“Samantha’s dad takes her for secret ice cream after school.”
‘Secret ice cream’ had me alarmed. I glanced at Mel with a raised eyebrow. She replies with a quick, “it’s fine”, but my curiosity was still piqued.
“I can take you for ice cream.”
“Piper sees her mommy and daddy every day. Charlie only sees his dad on the weekends.”
Oh god.
I wanted to crawl onto my knees and promise her that she would see me whenever she liked. I wanted to promise them that I wasn’t going anywhere. But instead, I told her, “You can see me every day. Everything that your friend's daddies do, I’ll do with you.”
Hallie smiled, “okay.”
“Can we call you our dad?”
“Of course.” Mel piped in reminding me that she was right next to me. She’d been silent for a few minutes, letting me fend for myself. Now that I looked at her, I could see the tears in her eyes. Then I realized that this wasn’t just a big deal for me but for Melody too. It was clear to see that she was very protective over Ava and Hallie, to let someone new into their lives must have been difficult for her.
I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into my chest. I just wanted to comfort her, to tell her that everything would work out.
“Do you love our mom?” Ava piped up. I looked into her eyes as I truthfully told her that I did.
“What do you girls want for dinner?” Melody cleared her throat, subtly changing the subject.
“Spaghetti-O's,” Hallie called out. It was probably the loudest thing I’d heard her say yet.
“Spaghetti-O's it is.”
Melody got up from the couch and walked over to the TV, she plugged in a DVD before leaving the room. I wanted to ask where she was going, she couldn’t really have been leaving me there all on my own. But my thoughts were interrupted as Ava and Hallie jumped down onto the floor to watch the movie.
Then, because the girls were seemingly bored of me and completely distracted, I followed the direction Melody had disappeared in. The archway led me to the kitchen where Mel stood in front of an open pantry.
I walked up behind her and pulled her into me by her hips. “Maybe I should get going,” I whispered against her neck.
“No.” She turned in my arms until we were face to face, “why don’t you stay?”
“For dinner? Because I had a big bowl of Spaghetti-O's for lunch.” I chuckled, trying to lighten the situation.
We were in uncharted territory here. I didn’t think either of us knew what we were doing. It was tense.
“Maybe you could stay until bedtime?”
“Yours or theirs?”
She pursed her lips to try and hide her smile but I knew it was there. She pressed her lips against mine before turning back to the pantry. She never did give me an answer.
I stayed throughout dinner. We all sat around the table, the girls were chattering about their day at school. I didn’t mean to but I felt myself edging out of the conversation. It was ridiculous but I felt like I didn’t want to intrude on their family time.
It would take some time before things felt comfortable, we all had a lot of adjusting to do.
The conversation steered my way when Melody mentioned that I played baseball. Ava and Hallie were full of questions. I smiled at Mel in thanks.
After dinner, came bedtime. I took a backseat as I watched closely. I wanted to be down with their routine. Mel stood over them as they changed into their PJs, as if she didn’t trust them to do it by themselves. Same thing again when it came to brushing their teeth and washing their faces. Ava pouted and stomped her foot, it was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. She went to argue but Mel jumped in mentioning something about the weekend.
Hmm, bribery seemed to work. I had to remember that.
I stood in the doorway as Mel read them their bedtime story. I’d always thought that bedtime stories made kids fall asleep but apparently I was dead wrong on that one. The girls were no more sleepy than before.
With goodnight kisses and wishes, we finally backed out of the room.
