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I run a hand down her hair, look over at the travel mug Tyler placed on the floor, and smile. “Our family might have broken up, but it got put together bigger and stronger. Dad and I might not be married anymore, but we’re still family. We’re your family, and we’re going to love you … at least until we’re old and gray and you have to choose which one of us you’re going to take in and which you’re going to leave in a home. In which case, I hope it’s your father because he did break up the family and all.”
“Lyss …” Tyler scolds, and Izzy laughs.
“Don’t worry, guys. I’ll take you both in. You don’t stand a chance with Hunter. He’ll probably be roaming with the traveling circus.”
Tyler and I laugh in agreement. Our girl has her sense of humor back.
With a ragged breath, I brace myself as I ask, “Do you really want to go to your old school? I selfishly want you with me, but I can’t afford to live in Greenwood Village, so if you want, I’m okay with you living with Dad, if that’s what will make you happy.”
Izzy’s eyes clench closed. She looks like she’s going to cry again. “No, Mom. I don’t want to leave you.”
Tyler leans in. “I’ll do a better job of letting you out on the weekends to be with your friends. Maybe we can get you back on the soccer team. I’ll use my address, and you can play with your friends this spring.”
Her head bobs with agreement. “I’d like that a lot.”
“That’s a start. Izzy, you have to talk to us. Even when you think it’s going to make Daddy or me upset, we’d rather have your honesty than you get so upset that you run away. We might be nice right now because we were scared, but we’re also incredibly angry with you. Running off was a dangerous thing to do.”
She sits up, brushes the last of her tears from her face, and starts breathing normally again. “I’m sorry. I was so mad, and I didn’t know where to go. Then, the ladder fell, and I was scared, yet I didn’t want anyone to find me, so I didn’t say anything, even when I heard Grandpa yell for me. I hope he’s not mad.”
“Oh … he’ll be mad. But that’s part of his charm,” I tease.
Izzy looks at Tyler. “Do you want me to be honest? Like Mom said?”
“Absolutely, kiddo. I can handle it.”
“I think Will’s a really cool guy,” she says, and Tyler’s eyes close, like it’s the last thing he wanted to hear. She turns to me. “I like Maisie a lot. I tried so hard not to, but she’s really easy to talk to, and I can tell her things, like who I have a crush on—”
“You have a crush?” I ask excitedly, but she cuts me off.
“Without you getting all annoying,” she finishes, and I frown.
Call me selfish, but I want to be the person she goes to when she likes someone.
“For the record, I’m not a fan of you wanting to tell her things, but”—I grab her hand and give it a squeeze—“I’m really glad you have an adult in your life you feel comfortable talking to. That’s really important for a young woman. Please know that takes a lot of inner strength for me to utter those words. This doesn’t mean I’m ready to go on bonding trips with her or anything.” Turning to Tyler, I roll my eyes and declare, “If you were going to be with someone other than me, I’m glad you didn’tdowngrade.Let’s be honest. There’re very few people who are as amazing as I am.”
Tyler laughs and pulls a now smiling Izzy into his chest. “Melissa, you are without a doubt irreplaceable. As is my Isabella. You two are still my world. I hope you know that. And Hunter. Can’t forget my boy.”
“Nah, we can forget him for a moment,” Izzy jokes, and we all sit up, smiling. “Dad, are you going to marry Maisie?”
With a glance to me, he asks her, “Would you be okay with that?”
She inhales deep and then replies, “Yeah. If I can’t have the family I want, I kind of like what Mom said about our new one being bigger and better. Maybe I’ll get a new brother or sister.”
Tyler looks like he’s about to pass out by her comment, and knowing what he just declared to me earlier this evening about his fears of starting over, I place a hand on his shoulder and turn to Izzy.
“Let’s give Dad a chance to think this out one step at a time. Maybe Maisie moving in is step one.”
He coughs and says, “Good idea.”
“I’m ready to go home now,” she declares.
I kiss her hand. “Me too.”
Tyler nods. “I’ll go first and hold the ladder.”
The three of us depart the old tree house. We let Izzy go down second, so I can watch her from the top as he assists her down below. When I hit the ground, Tyler hands me my thermos back. I look to see if Will is still here. My heart drops when I see he left, as he said he would.
I take a sip, and the heat does nothing to warm me fully.
