AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry, Liv. I can’t imagine how hard that must be.”
“What’s sad is that my mom really wants to meet Piper. But I know she’ll never go against my father.” She paused, and her eyes gleamed with sadness. “So she’ll never get to meet her granddaughter and know how wonderful she is.”
I didn’t say anything as she took a deep breath. After a few moments, she continued, “Let’s not focus on that right now. I want to enjoy the rest of the day with Piper.”
“Okay. You know I’m here for you, right?” I asked, rubbing my thumb against her hand. I wanted her to know she could always rely on me.
She smiled, her eyes no longer betraying her underlying sadness. Liv was a pro at burying her emotions, but she had to be given the way her father was. “I know. Thank you.”
Once inside, my mom and I served everyone ice cream. The treat was refreshing on the warm day.
“Would you like to stay for dinner?” my mom asked as everyone finished up.
“Oh, we couldn’t impose. You’ve done so much for us already,” Emily replied.
My mom waved her off. “Nonsense. We never have company and would love to have you.”
Tim and Emily exchanged hesitant glances. After a few seconds, Tim looked back at my mother. “Sure. We’d love to.”
As my mom got ready for dinner, Liv and I took Piper, Emily, and Tim back outside. “You know one thing we didn’t see yet?” I asked, directing my question to Piper.
“What?”
“The duck pond,” I answered.
“You have ducks, too?” Piper asked, wide-eyed and brows raised.
“Yep. And we have some ducklings running around right now, too.”
Piper jumped up and down, clapping. “What are we waiting for?”
I chuckled at her enthusiasm. “Let me grab some bread for us to feed them, and then we’ll go.”
After grabbing a loaf of bread, I headed back out, then led everyone to the duck pond. As expected, there were a bunch of little yellow and brown ducklings waddling around the pond, following their mom.
“Mommy, look at the baby ducks!” Piper exclaimed, tugging on Emily's hand.
Emily laughed. “I see them, sweetie.”
I fished a piece of bread out of the bag and handed it to Piper. “Tear this into little pieces as you feed them. We don’t want them to choke.”
I handed a slice to Liv, who began tearing her bread into small chunks. We slowly approached, careful not to scare the ducklings away. Most of the older ones were familiar with people feeding them, but the ducklings usually scared easily.
A few of the adult ducks waddled toward us, quacking expectantly. I tossed some pieces toward them, and Piper did the same.
After a few minutes, the mother duck came over with her babies in tow.
“The ducklings are coming!” Piper squealed, looking up at me.
Chuckling, I handed her more bread. She tossed some to the baby ducks, who all rushed to grab a piece.
Piper giggled as she threw some more. “They must be hungry.”
Once we ran out of bread, which didn’t take very long, we made our way back to the house.
“Those duckies were so cute,” Piper gushed as we walked.
“I don’t know how something so little can eat so much,” Liv joked with a laugh.
