“Daddy can fit too. We’re having dinner in here tonight,” Sadie tells me.
Sliding inside, it’s bigger than it looks. Pillows and stuffed animals line the sides of the tent. Two sleeping bags lie on the floor.
“It’s a party in here.”
“Here’s your dinner.” Sadie hands me a plate of a gooey grilled cheese sandwich with carrots on the plate.
“Did you make this?” I settle the plate on my lap as Marcus manages to wedge himself in the tight space, shuffling a few animals around.
They both nod proudly. “Daddy helps,” Sadie points out.
“But we put all the apples and cheese on,” Sam says.
I take a bite. “It’s delicious. My compliments to the chefs.”
Marcus grins at me as he takes a bite of his own. The girls are beaming at me as they stuff their faces with their own sandwiches.
The storm rages outside as a boom of thunder shakes the house, causing Sadie to whimper and me to jump.
“I don’t like storms,” Sadie whispers, covering her ears.
“It’s okay. I don’t like storms either.” Setting my empty plate outside of the tent, I pull Sadie onto my lap. “Is it because they’re loud?”
She nods her head. “Yeah.”
“Well, what’s something we could do that’s equally loud?”
“We could yell,” Sam pipes up. “But Daddy says there’s no yelling inside.”
Another clap of thunder rings out, causing Sadie to burrow farther into my arms.
“I think I could make an exception this one time. But you know what I taught you girls?”
“What?” Sam asks, a confused look on her face.
Marcus leans down to whisper into Sam’s ear and her face lights up. “Our favorite things!”
“Your what?” I ask. I surely couldn’t have heard her right.
“Daddy says if you’re scared of storms to think of your favorite things,” Sadie turns around and tells me.
“And where did Daddy learn that?” I ask, looking at Marcus directly in his warm, brown eyes.
“I learned it from someone very smart,” he says. “Kind of like your mom in that way.”
“Our mom was really smart,” Sadie tells me.
Marcus nods. “You know it’s where you get your mad chess skills.”
Sadie giggles. “I want to be a world champion.”
“You can do anything you want, Sadie,” Marcus tells her. “Your mom would love that.”
I love that Marcus doesn’t shy away from keeping the memory of their parents alive. Even though he is their Daddy, their biological mom and dad aren’t hidden like a dirty topic.
This man. When he left, I put him and everything about our life together in a box and tucked it away. I didn’t want to keep it, but I couldn’t part with it for some reason. Now that he’s back, I can’t help but fall for him again.
Because even if I wasn’t with him, I was still a part of his life. The small things that he did for me, he does for the girls. Even though Marcus left, it’s like I never really left him.
