"You should call her Sissy," I teased. "Make people think that your guard dog is a failure when she clearly isn't."
Faith giggled at that. "She's gonna be big, right?"
"The vet said she's probably going to be bigger than we think," I assured her. "I'm ok with that, though. Means she'll be able to keep up with you when you go riding."
Faith sucked in a breath like she hadn't even thought about that yet. "Yeah? I'm gonna take her everywhere, Dad." Then her smile fell. "Well, except when I go to Mom's."
"She'll spend those weekends with Lucy," I promised. "But, speaking of Cy and his new dog..." My guts immediately clenched as nerves hit me, so I decided to hedge my bets a bit. "Um, are you honestly ok with this weird relationship I'm in?"
She blew out a breath and stepped back to lean against the side of the house with a thump. "It's ok, right?"
"Which part?"
"You," she tried to explain. "Them. I mean, I don't want you to be with all of them just because you feel like you have to so I can be with you. If you want just a boyfriend, or just Violet, then that's what you should do. And if this is just because of me, we can find another house, or whatever."
That was sounding a little too much like what she'd said back when she was pissed at Violet. "What if I actually like this?" I asked, hoping to change her mind.
"I just don't want you to be last," she explained. "You always give up things for me, Dad. When I was last to everyone else, youalwaysmade sure I wasn't, so I'm trying to do the same thing. I like them, but I like you most."
"Honey..." I breathed, moving beside her just to sit down on the ground. "Faith, I promise that I do not feel like I'm in last place. In all honesty, I feel like I'm on top of the world. I have this amazingly beautiful girlfriend that other guys get jealous about. I have this boyfriend who has been so patient with me as I figured all of this bisexual stuff out. And then there's this other boyfriend who I made feel like he was in last place because I was scared that doing what I might want wouldn't be fair to you."
"Which one is that?" she asked.
"Cy," I admitted. "Cupcake, I had no idea that I even liked guys - but it seems like Mike knew. He said he's known since we were in high school - even before I had you. I was kinda confused, and I thought that because I liked girls, then that was all there was to it. Meeting Cy kinda changed how I look at things, and this just happened."
"But are you happy?" she asked. "I mean, Mom always has a boyfriend, but you never had girlfriends."
"I dated," I assured her. "I just didn't find any women I liked enough to introduce to you. After the second or third date, I'd realize that they weren't the kind of woman I wanted to make a family with, so I'd end things."
"Oh." Slowly, she slid down the wall to join me on the concrete. "Dad, I'm kinda scared that I'm going to like them too much and then you'll break up or something. I mean, that's how it was with Mom. The guys I hated she datedforever, and the ones I liked she broke up with in like a week."
"Well, I think that the four of us have been through enough to make this last," I assured her. "I mean, we've broken up, gotten back together, yelled a bit, and I've even thrown a punch at both of those guys."
"Dad!" she gasped.
"Don't worry," I said around a laugh, "they won. I also thought I was defending Violet's honor when I did that, so not really the same."
"Violet doesn't need you to defend her honor," Faith said, rolling her eyes.
"And I know that now," I promised. "I just had to learn a few things too. Believe it or not, it isn't easy to do this, regardless of how old we are. You're trying to figure out boys and stuff, and I'm playing catch-up."
She made kissy noises to call her puppy back to her. "C'mere, Sissy!" The puppy came running with her big ears and big feet flying everywhere, and Faith giggled in delight. "I think she likes that name!"
"I think she likes anything you say to her," I countered.
"But she looks like a Sissy," Faith insisted. "Isn't that right, Sissy?" She began smooshing the puppy's face, petting and wiggling the dog's ears in the process. "Did all of you sleep in Violet's room last night?" she asked, the question snuck in there a little too casually.
"We did," I admitted. "After spending weeks trying to avoid each other, we just wanted to talk about everything that happened in court."
"Are you going to do that a lot?"
She wouldn't look at me. Her complete attention was on her puppy, and I was getting nervous again, so I cleared my throat.
"Does it bother you?" I tried.
She shrugged, letting her shoulders fall down a little too hard for me to believe she meant it. "What if, um, am I not supposed to knock on that door?"
"Faith..." I reached over to wrap my arm around her. "One of the things I love most about these people is how they feel about you. All of us love you, ok? Not tolerate. Not put up with. When you were so mad at Ash, he was devastated. He'd been so happy to have this amazing kid in his life, and then she made him feel like he was the worst person in the world. Violet was near tears a few times. They don't just like you, Faith. They all love you, ok? Just as much as I do - or pretty close."
