said anything about love?”
“I just did.”
Devon backed up when she got in his space. “It only just occurred to me two days ago that there’s life after Kathy.”
Chloe inhaled sharply. “Two days ago? She’s been gone for at least five years.”
He almost smiled when she took one big step back. “Two days.”
She turned to the heavy gray stone Hailey chattered at. Chloe stroked a hand over the curved top, then sat on the grass. The day was cold and still, the chill of winter not yet blooming into spring. Chloe’s lips moved, and he realized she was speaking to Kathy the same as Hailey.
Intrigued, he moved closer.
“Tomorrow. It’ll be the first day in months and months. Miss Alicia says I’m doing really good though.” Hailey reached forward and traced her finger over the words etched into the stone. “And I was sick, but now I’m not. I feel much better. Chloe helped me feel better last night, but Daddy had to do it all day yesterday. He says it’s his job.”
He grinned at the way Hailey caught her mother up on what was going on in her life. Then he realized Chloe wasn't speaking anymore, so he sat between the two of them. “Do you mind if I ask what you were saying?”
She glanced at him. “Maybe I was praying for patience.”
He chuckled. “Believe me, I know you need it when I’m around.”
Chloe was silent for a moment. Hailey got up and walked around, patting stones and fluffing flowers. “Honestly, Devon? I was asking permission.”
He shouldn't have probed; the answer caused his heart to pound painfully, but maybe a pounding heart wasn’t a bad thing, not when it centered around a woman. “I’m not entirely obtuse, Chloe. At least, I didn't use to be. I closed myself off when she died. I had a baby to care for.”
