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ChapterSix
Four.Fucking. Years.
My daughter is mesmerized with me as I’m with her and I almost forget to breathe. Her eyes are watery as if she’s about to cry. She looks up at Jenna, who gives her a reassuring smile. She returns her attention to me, briefly looking at my mother, her gaze turning curious as to who I am—the stranger that her mother is yelling at.
Could she understand what we were saying? Does she know I’m her father? Does she call someone else Daddy?My heart starts to hurt at that thought.
“I’m sorry, Jenna, I tried to keep her in her room, but she heard the yelling and got upset.” I look behind her to see a man approaching us. I recognize him from photos Thomas sent me and identified him as Jenna’s assistant, Robert.
“Mommy, you need to get ready for swimming,” she tells Jenna and starts to tug her inside the apartment. Her sweet, whimsical voice is one of the best sounds I’ve ever heard in my whole entire life. “Let’s go have some tea first since it makes you feel better.” She stops pulling at Jenna and places her little fists on her hips. She looks straight at me and suddenly her eyes change. Her blue eyes turn stormy, and she looks at me in anger and screams, “Stop yelling at my mommy you fucking asshole!”
I have to bite the insides of my cheek to not laugh out loud at how hilarious it is to hear a four-year-old try to curse at me. I raise a teasing eyebrow at Jenna, who looks completely mortified while she is tugging at her bottom lip and shaking her head in resignation. Our child is adorable and my heart aches in need. I just want to pick her up in my arms and hold her to me. I want to tell her Iama fucking asshole for not knowing she was alive. I want to know everything about her. What she smells like. What she likes to eat. Who her friends are. What she likes to play with.
Everything. I want to know everything.
“Avery,” Jenna says, kneeling to her level and looking in her eyes. “Mommy didn’t mean to call her friend that bad name that you just said. Please don’t repeat after me, okay?”
Avery. My daughter’s name is Avery.The name is beautiful, just like she is.
“What bad words, Mommy?” Avery asks her mother in confusion. Clearly, Avery didn’t understand what she said, but I see Jenna’s need to explain so she doesn’t repeat those words in public. Although it would be brilliantly funny if she did.
“The bad words that Mommy just said that you repeated,” Jenna gently tells her, using a soothing voice.
“Silly Mommy, I didn’t say any bad words! I was just calling him by his name. You said his name was fucking asshole,” Avery says with a smile, as if she’s proud of herself for remembering my “name.” I chuckle at her astuteness and look over at my mother, who’s covering her mouth to try to stifle her giggle and fails.
“That’s not really his name, Avery.”
“You called your friend a bad word, Mommy?” Avery whispers with a shocked look on her face, not believing that her mother could do something wrong.
“Yes, I did. Mommy was a little upset and should not have said those bad words. It was an accident, and I will try very hard not to do it again.”
“Mommy, you need to say you’re sorry to your friend.”
I look over at Jenna, who looks revolted at the idea. I can’t help but smirk at her, thoroughly enjoying the fact that Jenna will have to eat her own words.
“Yes, Avery, Mommy will apologize to her friend,” Jenna says with an annoyed sigh. She reluctantly stands up, turns around and looks at me with a scowl. I can’t contain my amusement at the utter look of disgust on her face for having to apologize to me. “Cal, I’m sorry for calling you those bad words,” she mutters, not even looking me in the eye. If this was any other time, any other moment, I would pick her up, kiss the shit out of her until she was begging me for more. But instead, she hates me, and I somehow have to get to the bottom of this, because I’ve realized that having Jenna hating me is a feeling I don’t handle well.
“Apology accepted,” I tell Jenna with a small smile. I gulp down everything I want to say to her because now is not the time. Not in front of Avery. I look down at my daughter and decide to kneel so we are on the same level. It’s time I introduce myself to her, but I tread with caution. Jenna and I need to strategize together how we are going to reveal that I’m her father and right now is not that time. So instead, I will go along with Jenna’s idea of me being a new friend.
“Hello Avery, my name is Cal, and this is my mother, Rose.”
“Rose? That’s my middle name, Avery Rose Pruitt!” she announces with excitement. My mother inhales sharply and I turn my head and look at Jenna in shock, my eyes questioning if her middle name was to honor my mother. She nods in confirmation, and I’m even more taken aback that she remembers me telling her. I vividly recall it—we were laying in each other’s arms after a night full of passion. It was the wee hours of the morning on our last day together, and we were cramming in as much information about each other as we could because we knew we were racing against the clock before Jenna’s flight to go home.
Little did we know the direction our lives were going to go.
I blink back the memories and turn my attention back to my daughter. “Your name is beautiful, Avery. We came all the way from London to play with you.”
“London? Do you know Wendy, John, and Michael? They live in London. Do you see Peter Pan flying to their house?” she quizzes us, and I smile down at her rapid questioning. I love how curious she is and the fact that she adores Peter Pan.
“Yes, Avery, I know all about Peter Pan,” my mother answers for us. “Can I join you for tea and tell you all about them?”
“Yes, you can. Mommy, let’s go!” she squeals in excitement and resumes pulling Jenna back into the condo.
“Avery, your mommy and Cal need to talk about some things. Is it okay if you show me your room and you and I have tea together?” Rose looks over at Jenna, who nods her head in approval.
“Go ahead and have fun with Rose, Avery. She flew a long way just to have some alone time with you. Mommy will be in her office talking with Cal.” Jenna looks over at me and I nod in confirmation. I’m dying to hear what Valerie told Jenna because I’m seething inside, and my rage is barely hanging on by a thread. I still don’t understand how or why Valerie kept Jenna and my daughter from my life.
“Okay, Mommy. Let’s go, Rose!” Avery grabs Rose’s hand to take her to her room and stops to introduce her to Robert. “Uncle Robert, this is Rose. She knows Peter Pan!” she tells him with enthusiasm. “C’mon Rose, c’mon Uncle Robert, I will race you.” She takes off toward her room ahead of them.
