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“Wahhhh! Wahhhh! Wahhhh!”
“Alright, you definitely don’t like that one.”
Reaching for the book in the middle of her collection, my eyes caught a story hiding behind all the other books instead.
I gasped, “Little Miss, look what I found. This is my favorite book of all time. It looks like it might be yours too. Hmmm … is that why it looks like it’s been read hundreds of times? Is On the Night You Were Born your favorite too?”
She whimpered, sniffling.
“Ah, good choice.”
I sat in the rocking chair in the corner of the room, reading her the story, and with each turn of the page she cried a little less. Until finally…
She was calm.
Listening intently to every word that fell from my lips. Softly smiling and showing off the two tiny teeth she was cutting on the bottom.
Of course, that explained a lot. She was teething.
I didn’t have to spend hours with Journey to know that this baby girl would own my heart and soul.
I grinned, rubbing her soft cheek with the back of my hand. “Are we friends now?”
She cooed, kicking her chubby, little legs at me.
Smiling.
Drooling.
Squirming.
Being the most adorable thing I’d ever seen.
“Now what? What do you want to do? Should we go look for Skyler?”
“Wah!”
“Alright, alright, we don’t have to go look for her. I don’t want to share you anyway.”
She cooed again, and I swear she understood me. Already, we had this crazy bond, and I’d only been with her for maybe twenty minutes.
“You want to sing? How about we sing?”
She wiggled and giggled and drooled some more. Gnawing on her little fingers to sooth her gums.
“What should we sing? Oh! I know. How about this? The sun’ll come out tomorrow, bet all those dollars that tomorrow. There’ll be sun shining bright and happiness. Just thinkin’ about tomorrow.”
Her face lit up, and her eyes widened, kicking harder and faster than she was before.
“Oh, you like Annie, do you? Just thinkin’ about tomorrow. Clears away the sadness, the rain, and the empti—”
“Oh my God, Sky! Just back off! We don’t want or need you here! Go home and raise your own damn kids!”
“Jackson! Don’t you walk away from me! You come back here right now!”
“Screw you, Sky! I’m so sick of your shit!”
I jerked back from hearing the disrespect spewing out of this boy’s mouth from the hallway.
