Brody squeezes my shoulder as he walks past me and winks. I know he wants to be careful about any affection in front of Hannah, which I understand with no explanation. I’m sure it would take very little to push her over the edge with her pre-hormonal raging feelings. “Thank you so much. I’ll order pizza when I leave the school, so it’ll arrive shortly after I get home.”
“Don’t worry about a thing,” I tell him.
“Hannah—” he says.
“No, Dad.”
“Hannah, baby girl—”
“Dad, stop,” she grunts.
Brody points at her and cocks his head to the side, smiling widely. “You complete me,” he says, pointing at himself following the statement.
Hannah covers her face. “Oh, my God. Why me?”
I’m trying my hardest not to laugh. “You can’t even complete a sentence,” she mumbles.
Brody shrugs it off and gives me another inconspicuous wink before walking out the door.
It isn’t until the truck is out of the driveway before I take a seat at the table with Hannah. “Does he embarrass you a lot?”
Hannah drops her pencil. “Like every single day of my life.”
I purse my lips, trying not to smile. “Do you know it’s a dad’s job to embarrass his daughter?”
“Well, it’s a stupid job,” she says. Another roll of her eyes seals the seriousness of her statement.
“When I was your age, my dad did the same thing to me. I was kind of quiet and didn’t like much attention, but my dad was the complete opposite—always the life of every party, loud, and funny. He wanted to pull me out of my shell and make me more like him, but it took a while before he realized I’m just like him in other ways and not so much the loud, funny person.” It was Melody who shared in Dad’s passion for making people smile.
“How long did it take him to realize you didn’t like his jokes?” Hannah asks.
“Believe it or not, I grew to love his jokes. I didn’t take part in them, but he made me smile, and I think I’d do anything to hear another one of his jokes right now.”
Hannah glances up at me with wide eyes as if I triggered a profound thought. I don’t want to say anything too heavy for a ten-year-old, but I wish I could tell her life is short and someday the things that annoy us the most will be what we’d do anything to experience again.
“He really tries hard,” Hannah says. “Sometimes too hard. Like he’s trying to make up for my mom not being around.” She’s thinking through all of her words as she says them. I can see the thought process revolving. “I guess it’s better than if he was like my mom, though.”
“Sometimes in life, it’s the child who has all the learning to do, but other times, adults are the ones who have the most learning to do and it doesn’t always happen so quickly when you’re older and set in your ways.” I’m being vague so I don’t make any assumptions about her mother, but there can be hope that she’ll realize the mistakes she’s making with Hannah. If not, Brody will continue to play double duty to fill both roles. She doesn’t realize she’s lucky to have someone like him.
“It’s true,” she agrees. “My mom thinks nothing through at all, and her boyfriend is dumber than a brick wall.” Wow. For a ten-year-old to come to a conclusion like that, this guy must be quite a winner.
“It happens,” I tell her.
“Hey, thank you for cleaning my room. It was nice to come home to. My mom doesn’t clean at her house either. My dad tries, but we get busy and things get out of control, I guess, so it was nice to fall asleep without my stuff everywhere. I like it that way.”
I sweep the back of my hand against my forehead. “Phew! I was worried you might hate me for touching your things.”
“No, I don’t hate you,” she says with a partial smile perked into the corner of her lips. “Are you and my dad dating?”
Out of left field. I should have been expecting the question but was absolutely not expecting it while we were alone. “Um, well—we enjoy spending time together. We’ve become good friends.”
“That’s all?” she continues. I can’t remember what a ten-year-old understands about relationships and I don’t want to say too much without talking to Brody.
“I guess we’ll see, right?”
“You’ve been around longer than anyone else in my dad’s life, so I just figured you were his girlfriend now.”
Is that where we are? In a relationship without a label? People still label relationships in their thirties?
