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I smiled, looking at my tray. “Well, thank you to both of you then. This is the best Mother’s Day gift.”
Elsie jumped on the bed. “That is not the only one.”
“It isn’t?” I already guessed since Valerio liked to go a little extra on special days, but I still played into my daughter’s words.
“No!” Elsie said and jumped from the bed, running away from the room.
I looked at Valerio with a question in my eyes. “What is happening?”
“She is a little too excited. We have been preparing for a while.”
In the next moment, Elsie came back running with a paper in her hand and pushed it to me. “This one, I made it myself.”
I took the paper and looked at the little drawing she did. There was a tall blonde figure who was cooking and a black-haired woman with some kind of rectangle next to her. In the middle of the two figures, there was a girl with wavy hair, and two cats were circling her legs, one orange and the other black. I smiled at the little picture of our family.
“It is so pretty, Elsie.”
She looked proud. “I made it with Aunt Verona.”
I was not surprised. Verona was still not a big fan of kids, and she said she didn’t know how to communicate with them, so she usually used what she knew best. She made art with them. She didn’t babysit Elsie, but there were occurrences they were left alone for a little while, and she did come to visit us.
I knew she liked Elsie, and Elsie liked her a lot. Making art with her aunt Verona was one of her favorite activities.
“You did an amazing job,” I praised my daughter again. Then pointed to the rectangle next to the drawing of me. “What is this?”
She looked at me like I was stupid. “They are books, mama. You have so many books.”
I laughed a little. “I suppose I do.” Since I started college, for real, I had to spend a lot of time studying, which Elsie apparently saw as having a lot of books.
She butted her chin out. “When I am older, I am going to have so many books like Mama.”
“You will?”
“Yes!”
That almost made me tear up. I was always the wild, outcast kid. I never considered I could be a good role model for my daughter, but I did. I wanted her to know the world was hers and she could do whatever she wanted.
Of course, her wishes could change over the years, but I was still proud of her for wanting to go to university like me.
“This is the best day,” I said and hugged my daughter as close as I could with the tray on my lap. “Thank you, baby.”
“There is more!” she said excitedly. “Come on, eat your food so we can do the other things too.” She jumped off the bed and went away dancing, probably to bring another surprise.
I couldn’t help my smile. “You really made a lot of plans?” I asked Val.
“We did.”
“You have been secretive.” I really never heard them making plans. I knew Valerio and other men in our family made plans to look after the kids tonight so we could have a girls' night out, but that was all. Of course, I knew Elsie was going to do something, but I never saw her talking to Valerio about it.
Valerio smiled. “We have our father-daughter secrets. You don’t get to hear everything.”
“Now I am jealous.” Actually, I was the opposite. Even after a year, my heart still ached to see Valerio and Elsie so close. He was the best father ever, and our little girl totally deserved that.
I didn’t have a good childhood, but Elsie was going to. Valerio was her luck.
He was my luck too.
I pulled him by his shirt and kissed his lips. He easily kissed me back and got his frustrating smirk when I pulled back.
“Hungry for me, Kitty?”
I rolled my eyes. “You are annoying.”
“You still love me.”
“I really do.”
I really did.
THE END
