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I stood at the stove making eggs while Kelly worked on cinnamon rolls. They were just the ones from a can, but when they were baking, the whole apartment smelled cozy and warm. While the food finished, I poured Kelly a cup of coffee, and we leaned against the counter together sipping it contentedly. I was surprised when the front door of the apartment opened. Kelly was in the middle of a sip and quickly pulled the mug away from her mouth just as an older woman came into the kitchen.
“Good morning,” the woman said with a hint of a smile as she looked from me to Kelly and back again.
“Hi, Pam,” Kelly said. She gestured to her. “Darren, this is Pam. She lives next door and takes care of Willa during the day. Pam, this is Darren.”
I noticed she didn’t elaborate on who I was and could only imagine Pam already knew.
“Nice to meet you, Darren,” she said. “Are you staying home today, Kelly?”
“Oh,” Kelly said, shaking her head. “No. We’re just going in a little late.”
I pretended I didn’t see the raised eyebrows Pam shot toward Kelly and started dishing out breakfast onto plates for all of us. We settled in to eat, then said goodbye to Willa so we could head to Quentin’s house. I wanted to pick up my bike and decided I’d grab some clothes while I was there. Quentin and I were close enough to the same size that I could raid his closet. Kelly pulled up to Quentin’s house, and I leaned across the car to give her a kiss.
“See you at work,” I told her.
“See you then,” she said.
I got out of the car and headed into the house with a smile on my face. All the brothers had keys to each other’s houses, so I let myself in, not expecting anybody to be there. Quentin was already at work, but it turned out Merry hadn’t gone along with him. She startled me when I walked into the living room and found her propped up on the couch, surrounded by pillows and still in her pajamas as she worked on a tablet in her lap.
“Hi,” I said. “Sorry. I wasn’t expecting you to be here. I thought you’d be at work. I would have knocked.”
“Are you here to rob us?” she asked.
“No.”
“Then there’s no need to knock,” she told me.
I blinked a few times. “Would there have been reason for me to knock if I was here to rob you?”
Merry thought about that for a few seconds, then reached for the glass of juice sitting on the table.
“Nope. Didn’t think that one through. Doesn’t matter, I wouldn’t have gotten up to answer it anyway. I am officially too big and too uncomfortable to go to the compound anymore. So”—she gestured to the couch— “welcome to my office.”
“It’s nice. I love what you’ve done with the place. Anyway, I’m just here to get my bike and thought I’d grab some clothes,” I said.
She grinned as she eyed me. “I did notice you’re wearing the same thing you were at the cookout last night.”
I didn’t say anything, just grinned in return. Merry wagged her finger at me, and I rushed out of the room to the laundry room to grab whatever clothes I could find. I changed and went back to the living room.
“Anything I can get for you while I’m here so you don’t have to try to get up?” I asked.
“Some toast sounds good,” she said. “If you don’t mind.”
“Sure thing,” I told her and headed for the kitchen.
When I came back with a plate of several pieces of buttered toast and a small bowl of jam, she smiled at me.
“Fatherhood is agreeing with you, Darren,” she said.
Emotion swelled in my throat, and I nodded before I left and hopped on the back of my bike to head to work. I parked next to Kelly’s car and headed to the garage. It sounded crazy, but the whole compound looked different. It was like I had a completely different perspective after my night with Kelly and the morning with our daughter. I saw these things every day, yet I was seeing them new now. I could see us spending time together in the field, eating lunch with the family. I looked forward to bringing her down to the lake and watching the sunset with her.
I heard Kelly laughing before I even got to the garage. I stopped by the lockers to slip another treat into hers. It would be even more of a surprise since she got to work before me. When I stepped into the garage, I found my dad standing with Kelly at her workstation, leaning over her shoulder.
“I want that one,” he said, pointing at the screen of her phone. “And that one. That one, too.”
