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“It’s nice to meet you.” And it is. Even if I don’t understand why they’re here. Is this some ploy on his part to get back into my good graces? Seems oddly timed, as he stopped sending me flowers, cards, and gifts weeks ago.
“My dad doesn’t know we’re here,” Lauren reassures me.
“We’re worried about him,” Lilly adds. This makes my heart squeeze.
“Where are my manners? Please come sit down. Can I get either of you anything?”
“No,” they say in unison, sitting down carefully on the couch.
Taking a seat across from them, I try to calm my nerves. “Why are you worried about him? Is he okay?”
The two of them look at one another before the older girl starts to speak. “I’ve never seen him like this. He’s so sad.”
My heart hurts for them. They look so concerned.
“He told us what he did,” Lilly says.
Wow. Really?“I’m surprised he shared that with you.”
“He said he’d manipulated you and felt terrible about it. That he wanted us to learn from his mistakes.” Lauren says.
“Because he never wanted to see us hurt by trusting the wrong man,” Lilly adds.
“He made a mistake. But I hate seeing what this is doing to him. And I feel like it’s all my fault.” Lauren says, looking pained.
Her statement catches me off guard, and I scoot forward in my haste to reassure her. “How on earth could it be your fault?”
“Because I pushed him to ask you out.” Lauren sniffles.
Unable to stop myself, I grab the box of tissues from my coffee table and come to sit between them. “I don’t understand.”
Lauren sighs. “We saw the way he was looking at you. At Luigi’s. I’ve wanted to see my dad happy for so long. And he’s never looked at anyone the way he looked at you. But now he’s hurting. And maybe you are too. I should’ve left things alone.”
“Lauren, that’s not on you. We’re adults. Responsible for our own actions. Please don’t put that on yourself.”
“He’s come such a long way since meeting you.” I turn to Lilly, unsure of what she means. “Is there no way you could forgive him?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
Lilly gives a slight smile. “He’s cut back at work. He meets us for dinner a lot more now.”
This makes me smile. I know how important reconnecting with his kids was to him.
“He even invited us to an art class,” Lauren interjects.
“What?” I recall the time I asked Broadie to join me for a class and he said it wasn’t possible. He even joked that he “loved me” but couldn’t miss work to take an art class.
“He said he needed something healthy to focus on. So, he wasn’t tempted to bury himself in his job to forget his troubles.”
Lilly reaches into her oversized purse and pulls out two small white boxes, each tied with a pink bow. She hands the larger box over to me.
“What’s this?”
Lauren laughs. “Ha. I’m not really sure. He’s proud of it, but I can’t really figure it out. It looks like he messed up and tried to put it back together again.”
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“I’m certain he made it for you,” Lilly says. “After seeing what was in this other box.”
