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“Yes, Daddy dearest?” As she so frequently liked to call me.
“I need to talk to you.”
“Okay, but I gotta leave for Molly’s in fifteen minutes.”
“This won’t take that long.”
In her typical teenager style, she stood in her holey jeans, the ones that had cost a fortune for something that looked like it had been dragged out of the bottom of an acid barrel, lifting her eyebrows as if expecting a conversation on the birds and bees. I’d had Edmee do that years before at my sister’s encouragement.
The heady blast of whatever metal band she’d decided was better than her love of boy bands was already grating my nerves. The kid was growing up way too fast. “Can you turn that down?”
“Sure. I forgot how old you were.” She laughed, the fact I was in my forties something else she liked tease me about. Continuously.
I walked further into her room, marveling at how clean it was. At least my girl wasn’t messy. “You know how much I love your mother, right?”
“Is this about a girl?”
My daughter had the ability to weed through any line of bullshit she heard. I couldn’t help but laugh. The girl was hell on wheels. I could only imagine what eighteen would look like. “A young woman. Yes.”
She huffed, cocking her head then planting her hand on her hip. Just like I’d seen Raven do. God. I was so fucked given I was hungering for a woman barely older than my daughter. Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate, but close enough I should be furious with myself.
“Dad. It’s about time. I know you think you’re protecting me and my memories, but I don’t remember much about Mommy any longer. I wish I did but as the years go by, I can’t really see her face like I used to.”
My heart clenched in my chest, so much so I realized I was part of the problem. I’d removed us from the first house she’d lived in, later having it torn down because I couldn’t stand the memories. Then I’d taken every picture of Sophia except for the one in my nightstand and the few scattered around Zoe’s room, dumping them in a box.
My daughter had even stopped asking me to tell her stories of when she was a small child because it had pained me so much. “I’m sorry, baby girl. That’s my fault. I should never have stopped talking about her.”
“Nothing is your fault, Dad. You need to move on. I’m almost fully grown now. I’ll be going to college and meeting boys.”
I pressed my hand over my heart. “Over my dead body.”
She shook her head, rolling her eyes at me a second time. “Come on, daddy dearest. You can’t keep me your little girl any longer. You deserve to go on dates, to fall in love again. I’m happy for you. Hopefully, I’ll get to meet her one day.”
“Oh, you will, sooner than you think.”
“Meaning?”
This was harder than I’d thought it would be. “I’m getting married.”
As I’d thought, there was shock in her eyes but there was no anger, at least at first. “And you never told me you were dating? You are a horrible father.”
Thank God, her voice held a teasing tone. “Sorry, baby girl. It caught me by surprise.”
“How long have you known her?”
“Just a few weeks.”
She clapped her hands together. “A whirlwind romance. That is so incredibly romantic. I hope it happens like that for me one day.”
“Not until you’re thirty.”
“Very funny. I can’t wait to meet her.”
“Are you really okay with this?”
“Dad. As long as she loves you with all her heart then I’m fine with it.”
I’d kept Zoe away from as much business as I’d been able to over the years, although she knew what her extended family did, and that her uncle Franny, as she liked to call him, was as dangerous as I was. She adored her Uncle Louie, although she didn’t understand why he rarely attended family gatherings. Yet she was smart as a whip, asking far too many questions at an early age. Keeping her sheltered had been lost as an option a long time ago.
