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38, U?
My birthday is next week, I will be 33.
What day?
Wednesday.
Let me take you out to dinner Wednesday night to celebrate.
You don’t have to.
I want to.
Okay.
And Ralph?
It was another long pause before her reply arrived, but this one she seemed to have contemplated.Ralph who?
I laughed.I like that answer. You get some sleep, Lexi. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Thanks again for a great day. Wish you were here with me.
Night, Alexander Miller. Maybe someday. Sleep well.
Someday? We’ll see about that. Night, Alexandra Miller. Say hi to the rabbit for me.
She sent back a bunch of laughing emojis but didn’t type anything else, and I plugged my phone in to charge. I curled on my side and grinned. I really did like that woman, and I was excited to see where things would go from here.
* * *
Nica was curledon the couch the next morning watching television when I got up. I peered out the window, wincing at the brightness reflecting off the snow. “Wow, we really did get a lot.”
“Yeah, the weatherman said we got all eight inches. What time do you want to go out and build that snowman?”
“Well, let’s eat breakfast, and then I need to check my emails. We can go out after that. Do you have homework?”
“Yeah, I did some earlier when I got up, but I can work on more after breakfast.”
With a plan set, the two of us made pancakes and bacon, and then went our separate ways to do our work. I was tempted to send Lexi a text, but I controlled the impulse. I didn’t want to scare her off or appear needy.
We were getting dressed to head out when Nica came to my bedroom door. “I asked Lexi if she wanted to join us, but she said she is still working. She wanted to know if we wanted to come up for chili after we were done outside. She said she just put a big pot of chili on.”
“That’s fine if you’d like to do that.”
“I already told her we would.”
I laughed. “Why did you even ask me?”
“I didn’t. I told you she invited us; you are the one that thought it was a question.”
“Nica, you are too much like a woman, stop it.”
She called over her shoulder as she disappeared, “Whatever, Dad. You love me.”
“I do!” I yelled after her.
Nica and I were outside for hours, and I could barely feel my fingers. Both of our faces were red from the cold, but we’d accomplished our mission, and we had built two snowmen. A few other kids came outside, and after finishing the snowmen, we got into a snowball fight with a few of them.
When my stomach grumbled, I slipped the sleeve of my coat back and saw it was almost two. “Hey, Nica, we should get inside and see if Lexi still wants us to come up for lunch.”
