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“DAD!!” Camden rushes towards me and flings himself at me, and I embrace him with my free hand.
“I missed you too, buddy. Cool shark jammies.” I point to the giant shark on his shirt.
“Yeah, they’re my favorite!”
“I’m going to take the trash out and then I’ll come read you guys bedtime stories, alright?”
“Can we read two tonight?” he asks eagerly.
“We’ll see buddy, Dad’s tired today.”
Sinking away from me, he quietly says, “Oh, okay.”
Man, I hate disappointing my kids. I know they haven’t seen me all day and get so little time with me at night, so it breaks my heart when I let them down. “We’ll see what we can do, buddy.”
He nods and I kiss his forehead before leaving his room.
I find the girls in their pajamas sitting on Olivia’s bed both brushing their wet hair. “Hey, cuties.”
They both look up and offer me the most genuine delight in their smiles. “Hi, Daddy!” they say in unison.
“I’m going to take out the trash and then I’ll be up to tuck you two in, okay?”
They nod and go back to brushing their hair.
I make my way back down the stairs and grab the kitchen trash before I take it into the garage.
“Don’t forget the recycles! And did you hear me about the light?” Ellie yells from the kitchen and something in me snaps as I feel the heat creep up my back.
“Geez, Ellie. I know. I’ve been taking out the damn recycle for over a decade now. I’ll do it. And I heard you about the fucking light.”
She offers no reply. I can’t see her face from the garage, but it’s for the best because I know she’s nuclear when she goes radio silent.
I continue with my chores in the garage and when I walk back into the house it’s clean, my dinner plate is wrapped in foil on the table, and she’s nowhere to be found. I wash my hands and head up the stairs to tuck the kids in.
Ellie is giving the boys their goodnight kisses and she won’t even look at me as she walks past me.Shit.
After the longest tuck in the history of fatherhood, I sit down at the kitchen table and unwrap my dinner. I scroll on my phone as I start to eat and completely space out.
A few minutes later, I look up when Ellie walks into the kitchen. Her eyes meet mine, but they’re unreadable and she doesn’t say anything.
She gets a glass and fills it with water before she looks back to me and says softly, “Do you want to tell me about your day?”
“Not really,” I bite back.
She nods her head from in front of the fridge and I continue to scroll until I hear the water stop. I think she’s going to walk past me, but she surprises me when she takes a seat next to me and pulls out her phone.
“Alrighty, then.” She smiles softly.
We sit in silence for a while and with each passing second, my muscles relax as my mind slows down. She reaches out her hand and puts it on top of mine without a word or even a glance in my direction as she keeps her attention on her phone. I flip my hand over and interlock our fingers, reveling in the warmth between us.
“I’m really sorry. Today was draining. I didn’t mean to snap on you,” I say.
She puts down her phone and turns to me, eyes full of grace. “I get it, love. I’m here when you’re happy and when you’re cranky too, always.” She uses her free hand to bop me on the nose and I laugh as the tension melts away. “I’m sorry today was hard, and I’m also sorry I started barking orders at you right when you got home. I shouldn’t have done that either.”
I nod and she squeezes my hand, and we sit in silence for a long time after.
Last night after we crawled into bed, she picked the silliest prompt she could find to end the day on a light note:What’s your favorite animal?
