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“Daddy? Who is this?” Sydney asked.
I watched Sarah’s face falter for just a second as I drew in a deep breath.
“No one,” I said. “Just someone I used to know.”
“No one,” Sarah said, breathlessly.
The look of hurt in her eyes took me by surprise. It wasn’t like she wanted to be a part of our lives. What the hell had she expected me to say?
Hey kids this is your mommy. But you don’t remember her because she never wanted you and ran off and left you never to be seen again.
No, ‘no one’ was exactly who she was to them.
And to me.
"Wow, I think that might actually be the meanest thing anyone has ever called me,” she said.
I took a breath before I replied. “People who abandon those they are supposed to love don’t really get—”
“You knew I didn’t want—”
I stood up from the golf cart and completely shielded my kids from her.
“I knew exactly what you wanted. But what I expected you to do was step up. Grow up. To own up to the path your life took and stand by me. But you didn’t. You’re the one who chose to leave, and that’s on you. We haven’t heard from you in years. So you don’t get to be upset that they don’t know who you are. It’s a privilege to be in their life, and it wasn’t one you wanted to have.”
I spoke with a low voice, hoping to fuck my children couldn’t hear what I was saying.
“Well,” Sarah said. “Good seeing you, too.”
“Have a nice trip,” I said curtly.
I watched her walk away before I sat
back down with my children and quickly drove off to the other side of the island, trying to find us a different place to eat.
Thankfully, being four years old came with a short memory. They were already over the awkward encounter by the time we pulled up to the seafood place overlooking the ocean. Their eyes lit up and smiles spread across their faces, and the tension from this already tumultuous day slowly began to subside.
I had shut the door on Sarah a long time ago and I refused to let her back in, even just to annoy me.
But as I sat and had dinner with my kids, one woman did keep popping up in my head. I couldn’t help but wonder if I would run into Brooke again.
It had been years since our breakup, but I thought about her all the time.
I’d give anything just to see her again.
CHAPTER 2
BROOKE
“Well, hopefully you can get some writing done with that heartbreak while you’re on the island,” Morgan said.
“That’s the point,” I said.
“I still don’t know what you saw in that little boy. He was never right for you.”
“I heard you the first ten times on the plane,” I said.
“Then I’m going to make sure you hear me again. This vacation is so you can clear your head and get some of your book done. You’re graduated. Your entire life is in front of you. You don’t need some bullshit man dragging you down.”
