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“Anything for Simon and his family.”
I headed back to the truck and called Disa when I was in the cab. She answered on the first ring. “Hey, there.”
“Hey,” I responded.
“That was quick. How did it go?”
“Easy enough. Thirty days I’ll have a court hearing where I’ll be granted temporary sole custody of Asia. Then we wait. Jasmine has to be gone at least ninety days before it’s legal that she abandoned Asia.”
“So, we wait,” she said.
“We wait. Want to go to the park and grab lunch?”
She laughed at me. Then she replied. “You’re just becoming plain boring Benjamin Hatfield.”
I laughed with her. “I like boring as long as you’re with me.”
**
Disa pushed the stroller and for a moment, I also pretended that Asia belonged to her instead of her cousin. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and we walked around the path in silence.
“Are you okay?” She asked after a while.
“Just thinking,” I replied.
The park was filled with young couples just like us. If you looked at us, one would think we were just like them. Married taking a walk with our infant. She looked like me, but Asia could be Disa’s child. No one would know.
“How do you feel about what happened between me and Jasmine now?” I had to ask. We hadn’t talked about it since the first time we were together.
She stared down at the stroller. “Still hurt, Ben. I’m trying to get over it. I’m not going to let it come between us though.”
I sighed. “I wish I could go back Disa and change the past. I wish I hadn’t listened to Dad. Fought harder for you.”
“For us,” she corrected me. “I just didn’t understand you.”
“Then or now?” I asked.
“Both,” she replied. “Ben, we don’t have to keep rehashing the past. Our past or your past with Jasmine. I really want to just move forward.”
I tugged her into me and kissed her temple. “I’d like that too.” I knew though that sometimes when she looked at me, she was thinking of me being with Jasmine. “I’m sorry,” I told her. “I’m not sorry about Asia but I’m sorry that you were hurt by me being with your cousin.”
“I understand,” Disa replied.
We walked in silence again. We pushed Asia in her stroller together now with one hand while my other arm was around Disa. The silence between was always comfortable but right now I think we were both lost in our thoughts. Soon, I would have to take her home, so she could go to work. Already, I was thinking about missing her. I had been with her a lot since running into her that Friday morning at the store and I didn’t want to let her go now. We had lost time to make up for.
“I have to go home soon, Ben,” she said thinking the same thing I was. “I don’t want to, but I have to.” She looked up at me and I nodded.
“I know. Let’s head towards the parking lot.”
We had quite a walk today. As we neared the parking lot, I realized there was a man standing near my truck. When Disa saw him, she stopped walking.
He wasn’t an extraordinary man. His pants were neat and dark. His shirt was white, and he wore a dark tie that matched his pants. He wasn’t wearing a coat which surprised me on a day like today that hadn’t gotten above forty-five. His thin, cotton shirt wasn’t providing a lot of protection from the coldness in the air.
His hair touched below his collar and his beard was neatly trimmed, sprinkled with a touch of gray at the chin. I gazed at Disa and her head turned up to meet my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I.. I’m shocked that he’s here. It’s not a coincidence, Ben.” Her eyes revealed everything that she was feeling and there was more than just surprise in her gaze. I could see fear and I wondered why she feared this man. I didn’t recognize him.
