Then he heard Mollie’s voice drifting through the door. “Who’s she talking to?”
“The sperm donor.” At his confused look, she sighed. “Our father.”
“Oh,” Mike said, not knowing whether to laugh or hug the girl. She tried to sound and act casual, but the undercurrent of tension in her voice belied her flippancy.
Mike glanced toward the door again. He didn’t sense any distress coming from his mate, something he would have expected from her while dealing with her father. “Really?”
“Yep.” Aida tossed the remote onto the nightstand and drew one leg up. She hugged it against her chest as she lowered her chin to her knee.
“You didn’t want to talk to him?”
“Why? He left when I was two. Mollie has memories of him, but I don’t have any, and I never missed him in my life.”
She couldn’t entirely sell her indifference. Walking over, he rested his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it. Aida came with Mollie; they were a package deal he would have accepted even if Aida was a selfish brat. But she was far from selfish, and he admired the young woman’s spine of steel.
Aida could have let the unfair circumstances of her life turn her into a person who pitied herself and blamed the world for everything that went wrong. However, like Mollie, she chose to grow stronger instead of weaker by all her losses.
“He lost out on two beautiful, strong, proud women,” Mike said.
Aida’s mouth parted, and tears formed in her eyes before she glanced away. Mike removed his hand from her shoulder and walked over to the door. He almost entered the room but changed his mind. Mollie needed this time to sort through things with her father, and he would give it to her.
Lifting the bag of food from the table, he handed it over to Aida. “Enjoy, kid.”
“Thanks,” she said and pulled the bag open to reveal the ice cream, chips, candy, and cooked hot dogs he’d gotten from the gas station down the street. “This is enough to give me a coronary.”
“But you’ll be happy beforehand.”
Aida chuckled as she pulled out a plastic spoon and the pint of ice cream. “Damn right I will be.”
Mike settled on the bed. A few minutes later, the door between the rooms opened, and Mollie entered. “You okay?” he asked as she walked over to sit on the bed beside him.
“Yes,” she said and lay down next to him.
When Mike pulled her into his arms, she settled her head on his chest and listened to the reassuring beat of his heart while she watched Aida devour her ice cream. She was amazed to realize she reallywasokay.
“What did he have to say?” Aida asked as she licked her spoon clean, tossed it in the bag, and dug inside for more food.
Mollie filled them in on the conversation with her father.
Aida froze in the middle of squeezing a ketchup packet onto the hot dog tucked into a yellow, plastic container on her lap. “Why did you call him?”
“Because it’s time to let go of my anger,” she said, and her fingers curled into Mike’s chest. “It’s time to start fresh. I always insisted I wasn’t angry at him, but then I realized I never got over him leaving.”
“Hmm,” Aida grunted as she tossed the empty packet into the bag by her feet. “How’s his life going?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Really?”
“Really.” She didn’t want to be angry anymore, but she also didn’t want to hear that he was living it up on the west coast, lounging by the pool every day with his possible wife and children. If they spoke again, she’d ask, because she would like to know if she had other siblings. “If we talk again, I’ll ask, but I got what I needed out of the conversation.”
“And do you think you will talk again?” Mike inquired.
“I think so,” Mollie murmured.
“Hmm,” Aida grunted again.
“Would you like to talk to him next time?” Mollie asked her.
