Page 55 of Second Chance Baby

“Um, hello, people. We have to get me a costume.”

Guiltily, we broke apart to find our daughter standing beside us, hands on her hips.

I started to explain. “This isn’t like the…dirty pictures yesterday,” I finished weakly.

Except it kind of was.

Travis reached up to close my lips.

Supposed we didn’t need to explain. She’d clearly seen what was happening.

I didn’t have any more answers here than she did. We were making things up as we went.

As a family.

Carrington shrugged. “Old people stuff. Whatever. Now let’s go.”

“You heard the lady.” Travis held out a hand to me as he maneuvered the cart with the other hand. “Let’s go.”

THIRTEEN

Everything seemed unreal.Amazing in the best way.

And I was just going with it.

Sure, once upon a time, I’d been the ultimate easygoing, go-with-the-flow guy. Then I’d become basically a single parent who not only had to coordinate my own schedule, I had to plan for my growing daughter.

Now and then, I dropped balls. I wasn’t perfect. Far from it. I was often late to appointments. Oversleeping was my daily normal. But I worked hard to keep the balance and make sure I always put Carrington first.

I was still doing that. But I just wasn’t putting her first alone.

When I’d been pulled over by Christian yesterday, I hadn’t been thinking. I couldn’t. My whole world had just been rocked in the best way possible. Yet I’d been sure it was just a one time aberration.

We’d had our chance at a fairy tale the first time around, and we’d fucked it up in the worst way possible. Ruining not only what we’d had, but our daughter’s chance at a happy home.

I still didn’t know all the reasons why, even after what we’d talked about last night. It had never made sense to me, but God, sometimes people changed.

Eventually, I’d had no choice but to accept my reality.

My siblings and parents had shown me that it didn’t need to be that way. I was so glad they’d found the right key to their particular locks. Me and Penn had been the odd men out. Both of us keeping too busy to dwell on it.

My sole focus had become keeping Carrington happy. And I loved being a father. It had been easier to worry about being everything for her than to dwell on how much I’d lost.

Turned out maybe I could still ask for things. Likehey, let’s have another kid—if it happened.

Just rolling with whatever occurred clearly was where we needed to be right now.

We were back in the truck headed to Walmart, Carrington continuing her duet to whatever came on the radio. She seemed to know every song. She sang in the car pretty often, but never this often nor with all the gestures.

She seemed happy too. Perhaps she also knew this felt right.

Bridget had always been our missing piece.

“What kind of costume do you want?” Bridget asked over the music, craning her neck to look in the backseat.

We were still holding hands. Yes, even in the truck. We had a long time to make up for.

If Carrington had noticed, she hadn’t commented. Maybe she didn’t know what to make of it yet and starting a certain way didn’t mean we could make it last. We had to wait and see if we could make a go of it for real.