Page 84 of Callow
“Morning,” I said, leaning down to press a quick kiss to the top of her head. It was a little nothing gesture, but I swear she fucking beamed at me in response. “Don’t worry,” I told her as she put sugar and cream in her coffee, “I made sure I cooked the eggsreallywell.”
“You told him about that?” Daph asked, turning to her mother with wide, horrified eyes.
“She did,” I agreed. “She also told me about having to do self-hypnosis to not throw up each time you spit up as a baby.”
“You never told me that,” Daph said, looking at her mom.
“It’s not exactly a highlight of my motherhood journey to admit to my child that a perfectly natural part of her babyhood made me dry heave and have to count backward from ten to just keep from throwing up on her.”
“You were a mess,” Daph said affectionately.
“I really, really was,” Sabrina agreed. “But look, we turned out… sort of alright,” she said, making Daph toss a chocolate chip at her. “Clearly, I screwed up pretty bad if you are out here wasting perfectly good chocolate,” she added as she ducked down to grab the chocolate chip and toss it into the garbage.
“You two go sit. I’ll bring the food,” I offered.
They were quick to grab their drinks and the syrup before claiming their spots in the living room.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Sabrina whispered to Daph as I got the plates together.
“It’s cute,” Daph said as she clicked through the options on the TV.
“I can’t wait to torture you about your first real boyfriend,” Sabrina shot back.
“Which is why I won’t be bringing him home,” Daph said.
“Sure you will,” Sabrina said, giving me a smile as she took her plate from me. “I have to tell him embarrassing facts about you.”
“I wouldn’t mind staring menacingly at him while cleaning my gun,” I piped in.
“You guys are so embarrassing,” Daph said, making Sabrina and I share a satisfied smile.
As much as I pretended to just play it off, that little phrase meant a fuckuva lot to me. That Daph would group me in with her mother. That she might think of me as someone who could be a fixture in her life.
I’d never really given the idea of kids much thought. It never seemed in the cards for me. And I still didn’t know if I could see myself with any small kids. But this one? This almost fully grown one with a lot of smarts, spirit, and heart? I’d call myself lucky to become someone important to her. Dare I even think it? The father figure she’d been denied her whole life.
As we sat there eating, the girls rapid-talking over the rerun of some rom-com they’d clearly seen too many times, I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering.
Suddenly, I was picturing endless weekends just like this. Slow and easy but full of joy. Or going to the bookstore. Seeing Daph really pick up discipline and confidence at her self-defense classes. Helping Sabrina lug half of everything Daph owned into a dorm room. Gathering around a Christmas tree.
Family shit.
Stuff I didn’t even realize I’d been craving until the possibility of having it was in front of me.
A different kind of life.
With Sabrina. And Daphne.
“You okay?” Sabrina asked, rubbing my leg, snapping me out of my thoughts to find that Daphne had disappeared, leaving the two of us alone.
“Yeah.”
“You sure?” she asked, concern making her eyes go stormy.
“Just thinking that this is nice,” I told her.
“Yeah?” she asked, face going all soft.
“Yeah,” I confirmed, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her to my side. “Where’d we lose Daph to?”