“Shit! What are you doing in here?” he asked, looking behind her for his daughter. “I thought I was meeting you guys outside. And where’s Lily?”
Vivian looked him up and down before answering. “Her attitude was out of control, so she’s at home. I wasn’t going to reward her behavior.”
Vivian was dressed in a pair of cutoff denim shorts, a halter top, and an entire face of makeup. Some things never changed. After taking a moment to tamp down his irritation, he responded to both what she said, and the situation.
“Lily hasn’t seen me in months, and you don’t let her meet me at the airport because she has an attitude? Ever heard of choosing your battles, Vivian?”
“You can dictate rules and punishment when she lives with you. For now, she’s my problem so I’ll decide what I’m willing to accept.” Vivian turned on her heel and walked toward the doors leading to short term parking.
“I’m not paying for your parking,” he informed her.
Once they made it across the walkway and into the parking garage, Vivian turned to acknowledge what he’d said. “You think I expect you to voluntarily pay for anything?”
It was going to be a long trip. The amount he paid in child support was more than enough, but he never complained. She was getting more than he paid in rent and utilities every month, so for her to insinuate that he was a dead-beat had him seeing red. She was baiting him. He knew that. But it still took an impressive amount of restraint for him to hold his tongue.
“So, what’s been going on with her?” he asked once they were in the car.
“If I knew that, you wouldn’t be here. She hasn’t been easy to be around for a while, but now I’m at a loss. You need to figure it out. Be a dad.”
Chris closed his eyes and did his best to breathe through all the red he saw. She was the one who moved out of state. She was the one who made it so hard for him to spend time with his daughter. She could have used some vacation time tobring his daughter up for a visit, but that was too much of an inconvenience. It wasn’t that she was a bad mother, but she sure liked to put herself first.
He closed his eyes and used his time in the car as a chance to cool off while regretting his agreement to stay at her house. Everything in him said to just pay for a hotel, but with all the things he had going on he needed to save money, and there wasn’t much point in rushing down there if his time wouldn’t be spent with Lily.
It wasn’t too long of a drive from the airport, but long enough to lose some of the tension. He didn’t speak for the rest of the ride home, and neither did she. They pulled up to the small house as the early afternoon sun beat down. He swore he could see the heat.
Vivian popped the trunk then went into the house, leaving him to grab his stuff then awkwardly waltz into a house that didn’t belong to him, even though between the divorce settlement, spousal support, and child support, he probably paid for it. He shook his head in an effort to clear those thoughts away. Bitterness solved nothing.
“Lily?” he called out as he walked through the front door. “Liliana?”
Hearing a door creak open, he looked down the short hall to find his daughter, dressed in all black, watching him from the doorway. She stared at him without blinking for several moments before her shoulders slumped and she lowered her head.
He dropped his suitcase where he stood and made his way over. Her sobs grew louder as he approached, but they could barely be heard over the sound of his heart breaking.
“Sweetheart? What’s wrong?”
“You’re here,” she choked out. “I didn’t think you’d come.”
Forcing down his emotions, he reached out and tilted her chin, causing her to look up at him. “I said I’d be here. I’m here.”
They watched each other in silence. Chris moved his hands to her shoulders and held her at a distance as he appraised her. She had changed a lot since he’d seen her last. In mere months, she’d grown a couple inches and filled out. Instead of a lanky little girl, he was looking at a teenager; beautiful, even with the troubled expression in her gray eyes.
Wrapping her arms around him, she surrendered to her tears as Chris did everything possible to keep himself from falling apart. The hope that things weren’t as bad as he thought shattered around him as he held her tight and whispered soothing words.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked gently.
She looked up at him then glanced past him down the hall. It was obvious that whatever it was, she wasn’t comfortable talking about it in front of her mother.
“Let’s sit outside for a bit,” he suggested. He could endure the heat.
Without a word, Lily walked past him and down the hall to the door he’d walked in moments before. He followed her and closed the door behind them, joining her when she sat on the stoop. The silence was loud as he gave her all the time she needed.
“Can I live with you, Dad? I don’t want to be here.”
“Lil, I would love to have you with me all the time. But I know you’d miss your friends and even your mom. How about a visit? Some time away? A week or so now? And then at the end of the summer?”
Lily was quiet. He watched as she dragged her bare feet back and forth across the warm sidewalk, obviously unhappy with his response. He waited in silence for several moments, until it became obvious that she wasn’t going to respond.
“Well? If it’s okay with your mom, do you want to come back with me for a week?”
