“Hmm, I suppose that makes sense. Shedoeslove you.”
Coach’s face scrunches in confusion. “Who’s BJ?”
“My dog,” I answer.
Now he appears even more confused. I look at him. “Coach, I’ve been wanting to talk to you about this for a long while. Months.”
“I asked him not to, Dad,” Kennedy interrupts. “He wanted to. I wasn’t ready to tell you about us. Be mad at me, not him. He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter now. No one needs to be mad at anyone. This is a happy situation.” I look him directly in the eyes, trying to convey my sincerity. “I love her. I’m madly in love with her. She and our baby girl are everything to me. They’re my family.”
His shoulders fall in defeat. “W…when did you get married?” He looks at Kennedy with sadness written all over his face. “Who…who walked you down the aisle?”
“Pinky Punnathanathukunnele,” she deadpans.
“Pinky Parpanopolous? Who’s that?” he asks.
I bark out a laugh. “He didn’t technically walk you down the aisle.”
She nods. “True. I walked myself down…I think.”
Her stomach grumbles, and I run my hands up and down her arms. “You’re hungry, baby. Why don’t we go inside, and I’ll make you and BJ breakfast. We can fill your dad in on everything. Finally.” I whisper in her ear, “And I think your dad needs some food in his belly.”
She nods. “Okay. And we need to take care of your face.”
I squeeze her and then move my eyes to Coach’s. “Coach?” I look at him in question. “Will you come inside so we can talk about this with words not fists?”
He nods silently, clearly still in a bit of shock. He’s also not completely sober, stumbling a bit.
I open the door, and BJ comes flying toward me at warp speed, but ten feet before she gets to me, she stops short andthen slowly makes her way to Kennedy, nuzzling her stomach.
I mumble, “Traitor,” and Kennedy giggles as she bends to kiss BJ’s head.
In a baby voice, she says, “It’s okay to love me most, baby girl.”
BJ coos under the adoration for a few seconds before she turns her head to Coach and growls viciously.
“BJ, bed!” I command.
She immediately turns and runs to her bed while Kennedy mouths, “So hot.”
I chuckle as the three of us make our way into my kitchen. I grab various ingredients and food from the refrigerator to start cooking as Kennedy finds a plastic bag and fills it with ice. While I’m at the stove cracking eggs, she places it over my eye while wiping the small amount of blood from my face with a damp washcloth.
I pull my head away. “I’m fine, babe.”
“You’re not fine. Your eye is swelling by the second. And it’s bleeding.” She returns the ice and cloth to my eye again, carefully tending to it.
I place my hand on her hip and peck her on the lips. “Thanks for taking care of me.”
She nods, solely focused on my eye, and mindlessly replies, “Always,” much to my delight.
I work on the eggs and bacon while she stands there and continues to carefully tend to my eye. I motion my head toward the fruit. “Eat some fruit, baby. You have to get your daily dose of blueberries. It’s the only naturally occurring blue food. It has vitamins you and Baby Girl Humblecut need that you can’t get anywhere else.”
“Okay,” she replies compliantly.
Still holding the ice on my eye with one hand, she reaches over for the blueberries with her other hand, throwing a few inher mouth and then a few into mine. “You need them too. You have a big game this week.”
I take them into my mouth and then playfully nibble on her finger.
