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“She went out, sweetie. Do you remember Scarlet from the gym?” I stand and place her back down in my vacated seat, then move to fill her sippy cup with milk.
It takes my daughter a minute to place Scarlet. But I see when it clicks in her wide green eyes. “You made Hudson mad.”
Scarlet sits straighter and crosses her long legs. “I did. Do you know that Hudson is my little brother?”
A few strawberry-blonde curls bounce in Brynn’s face as she shakes her head no.
“Well, he is. I have a lot of brothers and sisters, and we make each other mad all the time. But you know what?” She leans down to Brynlee and waits. “It’s okay if we get mad at each other because we love each other. A lot. That means we always get over it.”
I can’t help but wonder if that’s meant as a bit of a dig for me holding onto a grudge for over a decade.
Brynlee’s big green eyes open wider. “So he did something bad, and you were mad at him?”
“Yes, I was. But it’s okay now.”
Watching this woman with my daughter stirs emotions in me I’m not ready to lay claim to just yet. Maybe not ever. Definitely not without trust. And I’m not there yet. Brynlee isn’t lacking in female attention. She has three aunts who dote on her as if she were theirs. She has my mother, albeit from a few states away most of the year. But there’s something about this moment that’s different. Something about this woman that’s different. I think I was expecting Scarlet to blow my daughter off, or at the very least, not be quite so open with her, not so interested or tender.
But Scarlet never was one to do what I expected.
Hudson never made it to the gym today, so I don’t think he made things right with the woman sitting in front of me who’s looking so seriously at my sleepy toddler.
When I bring the sippy cup back to her and open my arms, she slowly climbs up and lays her head on my chest. After kissing her hair, I look down at Scarlet. “I’ll be back down in a minute.”
She nods, but part of me wonders if she’ll still be here when I come back down the stairs. Or if the walls she’s lowered as the night went on will be built back up with reinforced steel.
