Ronald shut the window, smiling. “Anytime, sweetheart. You’ve got a good heart. You too, Amelia.”
Amelia blushed, tucking her face into Daisy’s neck as they walked him out.
As Daisy placed their dinner on plates and heated it up, she heard a familiar beep that only indicated one thing.
Amelia ran to where her school bag was hanging and retrieved the iPad mini that Matt had given her during Christmas. Daisy wasn’t a huge fan of the device, afraid it would absorb her daughter, but she couldn’t mistake that it enabled her to better maintain a relationship with the only man, apart from her grandpa, she had in her life. A man who FaceTimed Amelia almost every night when he was away in New York.
“Matt!” Amelia sang, grinning at the screen. She flopped onto the couch, chattering about her school day, helping Nani with her lasagna, and Kevin’s return. She left nothing out.
“I miss you. When will you be back?”
There was a pause, a quiet question from him that Daisy couldn’t hear, then Amelia glanced toward her. “Do you want to talk to Mom?”
Daisy mouthed, “No,” but Amelia pushed the iPad toward her hands. She was hesitant to take it but ultimately did, not wanting her daughter to sense anything odd.
Daisy forced a smile. “Hi.”
“Hey.”
She stepped into the kitchen, turning her back, out of Amelia’s earshot. Silence stretched until Matt finally chuckled. “This is… different.”
“Yes. Quite,” Daisy murmured.
They both laughed softly, then fell quiet again.
Daisy couldn’t help but feel tongue-tied. This wasn’t what they did. It wasn’t their relationship. When Matt was in San Francisco, he was present. But when New York called, so did a separate life Daisy never asked about. Three years together, and they’d learned to survive by not asking. Her friends had judged her for giving Matt so much freedom when he was away in New York, but the truth was—it worked for them.
In the beginning, Daisy had been thrilled to find a man who cared not only for her but also for her daughter. Yet as their relationship deepened and his job kept him in New York sometimes weeks out of every month, worry began to creep in. Worry about what or who he might be doing there. Her insecurities ignited fight after fight, breakups followed by makeups, until finally Daisy surrendered.
Her trust had already been fractured once, and she carried that into this new relationship. In her mind, most men weren’t trustworthy. So when Matt went to New York, they simply… didn’t speak. He lived his life, she lived hers, and she refused to let herself spiral.
Amelia never knew the difference. To her, Matt was the man who loved her and stayed present in her life. And Daisy intended to keep it that way.
“I miss you,” he said finally.
She bit her lip. “I miss you, too.”
“And I love you.”
“Matt…”
“You don’t have to say it. I just wanted you to know. I’m gonna hang up now. Not because I want to but because I’m followingyourrules.”
Her chest tightened. “Bye, Matt.”
“Bye, Daisy.”
She watched as his face disappeared on the screen. Daisy exhaled and returned to her daughter.
Daisy and Amelia ate her mother’s chicken lasagna and followed it by polishing off a tub of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. They finished up Amelia’s writing assignment due on Monday and after, watched a Disney Channel movie before calling it a night.
That was a typical Friday night for the Daniels girls. Simply hanging out, doing homework, eating good food, and watching movies.
Not the life Daisy had once envisioned, but she was content. She had her friends, her art, her parents’ support, and the love of an eight-year-old girl. If that was her forever, she could live with it.
After brushing her teeth and washing her face, Daisy tucked Amelia into bed and read her favorite story,The Extraordinary Tales of Rawlinson Adams. Once her daughter was asleep, Daisy slipped into her pajamas and lay awake, replaying the day.
What if Amelia had been there? What if he had seen her? It wasn’t uncommon for her mother to drop her by the gallery.
