AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Excitement was making me hallucinate? I kept the thought to myself—the mood in the air felt far more somber than that. “Who’s your friend?” I asked instead.
“Mr. Garibaldi.”
I didn’t get it. “Interesting name for a duck.”
She studied me. “Obvious name for a duck.”
“If you say so.”
“Never let Dustin know you don’t get that reference. You’ll be watching B5 for a week, and he’ll make sure of it.”
I’d only met Dustin a few times, and only in passing when he dropped Alana off for practice. The way Daria casually tossed the comment out there, as if a conversation like that was likely to come up in the future, warmed me in a way I didn’t expect. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
I made my way completely into the tent-slash-cave, and sat across from her. “Roomy for a tiny home. Sits two comfortably.”
“I know what I’m doing. Sometimes. I thought I did.” She frowned and squeezed the duck tightly. “You don’t need to hear about that. How was your day?”
It was incredible. I wasn’t the one who needed to be listened to. “What happened?”
“Nothing. Not a big deal.”
Except a grown ass woman who I had never seen falter for more than a heartbeat, who always wore an air of having her shit together, had built herself a pillow fort and was squeezing the stuffing out of Mr. Ghirardelli as if he were her lifeline. “I hear it helps if you talk about it.”
She let out a bitter laugh and cut it off with the shake of her head. “I was just fired. That’s all.”
“I’m sorry.” That wasn’t the right answer. I should be asking why or how I could help or furious. That last one felt the most right, even without information. No one should—
“I’m still numb,” she said. “But that’s wearing off. You know how after the dentist, you can’t feel your lips, and then you know the Novocain is wearing off because there’s a tingle, but it doesn’t go away all at once and you know when it does it’s going to hurt and it’s this creeping sensation you want to prod at anyway, and just get to the pain faster?”
I nodded. Several responses tumbled to my lips but thejust listenwas the loudest voice in my head.
“I’m good at my job. I’m incredible at what I do. And it doesn’t matter. And then I think about all those nights I told Alanamaybe tomorrowor begged her to read Harmony a bedtime story so I could finishjust one more thing.” Daria drew in a shuddering breath. “Because it would be bettertomorrow. Because I had to work. For us.
“And now it doesn’t matter. Those assholes don’t care what I sacrificed. They only remember thatone fucking time when I was supposed to be on vacationand I wasn’t at their beck and call. I know I’ll land on my feet, but I gave up so much. Why?” She looked at me as she asked the question, as if I might have more insight into her pain than she did.
I still remembered how much it hurt when I tore my rotator cuff at the Olympics. Not just physically, but the anguish I let myself wallow in overwhy? My heart had hurt for… I wasn’t sure it ever completely stopped.
I could tell her that. Use it as a basis forI understand.
But I also still remembered Colin helping me climb out of the depths of that pit, and how intently he’d always listened and only nudged when I needed a reply or a kick in the ass.
This felt more like the first one. “You’ve always done what you thought was right and best. That’s the most anyone can ask for.”
“But it wasn’t. I wasn’t. I missed so much.”
“But you didn’t.” I wasn’t just saying that to comfort her. “ I hear the kids talk and I see how they interact with their parents. I know which moms and dads are going to hit on either Colin or me, and which parents we’ve never met because they always sent their kids to practice—to meets—with someone else. I know who berates, who brushes off, or barely glances at their children.”
Daria’s mouth was drawn in a straight line. “I assume you’re going somewhere with this.”
I was. “And I’ve never seen you do any of those things. You make it to every meet, even if it means coming home in the middle of a business trip. Alana and Harmony think the world of you. Harmony tells everyone her mom is the best mom in the world. And Alana never joins in the bitching about parents. And I realize there are things no one sees, behind closed doors, but… you put down sexy pillow fight time the instant they called last night.”
“Technically sexy pillow fight time never happened, and we’d already moved on.” Some of the shadows had faded from Daria’s expression, though.
I stretched my legs out in front of me and patted my thigh. She lay her head on my leg, still clutching the duck.
The silence was strange, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. I moved my hand, not aware of what I was doing until I touched her scalp, but she didn’t protest or try to pull away as I trailed my fingers through her hair.
Daria really was all those things I’d said, and more. She was this amazing woman I had so much respect for, and she looked so lost and vulnerable right now. That made her even more human and even more amazing, that she could be both.
