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“Hey James,” she called out.
I looked up to see that through the milky, opaque glass she’d stood up and I could get a vague, obscured view of her washing her hair.
“Thank you,” she said. “I really needed that.”
“Don’t thank me just yet,” I said with sheepish embarrassment. “I might have broken the lock on your door trying to get in here. But don’t worry, I’ll have it fixed right now.”
I withdrew from the bathroom, closing the door behind me and taking a deep breath once I’d exited the steamy stone sauna. I looked around once more at the organized chaos, and smiled a little. That really was Haley. So pulled together and yet moving so fast that things couldn’t help being a little chaotic. She reminded me of a twenty-five-year-old me.
Suddenly I heard a melody drifting from inside the bathroom, and Haley began to sing. It was a lovely, mournful tune that I didn’t recognize, though it sounded pop-y enough to be on the Billboard Hot 100.
Her voice was incredible and sweet, and I began to feel like I was intruding on something even more private than the crying.
“Daddy?”
I turned to see Katie in the doorway examining the broken lock.
“Hey, Bug. What are you doing here?” I went to her side and hoisted her into my arms. She was almost too big to do that and momentarily I regretted that the experience of holding my children was quickly coming to an end.
“I was worried about you,” she said sweetly.
It might have been my imagination, but those words sounded just like Jane when she said them, and I had to do a double take. “That’s really sweet, Bug,” I said. “I’m just fine. How is your book going?”
“I finished it,” she said proudly. “I want to start a new one, but I want to get a book prize for it so I will have to do a reading quiz.”
“Smart girl,” I said. “Don’t ever do anything for nothing.”
She giggled, clearly oblivious to my adult concept, and poked me in the nose. “Can we go play with the iPad now?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “Sure. Shall we play something together?”
“Oh, Daddy,” she said. “I don’t think you’d be good at any of my games.”
I burst out laughing, carrying her from the room and closing Haley’s door to the best of my ability behind me. “Is that so?” I asked. “I used to be quite the gamer back in the day.”
“Oh!” she said, smiling broadly. “Do you know how to play Frozen Free Fall?”
Not exactly the Mario Kart I was expecting, but certainly something I’d be able to manage. “I’m sure you can teach me,” I replied.
Katie nodded and we went to her room, sitting side by side on her floor with our backs up against the bed. It wasn’t even five minutes until the older two joined us, and pretty soon, we had the game broadcasted to the TV with the whole family participating.
It was so unbelievably joyous, and I could feel Jane’s presence here even if her body was not. I couldn’t remember the last time my children and I had sat down and done something fun like this. It had been too damn long, that’s for sure.
“What are you guys up to?” said a voice from the doorway.
I looked up to see a wet-haired Haley smiling down at us with melancholy.
“We,” I said dramatically, “are beating the kingdom of Arendelle into submission one gem at a time.”
Haley chuckled. “Oh really?” she said. “Can I speak to you for just a moment?”
I nodded and stood. “Don’t you go winning too many rounds without me.”
“We’re gonna win them all,” Ben said.
I gave him a playful mad look and followed Haley into the hallway, shutting the door behind us. “What’s up?” I asked, terrified of what she could say.
Haley brushed a strand of hair off her face and looked up at me with those enormous blue eyes. I could have melted into a puddle under that stare, the sapphire orbs looking through her eyelashes. She still hadn’t responded, and I was a second from asking if everything was okay when she grabbed me by the back of my neck and pulled my face down to hers. She began kissing me like I had the last oxygen in the world in my mouth, and she was starving for air.
