“It’s not very pretty,” Poppy says.
“Well, I’m hoping that it’ll be pretty when I move in.”
“Are you staying here?”
“Would that be okay with you?” Kade asks, nodding his head.
“Yeah.”
“Good.” Kade smiles. “Why don’t we show you the upstairs?”
“Okay.” She shrugs a shoulder. She doesn’t know why we’re here, but it’ll make sense later.
Kade has already painted Poppy’s room. Her eyes are taking everything in. With three rooms up here, she’ll have another room for all the toys that Kade is going to no doubt shower her with.
“Can we go outside to the swing?” Poppy asks as we head back downstairs.
“Sure, baby.”
The porch swing is my favorite part of the house. “Will I get to come over and play in the yard and swing on the swing?”
Dropping down, I beckon Poppy over.
“Sweetheart, can we talk to you?”
She bounds over, scooting into my lap on the porch swing, Strawberry and her stuffed Lollipop in tow. “Am I in trouble?”
I brush a blonde strand of hair out of her face. “No, but we have something to tell you.”
Kade’s leg is shaking next to mine. I know he’s nervous. We’ve been talking about this for a while now. There’s no easyway to tell Poppy the person she thought was her dad isn’t actually her dad, but instead it’s the guy who’s been hanging around all the time.
“There is no easy way to say this, Poppy, but Kade is your dad.”
“What about my daddy?” she asks, looking confused.
I squeeze her closer. “Kade is your dad. He didn’t know, so we said Paul was your dad to make it less confusing. I’m sorry, sweetheart, and I know this might be hard because he’s no longer around?—”
“Kade is my dad?” she asks, interrupting me.
“I am,” Kade says. “I hope that’s okay, because I really love you, Poppy, and I’d like to stay here with you and your mom.”
“Be a family?”
“Yes,” I say. “And this house? If you want, we can live here with Kade.”
Poppy looks between the two of us. I can see the questions forming in her head. The first one she asks?
“Will I get a baby brother or sister?”
Kade nearly chokes next to me, coughing to cover it up.
“Poppy, do you know what we told you?” I ask, wondering if she got the message.
“Kade’s my dad. I love Kade and I think you love him,” she starts, “and Margo said her parents love each other and she got a baby sister. So do I get one?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Kade fighting a smile.
“Do you want a baby brother or sister?” he asks.
