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“I, uh. Never mind.”
“Shit. Sorry, Sydney. I didn’t look before I answered, so I figured it was my dad.”
“Oh. Didn’t go well?”
“No. Why are you calling?” I ask because I don’t want to rehash the conversation.
“Are you busy today? If not, I was thinking maybe you’d want to go out for breakfast with Savannah and me and then just hang out.”
I gulp. Already? “Are you sure?”
“Do you want to wait even longer for her to know who you are?”
“Today’s my day off,” I answer instead.
“Great. I’ll come pick you up if you’ll text me your address.” There’s some annoyance in her tone and I know that’s from when I lied and didn’t tell her I moved here, so she doesn’t know where I live. She can get over it.
“Okay.”
“It’ll be fine, Ian,” she reassures me. I hate that she feels like she has to, but I love that she does.
We hang up and I hop into the shower. I’ve finished getting ready when there’s a knock on my door. I open it to find the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen to this day and her mini-me on her hip.
“Here.” She hands Savannah to me and I freeze. “I need to use the bathroom real quick.” She goes down the hallway to find it herself and I’m dumbstruck.
She’s already leaving me alone with her? I look at Savannah. We stare at each other in silence for the longest time.
“Hey,” she says with a smile.
“Hey.”
She keeps glancing down at my beard before finally reaching up to touch it, her eyes widening.
“Do you like my beard?” I ask, feeling dumber by the second.
Savannah nods. “It tickles.”
Sydney returns. A smile graces her lips when she sees Savannah’s fingers buried in my beard. “Savannah,” she starts. “You remember Ian?” The little girl nods. “Ian is your daddy, so that’s what we’re going to call him.” My eyes widen at the bomb she just dropped, but Sydney keeps talking. “Are you hungry?”
“Yes!” Savannah shouts.
“Then Mommy, Daddy, and Savannah are going out for pancakes.”
Just like that she heads for the door, Savannah rambles about pancakes, and I follow after Sydney to her car. Sydney shows me how to buckle Savannah into her car seat, which makes me feel dumb, but I’ve never done it before. After that, we’re on our way to a restaurant.
Savannah surprises the hell out of me when she decides she wants to sit next to me. Sydney pulls out a coloring book and some crayons for her. That causes Savannah to crawl into my lap so she can reach the table better. She hands me a crayon and orders me to color with her.
“You’ve been quiet,” Sydney says after we order.
“It’s a lot to take in. How do you handle everything?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, the day-to-day stuff?”
“Oh, well, she goes to daycare during the day while I go to my classes and such. She’ll start preschool this year. Then, we spend the evenings together. Carey or Logan gets her into bed and stays home while I work the graveyard shift at the restaurant.”
“When do you sleep?” I ask.
