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“Wine?” Ave asks, reaching for the bottle. Lance intervenes, taking it from her and pouring us both a glass and her some fizzy.
We eat our food as the sun slowly sets, the three of us lost in a constant stream of conversation—and confessions from Ave about the number of tiles she’s peeled off the pool and hidden in her bedroom. It’s relaxed. Real.
It’s what I think a family should be.
We’re mid-dessert when Ave stands, using her napkin to wipe her mouth in an act far beyond her years.
I’d smile, tell her with words, but she’s well aware of how proud I am of her.
She flickers her eyes over Lance, quickly dropping them to her pocket. “I wrote some things down that I wanted to tell you.”
Lance looks at me in question, and then at Ave, placing down his spoon with his smile still spread wide. “What’s that?”
She pulls out a folded piece of paper and clears her throat.
“Okay…” She blows out a long heavy breath. “Daddy, I used to ask Mummy all about you when you were gone. I didn’t know who you were or if you’d even like me. I thought you’d be like someone I didn’t know when we finally met, like my first day at school all over again.” She looks up at us smiling. “But you turned out to be everything Mummy promised you would be.” I side-eye Lance, finding his smile long gone, fist clenched at his mouth, and his eyes shining. “She told me you’d come back and love me. She said your heart was bigger than anyone knew, even you, and that there was room with—for me.” Ave smiles, rolling her lips as she sways, tripping over her words. “I don’t know if I fit in there like she said I would, or if you do love me.” She rushes over the word, catching my heart on fire. “But I do know that you fit in mine. I’ve always been a bit silly, and I think I was so scared of you not loving me that I didn’t think about how much I might love you. Mummy, you told me that love can be really scary at times, and I think you’re right, but Dad, since you came home, I don’t feel that scared at all. I even tried sleeping without my lamp on last night.” I gently swipe a tear from my face, dropping my other hand to steady Lance’s bouncing knee under the table. “She also said that you don’t get to pick and choose who you give your love to, your heart chooses, but I know that I’d choose you, Daddy, even if my heart didn’t.”
Lance is up before Ave can even get the last word out, scooping her off her feet. He holds her against his chest, tucking his face between her shoulder and neck.
I already know he’ll never let her go.
Ave’s arms wrap around his shoulders, clinging on for dear life as she squeezes her eyes tight together. When she eventually sits back, she has to coax the six-foot-three teddy bear’s face from her neck. “Daddy.”
He submits, lifting his head. Ave palms his cheek, and my throat catches as he leans into her, knowing what it does for him, how with just a touch he can be brought back from the darkest of places.
“You have tears,” Ave says, wiping them away with a frown on her face. “Mummy…”
“It’s okay, Ave,” I tell her. “They’re happy tears.”
Lance twists his head to look at me, and I give him the best smile I can muster despite the tears lining my own cheeks.
You deserve her love.
You deserve the world, Lance Sullivan.
With a fleeting glance my way, he puts his forehead to hers. “Waverley, there’s nowhere to fit. You are my heart. From the second I met you, and every moment since, it’s been the rest of the world against you. I love you.” He kisses her nose. “Even when you’re a bit silly.”
“You love me back?” She grins.
“I love you back times the biggest number possible.”
I watch my little girl light up from the inside out. Years of unknown, of waiting, and she has her daddy right where he should be. I never doubted Lance’s ability to love her. I knew the dad he’d be. And now I get to watch the two of them make and mend one another.
They deserve this.
I don’t know two people who deserve this more.
“Scar,” Lance says, cocking his head. “Come here.”
I stand hesitantly, pulling my dress straight before walking to them. “Is your leg okay?”
Lance just smiles at me, shaking his head. Wrapping an arm around my waist, he pulls me into his side with them. Ave loops an arm around my neck.
Emotion lodges in my throat, and before I can swallow down the feeling overcoming me, I cry, burying my face into Lance’s chest.
The feel of them both so close, of their limbs around me, around each other. The smell of them. Their warmth.
“Girls,” Lance says, his voice steady. When I don’t look up, he takes my chin, lifting it. He tilts his head, that knowing smirk I’ve missed dusting his cheeks. “Happy tears?” he asks.
