"She deserves better than that. She deserves better thanyou."
She nods as more tears stream down her face.
"Get help, Jade. Get your fucking shit together. For you. For Clover. For Daisy."
"I will."
"I won't believe it until I see it. I may not press charges, but there is absolutely no way I'm letting you around Cloveruntil I see actual changes. I'm not going to help you because I have enough shit going on in my personal life. This is something you have to do on your own, and someday, when you feel you're ready, reach out and prove to me you've got your shit together. Then, and only then, will I consider letting you see Clover. I don't care if it takes six months or six years. You getonemore chance. You’d better be sure you're good and ready when you come to me. I won't give you another chance."
She stares at the ground, processing the information. There's nothing she could say right now to change my mind, and, finally, I think she gets that.
I take a few steps toward her and pick up the present that she dropped when she collapsed to her knees. "I'll tell Clover you dropped this off for her. Now please, get the fuck out of my yard."
She silently rises to her feet and walks to the side of the house. There's nothing she could say to me, and there's nothing more I have to say to her. What's done is done. I'm not making the mistake of trusting her so easily again. I thought slowly reintroducing her into our lives was enough, but I was clearly wrong. I just thank my lucky stars that my mistake didn't end up with someone getting seriously hurt.
After taking a moment to collect myself outside, I'm finally heading into the house. When I enter, I'm greeted by the sight of Winnie, Clover, Raina, and Blake playing Mario Kart in the living room. They don't see me yet, so I take the opportunity to observe them silently. Blake and Clover sit next to each other on the couch, taking turns ramming their shoulders together, trying to mess the other up.
The game ends, and Raina spots me. "You like being a creeper in the corner of the room?"
I hold up my palms. "Just waiting until the game finishes."
"Did you finish cleaning the yard, Dad?"
"Oh, yeah, because that would be super fair. Me out there slaving away while the four of you play games in here."
Clover shrugs.
"I thought maybe we could finish cleaning up tomorrow and instead go on a walk to get some ice cream."
Cover's face lights up. "Yes!" She throws her controller onto the couch and bolts over to me. "Can we stop by the bench?"
I pinch her still chubby cheeks between my fingers, because who knows how much longer I'll be able to do that. "Of course. Why do you think I suggested it?"
She runs down the hallway toward her room. "I'm going to wear my new shoes that Raina got me!"
That reminds me. I walk over to where I put Jade's gift and shove it behind some boxes. We'll deal with that tomorrow. I don't want anything tainting the rest of my little girl's birthday.
We walkalong the path that winds around the lake, eating our ice cream. It's cooler now that the sun has gone down, but with our jackets on, it's not too bad.
Blake walks close to me, our shoulders brushing occasionally. She looks gorgeous in the moonlight, even with chocolate on her face.
I slow down my walk, and she follows suit. I glance at Clover, Winnie, and Raina walking ahead of us, paying no attention to the fact that we're falling behind. Blake looksup at me, curiously. I come to a stop, grab her jaw, and put my mouth over hers, licking up the rogue chocolate with my tongue.
"You had some chocolate on your face."
"Did you get it?"
"Mmmm, I think there might be a little left." There's definitely not, but I'm not going to waste an opportunity to kiss her again.
"Keep up, you two!" Raina's voice echoes through the trees, and I look up to realize we've got some ground to cover.
We walk side by side at a slightly faster pace, trying to catch up to the others.
"Clover said you guys take this walk every year on her birthday."
"We do. We used to do it with her mom, but obviously, the last couple of years it's just been the two of us, joined by Raina and Winnie."
"I think that's a really cute tradition."
