"Guess what?" she asks.
"What?" I sense a change in topic given her expression, and my heart tugs a little more. I love that she can bounce back so fast.
"Bronwyn says when I get big, I can work at the bookstore too."
"What?" I play up my surprise. "Doesn't she know you'll just have tea parties and drink all the hot chocolate?"
"Daddy!" Dani looks insulted. "That's because I'm little. When I'm big, I won't do that stuff."
I wink at her and glance at the clock again, fighting back a grimace as the pain from the burns and my broken leg steadily increases. "Well, I happen to like our tea parties. I hope that means you won't get big then."
Dani's giggles fill the air. "Daddy!"
I glance across the room to find Mads glaring into space and looking as surly and sullen as a teenager gets.
Dani still trusts me. Madi doesn't trust anyone. And if I don't figure out a plan soon, this house is going to get a lot harder to hold together.
Chapter
Three
Lindsey
By the time visiting hours are over, I have a list-covered napkin—front and back—of tasks. The thing I dreaded the most, though—returning to California to pack—has been decided.
I'm not going. Not just because of the memories but because of how running into the man who wants no part of his baby is a risk I don't want to take. I refuse to feel pressured to do something I don't want to do.
Zoey and I brainstormed ideas, and since I share an apartment with another work colleague, my plan involves asking her to pack my clothing for shipment in exchange for me forfeiting any furniture items I have. It means giving up a lot—like my recently purchased bed and other things I'll have to replace, but if giving those up means not going back?
Totally worth it. Especially since the expense to move it would be substantial and probably end up costing the same if not more to replace.
So that marks that off my list, if nothing else. My job is another issue. I'll have to give notice, and I'm sure there will be talk no matter how gracefully I try to extract myself. I don't have a high position in the company or anything, but I'd like to think I'll be missed. I do my work, and I do it well, and I'm hoping my graphic-design skills and advertising experience will land me another job quickly. The only bad mark against me is my sudden departure. And possibly rumors of why, if anyone else is aware of what happened between me and jerk-face.
I'm pondering the priority of other items on my napkin list when the girls emerge from the elevator. Dani looks sad at having to leave but also tired and sleepy, while Madi looks…angry? Worried? Devastated?
It's such a chaotic mix of emotions that I shove my own concerns to the back of my mind and focus on the teenager. "Everything go okay?"
Zoey left about ten minutes prior to check on a patient, and I kind of wish she was here to scope out the girls' emotions.
"I want Daddy to come home," Dani said, sounding more than a little whiny.
"I know, sweetie. And he will soon. They just have to help him get better first, and you want him to get better, right?" I glance at Madi again but she looks away when she sees me studying her. "Are you guys hungry? We could run through a drive-through on the way back."
"Can we get ice cream?"
I take a moment to test the thought of ice cream for dinner, and my body decides it's not a bad idea. At least at the moment. "Yeah, why not? Everyone needs ice cream for dinner at least once in their life."
Dani grins like I've given her a giant stuffed llama—her current favorite animal—while Madison just turns and moves toward the exit without a word.
Outside, random fireworks explode and remind me that it's a holiday. I navigate thick traffic to the closest ice cream shop, and we grab our treats. The girls eat their cones while I sip a milkshake on the way back to Carolina Cove.
Dani has her headset on, watching cartoons, so I glance across the seat at Madi. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, fine."
Yeah, she sounds about as fine as I am at the moment. "You know, if something's on your mind, it might help to talk about it."
"Nope. I'm okay," she insists.
