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Jake seemed surprised. “You’re reading already?”
Emma gave him the kind of eye-rolling look that precocious kids have been giving parents since the beginning of time. “I started reading when I was three. It’s easy, Jake. Don’t you love books?”
He nodded. “I do, at that. And I’m glad you do, too.” He stared around the room, taking in every bit of it. “Emma,” he said, “I have something to show you.” He sat in the rocking chair, the one Nikki had bought at a thrift store when Emma was an infant. He lifted Emma onto his lap.
She squirmed and got comfortable. “What is it?”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “You know the monarchs, right?”
“Of course. They’re the easiest ones.”
“Last year, just about this time, I was in Mexico.” He pointed to the large map on her wall. “It’s that pink country under the United States.”
“I know,” she said. “There’s a kid at my preschool named Matias. He and his mom moved here from Mexico when he was a baby.”
“Ah. So you know geography, too.” The expression on his face when he glanced over at Nikki made her shrug and grin. Emma was very bright. And endlessly curious.
“What’s jog-raphy?” Emma asked, perplexed.
“Never mind, kiddo. Here. Look at this.” He cued up a video and Emma zeroed in.
“Wow,” she said.
“It’s part of the monarch-butterfly migration. People come from all over the world to see it.”
Emma’s intense absorption tugged at Nikki’s conscience. Travel was something she hadn’t been able to afford. At least not anywhere out of state.
Her daughter looked up at Jake, wonder in her eyes. “Do they really fill up the whole sky?”
“It seems that way. It’s so beautiful, your heart wants to dance.”
“And maybe you wished you could be a butterfly, too?”
His voice got all low and gravelly. “Maybe I did.”
Nikki tried to swallow the lump in her throat. “Will you help her wash her hands? I’ve put pasta in the pot. We’ll eat in five.”
In the kitchen, she concentrated on her task, but her brain raced like a hamster in a wheel. Jake had so much world experience to share with his daughter. Nikki had traveled as a teenager, but taking trips had ground to a halt when she and her mother had been sent away from the only home Nikki had ever known.
Her father had cleaned almost everything out of the checking and savings accounts. Her mother had been forced, by necessity, to sell most of her jewelry that first year so she and Nikki wouldn’t starve.
When Nikki’s two dinner companions returned to the kitchen, they were discussing the merits of brownies versus cupcakes.
Emma took her usual seat at one end of the table. “Mommy makes both of them good. You’ll see.”
“No pressure,” Nikki muttered. Her daughter wouldn’t understand that a man like Jake had dined on the world’s finest cuisine in dozens of the most cosmopolitan cities.
But Jake was unfazed. “Comfort food is the best,” he said, digging into his spaghetti as soon as Nikki was seated. “This is amazing, Nikki.”
“I’m glad you like it.” She had set the table so that Emma was between her two parents. Maybe Emma didn’t feel the weight of the moment, but Nikki definitely did. Judging by the look on Jake’s face, he did, too.
During the entire meal, he watched Emma with a combination of pride and wonder that would have been adorably macho if Nikki hadn’t been so torn about the future.
When the meal was over, Nikki put on her stern-mommy look. “Into the shower with you, ladybug. And don’t forget to brush your teeth.”
When Emma disappeared, Jake raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t she a little young for that?”
Nikki picked up the plates while Jake gathered the silverware. “Three months ago, she informed me that baths were for babies. She’s trying her best to grow up as fast as she can, and I’m trying my best to slow her down.”
