Page 40 of Joey

“I know,” he says. Then he takes my hand and squeezes it again. “I know I don’t. But… I walked through that place picturing us, you know. And Maisy. And hell, I was even trying to find a place for Huck and Wald. I was thinking—will they take the basement? Or is that dumb?”

“I think they would love that basement. And are you kidding me? Wald is gonna take one look at those secret rooms and come in his pants.”

Joey bursts out laughing. “So fucking true.” And then he shakes his head at me. “I’m crazy, aren’t I? This is crazy.”

I nod. Because there’s no point in denying the obvious.

“I just want this, Brooke. I can’t even explain this desire in my heart to be this little girl’s father. It’s… it’s taken me by surprise, actually. So please, don’t judge me right now.”

“I’m not judging you,” I say.

“I know. I can tell. But you should be. You should have all kinds of alarms ringing in your head right now.” He pauses to frown. “Why don’t you?”

I shrug. My body is still buzzing from the experience of walking through that house. He waits. Like maybe he’s a patient man. Or maybe he knows I have an answer, it’s just taking me a minute to change my irrational feelings into logical words.

And it works, I guess. This pause of his. Because suddenly there they are.

“I don’t know you,” I say. “Or your daughter. But I was a little girl once and I know what they dream about. Every little girl wants a dad like you. What child would not want to live in this beautiful home and play in these beautiful gardens? It’s no accident that I put myself in a park when you guys asked what I was doing last weekend. And it’s no accident that I started our origin story in one either. A childhood surrounded by natural beauty, and nice things, and a family that takes care of all the bad stuff so it never touches you, and—I don’t know. That’s what I’ve always wanted. I would watch movies as a kid. Like… oh, God.” I shake my head and lower my eyes. “I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but… like The Parent Trap. Did you ever see The Parent Trap?”

He smiles and nods.

“The new one, the old one. Doesn’t even matter. I wanted to be those girls. I wanted the huge townhouse in the city and the huge mansion in the country too. I wanted the beautiful mom, and the handsome dad, and to be surrounded by people who loved me. And to have enough resources at my fingertips where a caper like that was possible. And… a twin. Or a best friend. Because I never had many friends. I have always wanted a partner in crime. That was my perfect childhood dream, I guess. And I never got it. I didn’t grow up that way. And I’m not implying that my life was bad. Most of it wasn’t. It was weird for sure. But not bad. It’s just… I wish I had this instead, ya know?”

I sigh, because I’m not making any sense. That was an incoherent ramble of confusion and he’s frowning even deeper now.

“No,” he says. “I do get it. I didn’t have this either. I grew up in a fucking office building. I had a family. Once. Long time ago. But I barely remember it. I think that’s why I’m so determined to get her back. I want her life to be perfect. I want it to be everything mine wasn’t. I want it to be real. Not an illusion like mine was.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Me too. If I can’t have it, then…” I shrug. “I’m happy that she will. So…”

“So…” he says. “I think we just bought a house.”

“Yeah?” I ask, giggling a little.

“Yeah. We’ll sign the papers tomorrow afternoon and move in tomorrow night.”

“And Maisy will be one step closer to her perfect childhood. All we need now is the fake memories and social accounts.” I laugh.

“But you know what?” Joey says, starting the car. “Now we have one that’s not fake.” He beams at me. “The day we bought our first house.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN - JOEY

When we get back to the penthouse Wald and Huck are both talking a mile a minute.

“Slow down,” I say, smiling and laughing. Because they’re smiling and laughing and I can’t help but join in.

“We got the dude for the memories,” Wald says.

“And the chick for socials,” Huck adds.

“So now all we gotta do is take a bunch of pics of ourselves in different outfits and send them to him,” Wald continues.

“And then we write up a bunch of posts, one for each pic, and our girl will post them on our new accounts with backdates,” Huck adds.

“Well, we bought a house!” Brooke exclaims, their excitement contagious. “And you’re gonna love it. We can move in tomorrow!”

“Us too?” Huck asks.

“If you want,” I say. “I mean, hell. I’ve been crashing here with you guys for over a month now. The least I can do is offer up the same.”