“Nice of you to rejoin the party.” Mia smirks at me as she butters a piece of bread in front of her. She’s the only one sitting at the table when I take a seat.
“Well, I couldn’t just leave. I have to thank the host and hostess for inviting me to such a thrilling event.” Refilling my water glass from the pitcher, I take a sip, leaning back in my chair. I can see Chase standing at the bar talking to Liam and Nate.
“Oh, I’m sure you’ve had quite the thrill tonight,” Mia says, smiling at me with a small shake of her head.
Chase glances over to me from the bar and winks as he brings a glass of whiskey to his lips.
If we’re trying to hide anything, we’re already doing a shit job of it.
My time with CeCe lately has been scarce due to Diane being in town, but Chase still mentioned needing my help this morning.
He’s been going on and on about his knees bothering him quite a bit lately, so I guess this morning he’s hoping to get some additional therapy done on them. We haven’t seen each other since the charity dinner on Friday and I was tempted to offer my services, a massage for his knees that might lead to more, but figured that innuendos at eight in the morning might not be his cup of tea.
“So, who made the pancakes?” I ask CeCe while she dips her fingers through the syrup on her plate.
“Daddy.” She beams up at me, chocolate smeared all over her lips as she licks them.
“Really?” I’m surprised that Chase had time to cook before he left this morning.
“He was up really early.”
Hmm. Maybe his knees were bothering him and he couldn’t sleep? I’m sure I’m thinking way too much into this, but CeCe seemingly answers my question when she continues talking.
“He wasn’t tired anymore. When I’m not tired anymore I get up too.”
“Well, that makes sense.” I swipe a damp paper towel over her lips.
“Daddy isn’t tired anymore.” She smiles as I pull the paper towel away and for some reason her statement makes my eyes all of a sudden feel heavy, and a small lump forms in my throat. “We played a puppet show last night!” she exclaims, hopping down from the stool and racing to her bedroom.
Chase has been tired for the last three years. Even with Abby helping him, he still forced a lot of the load on himself. It doesn’t take any kind of specialist to look at Chase and say he’s overwhelmed, but he’d never admit it out loud. He’d never flat out say, “I need help.”
In the last month, I’ve watched him shed a small layer of that. He’s still overprotective and has his routines, but he seems to be enjoying himself a little more and accepting the fact that my purpose right now is to help him. I noticed it the day he asked me to come over at the last minute. Chase and last minute are two things that rarely go hand in hand. He’s a planner and an organizer, he doesn’t just “forget” something—but that day I think he understood he was juggling more on his own than he needed to.
CeCe comes back into the kitchen as I’m loading the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher and shows me the dolls that they were playing with last night. One of them has long black hair, but it’s pulled back in kind of a wonky looking braid and then there’s another doll with blonde—almost yellow looking hair—with a braid as well. Except that braid actually looks pretty well put together.
“We did braids,” she says, taking her fingers and smoothing out the small pieces on the side of the one with black hair. “Here.”
She places the blonde haired doll on the counter next to the sink.
“Wow, she’s so beautiful.” I smile as I press start on the dishwasher and wipe my hands on the towel.
“Summer,” CeCe says, looking up at me as I pick up the doll. She’s wearing a purple dress with one shoe missing.
“Yeah?”
“She’s Summer too.”
“Oh yeah, she does have the same color hair as me.” I smile and walk toward the living room with her.
“That one is Daddy’s favorite.”
My brows crease slightly as I take a seat against the couch on the floor with her.
“Oh?”
She nods and puts both dolls next to each other on the floor before she starts making multiple trips back and forth, bringing out a bunch of stuffed animals for us to play with.
I giggle to myself at the thought of Chase putting on a puppet show with his daughter, using a doll named Summer.
