“Yes, Dad. Thank you. I’m grateful for my job.”
My phone rings, and it’s the ring I have set for Christian while Chloe’s with him.
I pull it out of my pocket, ignoring my dad’s huff. “It’s Christian,” I say. “Something must be wrong for him to be calling this early.”
“If you’d just stayed with him, you wouldn’t be in this mess—” my dad says as I leave his office.
“Hello? Is everything?—”
“Mama,” Chloe cries. “Mama, I want you.”
“Baby girl, take a breath. What’s wrong?” I rush to my office and close the door, my heart pattering against my rib cage.
She sobs. “I. Want. You. Come back, pease, Mama.”
She talks so clearly, except for her L’s. I’m in no rush to hear her fix it.
My tears are instant just hearing hers. “I’ll be there. Okay, baby? Mama has to get on an airplane, but I’ll be there. Do you?—”
“Do not come,” Christian says. “I told her she could call you, hoping it would calm her down, but it just made it worse. She’s fine.”
“She doesn’t sound fine, Christian. I told her I’d come, and I’m not going back on my word. I’ll get the first flight out that I can.”
Chloe continues to wail in the background.
“How long has she been like this?” I ask, knowing that if he let her call, it hasn’t been good.
He hesitates. “She’s cried off and on since you left.”
“I’m coming. It was too much to expect her to just automatically adjust.”
“You can’t keep me from my daughter.”
“I’m not. She’s there right now, isn’t she? But we can work our way up to longer stretches. I’ll bring her back.”
“We have plans tonight, so don’t come until tomorrow…evening, at the earliest. And I want her back for New Year’s Eve. My parents will be in town. They want to get to know her too.”
That’s a first.
Christian’s mom, Helena, is one of those women who isn’t ready to be a grandma because that would make her old; therefore, she’s refused to accept that she is one.
I’m so happy I’ll see Chloe tomorrow night—and that Christian didn’t ask for Christmas—that I don’t mind taking her back for New Year’s Eve.
“Okay, I can do that. Two nights, and I’ll stay in town.”
He sighs. “Whatever, Dahlia. You know she has to get used to this. You coming as soon as she calls is not going to help.”
Chloe’s crying hasn’t stopped.
“I’m coming to get her, Christian. I’ll text when I get in later, and please let me know the earliest I can pick her up. If she’s still crying like this, I’m getting her tonight.”
I hang up, my hands shaking as I type the airline’s website. Thank God for frequent flyer miles. I find a flight that leaves in four hours. That’s doable.
And then I put my coat on, grab my purse, and go to my dad’s office. This won’t be fun, but it’s gotta be done.
I knock twice, and when he says to come in, I open the door and step in. He blinks when he sees me standing there.
“I need to go get Chloe. I’ll take my work with me and be back in three days.”
