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Ava starts running ahead.
“Not too far,Cherie!” Raven calls after her. “Oh,” she adds to me with a chuckle. “I know what she’s doing.”
I watch as she runs up to an ice cream cart.
“You wouldn’t think she just had lunch and a whole cup full of sugar.”
I chuckle. “Let me spoil her a bit? We can do extra veggies tomorrow.”
Raven laughs, and we walk to the cart where Ava stands talking to the vendor. She talks French to him, babbling happily, and he laughs. Raven greets him and says a few more words in French, and then Ava turns to me.
“I told him I’m meeting my dad today, and he said we can have ice cream to celebrate,” she says.
“That sounds like the best way to celebrate to me,” I answer.
“Even when it’s cold?” Ava asks, tilting her head, and I feel like it’s a test.
“Even when it’s cold,” I answer firmly. “Some things, we don’t give up.”
Ava’s face lights up.
“You see, Mommy?” she cries out. “Noah likes ice cream in winter, too! I’m not the only one. But he’s my dad, right? So maybe that’s why.”
She turns to the ice cream cart and the vendor lets her choose one. I have a lump in my throat that I’m trying desperately to swallow down before my eyes get misty.
She just acknowledged who I am and how alike we are. She didn’t call me Dad, but she accepted that it's who I am.
And I feel like I might come undone if Raven doesn’t hold onto me so tightly.
When I look at her, she’s just as emotional. She flashes me a quick, unstable smile before she steps up and chooses an ice cream at Ava’s request, too.
I’m the last to go. I choose a chocolate ice cream cup.
Ava nods, approving of my choice, and I take out cash to pay for them. Raven and Ava both watch me. I don’t know why it’s a big deal that I’m paying for it or what’s going through their minds, but whatever it is, it’s not bad.
They have been through some shit. Raven told me a few things about Jean-Pierre and what life was like with him. And I’m sure I’ll see him a time or two more before he’s gone for good. But I can’t imagine what their life was like before all this.
All I know is that I want to make sure, moving forward, everything is better for them.
We continue walking through the park, eating our ice cream. Ava runs around, chasing birds until her ice cream drops. She looks at the half-eaten, molten mess on the floor and sighs.
“That always happens.”
“It’s because you don’t stand still until you finish your ice cream,Cherie,” Raven says sympathetically.
Ava shrugs. “Standing still is hard for me.” She turns to me. “Do you like to run?”
“I love it,” I say. “I run a lot.”
“Do you drop your ice cream?”
I shake my head. “I can’t. My mouth is too big.” I push the remainder of my ice cream into my mouth in one go.
“Can’t fall when it’s finished,” I say around the ice cream in my mouth. Brain freeze follows, and I wince and grunt, pressing my palm to my head.
“And a headache!” Ava cries out, and she collapses in a fit of laughter while I try to regain composure.
When I look at Raven, she’s laughing, too.
