Glad to hear it but please remind him milkshakes are not part of the Thunder meal plan. Pucks bounce off fat way too easily.
Hope you get some sleep too. I’m not the most exciting date andI’d hate to have you fall asleep on me.
Maybe I shouldn’t be so self-effacing, but I’m so rusty at this dating thing that I can’t help joking about my insecurity. I’m not the type of guy to put on fake bravado. It used to make Lauren so mad. She always wanted me to be less authentic, which I thought was ridiculous. My phone buzzes with a text.
I think you’re pretty damn compelling so I doubt I’ll even yawn.
But I’ll order a double espresso, just in case. ;)
I laugh.
“What’s so funny, Dad?”
Charlie is standing at the door to my room in her Minion-themed pajamas, her hair all over the place. She rubs her left eye with the back of her hand. I put my phone on the nightstand. “Morning, kiddo. Come up here.”
Charlie pads her way into the room and climbs up onto my king-size bed. She drops herself dramatically onto the pillows beside me, then makes a big deal about fluffing them up as she settles in next to me. “Why were you laughing? YouTube videos?”
“Not videos,” is all I say and try to tame her hair. It’s thick and wavy like mine, which we get from my mother, and it makes for some incredible morning bedhead. But instead of it being dark brown like mine, it’s unabashedly red, which she gets from my dad, along with the freckles. Her light eyes and the dimple in her chin are all Lauren, though. “Are you ready for your favorite breakfast?”
She grins. It’s my favorite thing in the world to look at. “Apple pancakes?”
I nod, and she giggles excitedly. “Can I help?”
The kid loves to cook…well, more accurately, she loves to eat ingredients while I cook, but I don’t mind. In fact, I kind of love it. I nod and she scrambles off the bed, running out of my room. I stand up and throw on a T-shirt to go with the sweatpants I slept in and call for her to hold the railing going down the stairs.
I grab my phone and send one last quick message to Sadie.
I am really looking forward to seeing you again.
Then I leave my phone on the nightstand and head down to the kitchen.
Forty-five minutes later Charlie and I are both full of cinnamon apple pancakes and she’s in the living room watchingClifford the Big Red Dogon Netflix while I clean up and drink an espresso. I’m so glad she isn’t talking about her nightmare, and she didn’t wake up again last night. I asked her, while we ate, if she had a good night, and she nodded and said Uncle Hunter took her for frozen yogurt, which she shortens and pronounces “frodo.” She doesn’t bring up the nightmare or calling her mom, so I don’t either. I still wish I had been here for her, though.
I glance at the clock on the stove. I have two more hours with her before she’s due back at her mom’s, and I can’t be late because Lauren has already proven she’s in bitch mode, and I don’t want to make things worse. “Charlie, how about you run upstairs and change and we go to the park before you head back to Mom’s?”
“The park next to the dog park?” she asks, and I inwardly groan. She has become super obsessed with dogs, and I know when her birthday rolls around she’s going to ask for one of her own. Lauren hates pets, so she’ll say no, and I’m not around enough with the hockey schedule to keep a dog here for her. Ugh. This may be her first heartbreak.
“Okay,” I say because that park also has a skateboard ramp, and she can easily be pulled away from watching pooches to watch skaters. She also wants a skateboard. My daughter is a big fan of anything that causes me heart palpitations and gray hair.
She scrambles upstairs, and I join her a few minutes later and change into jeans and a cable-knit sweater. Charlie does a decent job of dressing herself, which isn’t always the case, so we make it to the park fairly quickly. We spend the rest of our time together goofing off on the jungle gym, watching the skaters and dogs. By the time I’m driving her back to Lauren’s she’s yawning, which should make Lauren happy. Last time I dropped Charlie off, Lauren complained she was “hopped up on sugar” and wouldn’t go to bed on time.
She meets me at the door, her boyfriend, Cale, standing behind her in the hall, yanking on his shitty leather jacket. He looks like he just woke up and hasn’t bothered to comb his greasy black hair, let alone shower. But then again, he always looks like that. He’s a musician in a band named Two Dollar Bill, which is about the amount of money he’s made in his career too.
“Hey.” He grumbles to me as he steps through the open front door, giving Lauren a half-hearted kiss on the cheek as he passes. “Later, Chuck.”
Charlie gives him a lackluster wave, and I visibly bristle. I fucking hate that he calls her Chuck. It’s not a term of endearment, it’s a sign he doesn’t give a fuck. And it’s not that I want this jackwad to be in love with my kid, but I do want him to be respectful. And he’s not. My eyes meet Lauren’s. She knows what I’m thinking and instantly rolls hers. She sings Cale’s praises every chance she gets. I want better people than this idiot named after a vegetable in my daughter’s life.
Charlie clammers through the open door, and Lauren tries to smooth her hair. “Does Daddy forget to brush your hair?”
“I brushed it,” I say quietly. “We were at the park and it got messed up.”
“You know you should put it in braids or pigtails when she’s at the park,” Lauren chides.
“Okay. Next time.” I give her an overly large smile.
Charlie turns and wraps her little arms around my leg. “Bye, Daddy. See you soon.”
“Bye, Charlie.” I bend and kiss the top of her head. “Call me tonight, okay?”
