“Bedroom,” she replied, and I headed in her direction.
When I stepped through her door, I found her sitting on the end of her bed, holding her comb and looking worried.
“What’s wrong?” My imagination ran away with me.
“Dad …” There were nerves in Isla’s voice and I hated it. After everything we’d been through, Isla and I were closer than ever.
“What is it, sweetheart? Whatever it is, we’ll beat it together,” I attempted to assure her.
“What if … what if she says no?”
Fuck me. That wasn’t what I was expecting. I mean, it was a question I didn’t have an answer to, and it was going to be completely shit if she did, but it wasn’t the worst thing life could throw at us. We’d already faced that and survived. Anything after that would be a piece of cake. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.
“She won’t.”
“But what if she does? What if she doesn’t want us?”
As much as I didn’t want to dismiss what Isla was saying, I didn’t want to hear what she was saying. I didn’t want to think about it. I couldn’t think about it. If I thought about it, I doubt I’d have the balls to go through with it.
“Charlotte would be crazy to not want to be in your life,” I promised her.
Even though Isla didn’t seem convinced, she let it slide and instead asked me to do her hair. I don’t know who’d been more relieved when it started growing back, me or Isla. It was one request I was never going to turn down. Isla had been forced to grow up too fast and I knew my days of being her number one guy were numbered. She needed me less and less these days and more than once I caught the tail end of conversations between Charlotte and Isla which, when I pressed Charlotte about them, she kept Isla’s secrets and told me it was secret women’s business.
“You’re getting better,” she offered as she looked in the mirror before tightening her ponytail.
“Thanks,” I accepted sarcastically. “Now, come on. Get your shoes on and let's go,” I hurried her along before turning to go make sure Charlotte was ready.
“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Isla asked, reaching into her sock drawer, and pulling out the velvet box we’d stashed there earlier in the week.
After stuffing it in my pocket, feeling like it was scorching my skin, I winked at Isla. “What would I do without you?”
It took another fifteen minutes before I managed to successfully chase them out the door. Thankfully, not all the women in my life were there to test my patience. When I knocked on Mrs. Neal’s door, she was ready, waiting, and excited to go.
By the time we were standing in front of the hippos, our first stop, Isla had already said a million words, Mrs. Neal was smirking knowingly, and I was sweating bullets. Knowing what was coming wasn’t easy. Not knowing the answer was even harder.
“Hey, Charlotte?”
“Yes, Isla?”
“Did you know hippos can’t breathe under water?”
“Did you know that hippos can’t swim?” Charlotte tossed back at her.
“Did you know that when hippos are upset, their sweat turns red?”
“Ew!” Charlotte replied, scrunching up her face.
“Surely you two have run out of hippo facts by now,” I said, shaking my head and dropping down on the park bench beside Mrs. Neal.
“Stop, Luke.”
“What?”
Her hand landed on my knee which was bouncing uncontrollably. “It’ll be fine. Charlotte loves you both. Have some faith in her.”
