Page 67 of Second Chance Baby
Two days could have been two lifetimes at this point.
I swayed with her a bit. “Honestly, I think she’s missed us, just as much as we’ve missed her. I’d bet everything on that.” I eased away to look directly into her eyes. “She loves you so much, Carrington. It’s one thing I know without a doubt.”
“Really? You really think so?”
“I know so, Care Bear. I know her better than anyone.” I kneeled down in front of her though my bad knee immediately protested. Then I used my thumbs to brush away her tears, my heart cracking a little more with every single one. “You know I’d do anything to keep you safe. If I really thought she might not be able to go the distance this time, I wouldn’t have ever invitedher back here to stay with us. As much as I love her, you come first. You’re both my heart, but you take up just a teensy bit more room.”
She threw herself in my arms, and I wrapped her up as tightly as I could, murmuring softly as I rocked her until her tears slowed then finally stopped. When she gave me a determined smile, I reached up to frame her face in my hands. My fierce Care Bear was back in action. “I think you’re right, Daddy. She does love us, and she wants us back. Just it’s hard to trust it because I want it so much.”
I shifted on my knees as they started to ache even more. My old football injury reminded me I wasn’t a young guy anymore. Not to mention running around all day with my girls, then climbing a ladder a couple dozen times tonight to decorate had done me in. Kneeling on this hard ground drove that home with a vengeance.
But Carrington wasn’t anywhere near done yet.
“And Biscuit just makes our family better, you know? And Amerie and Aunt Lacey do too.”
“Yeah. We’ll go get Biscuit tomorrow after we take you to school and finish our shoot. I just want to make sure he can handle being in the house while we aren’t here, you know? So, until we can make sure, it’s better if he stays at Aunt Lacey’s.”
“That makes sense.” She sniffled loudly. “We can just be happy, you know? Maybe we could even make our family bigger.” She dashed away her last few tears. “If you guys want that too. Since Uncle Moose has like five thousand kids, and they’re all so happy all the time.” She cocked her head. “But we don’t have to get that crazy. They have more kids than anyone.”
My laughter rolled out of me and then just kept coming and coming. I didn’t even bother trying to stifle it. I felt as if I hadn’t laughed so hard in a million years.
“I like how you think, kid. But I agree, Moose has a truly nuts number of kids. But I think you’d be a great big sister. All that is up to your mom, so we’ll just see how she feels on that score, okay?”
“Okay.” Her smile trembled before growing wider.
“We will make sure to keep you informed along the way. We know this is a lot to take in all at once and how you feel will always be the most important to us. I promise.”
“Thanks, Daddy. I gotta say I’m glad she came back when she did. My friend at school, Jesse, told me it’s not good for guys to not, like, have a girl in their life for too long. Like you guys get…blocked or something.”
“Huh?” My head was now swimming as if I’d had too much to drink. And I hadn’t touched a damn drop in forever. “Huh?”
“You know, like pent-up.” She waved her hand. “Or whatever. Okay, I’m gonna go check out the Halloween decorations. There are so many cool ones. I gotta see.” She ran off, leaving me still kneeling there on the ground with my head on the verge of an explosion.
What had just happened? I’d felt like I had a good handle on current events even as crazy as these last two days had been, and then my firstborn—my only born as of yet—had rocked me again.
Had my daughter been referring to sex? And not in the abstract?
And not about her parents having it but….
Yeah, I couldn’t even complete that thought. She wasn’t even eleven yet, for God’s sake. And she’d just made me think she knew far more about the subject than I could even begin to understand.
I stumbled to my feet and decided I needed to clear my head for a few minutes. The night breeze was nice and cool, so I’d just take a walk to the back of my property just to work out the achein my knee and think through what my daughter had just blown my mind with.
I’d clearly jumped to conclusions. There was no other explanation. I needed to talk to Bridget to get her read on the situation, but I’d rather not dump more on her so soon. She had enough to worry about right now. Maybe I could talk to my mom, see what she thought. She’d certainly successfully raised her own brood.
I ducked to avoid a low-hanging branch in the way to the rarely used walking path at the edge of my property. I wasn’t even sure where exactly it went. Below me were a few cottages, but I’d never taken the time to explore.
Right now, I needed a moment away from everyone. All my neighbors were pretty damn nice, so it shouldn’t be a huge problem.
I narrowed my eyes. Hey, what the heck was that person doing down there, prowling around someone’s shed next to my neighbor’s cottage? Someone who looked awfully like my eldest brother, jeans, smirk and all?
“Hey,” I said in a loud whisper, making him startle up to his full height. Yep, that was definitely my brother. “You hurting for cash, man? Need some stuff to resell so now you’re lurking around other people’s storage sheds?”
“Ha, funny. Why are you back here?” His voice was barely pitched over a whisper.
“I asked you first.”
“I know the property owner.” Suddenly, a floodlight clicked on, and Penn shielded his eyes with his hand.