“How are you?”Miles asked.
“I’m feeling well, except my daughter keeps talking about leaving me and running off to the city.”
“But you can’t move!”Bella yelled out.“You’re my mentor and I’ll miss the kids too much!”
Annie emerged from the kitchen.Her hair was tied back with a few wisps free, making her look like a windswept goddess.He held his breath.
“You can always come and visit.”Annie said.She caught Miles’ eye and stopped abruptly.“Miles.Hi.How are you?”
He nodded a hello.“Doing well.How are you?”
“Things are bad!”Clara interrupted.“Annie is over here talking about moving to the mainland after Christmas!”
“So soon?”he blurted out, despite himself.
She looked down, picking a toy off the floor.“I’ve been trying to coordinate the Christmas handoff.Roy gets the kids for Christmas, and it’s making me realize how hard it’s going to be to do this forever.Plus, I got a call from a daycare where we were waitlisted.The others are all two or more years.They said I could take a tour and they might have an opening.”
“It’s bad enough we won’t have the kids here on Christmas day,” Clara said glumly.“Now you don’t want them here at all!”
“It’s embarrassing that I had to move in with my mother,” Annie said sharply.“Roy is right.I need to strike it out on my own.”
The topic ended as quickly as it started, with Annie picking up both twins and hauling them to the dinner table.They were in a wild mood, throwing food and laughing maniacally until the end of the meal.
It was only after they were done, when Miles was helping Annie clean up, that they had a moment alone.
“I don’t like you talking like that,” he said.
“Like what?”she asked, cocking her head to the side.
“Saying Roy is right.”He shook his shoulders in a fake shudder.
Annie laughed.“He is, though.I know my mom’s here, and she’s a big help, but I should be able to do it on my own.”
“There are noshouldsin single parenting.Believe me, I have experience.Let all theshouldsgo and focus on reality.”
She set a dish down, putting a hand to her forehead.“It’s not that easy.”
“Of course it’s not easy,” he said.“Being a single parent is impossibly hard.Why make it harder for yourself?”
“Because they need to see their dad.I’m making it harder by being here.”
Miles sucked in a breath.As though Roy wasn’t the one who had moved away.As though he was the one who had requirements as to when he’d see his children.
Nothing could have kept Miles from Bella after she was born.He would have moved heaven and earth to be with her.
“You’re not the one making it harder,” he said.
She shook her head.
He softened his tone.“Annie.He is living the life he wants to live.Don’t forget that.What doyouwant?”
She was quiet for a beat, but when she looked at him again, her eyes were misty.“I don’t know.I get jumbled, thinking about it.I think it’s the fact that they won’t be here for Christmas.It’ll be my first Christmas alone.”
That urge to sweep her up in his arms overtook him again.
He settled for putting his hand on hers.“You won’t be alone.You’ll have us.”
There was so much more he wanted to say.That she couldn’t leave.That he couldn’t imagine not having her nearby.
