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“Yes,” Lucy said.
She started talking about daycare and the games that she played, but I caught the look David gave me when Lucy said she would like it if I married Cassie. At the same time, I couldn’t deny the feeling that swept through me to hear the words coming from my daughter’s lips.
I hadn’t dated in the past three years because I had dedicated myself to taking care of my daughter, and during that time, one of my biggest worries was that it would be difficult for me to find someone who would love Lucy, and who Lucy would love in return.
I knew Cassie and Lucy loved each other, and that love had made it so much easier for me to fall for Cassie myself. But to hear the words said out loud made my heart swell with joy.
Cassie was my girlfriend already; I knew that. We hadn’t really talked about it, but we had made mention of it enough to know what we were doing. But I hadn’t really taken the time to really process what that meant or where we were really going with the relationship.
Hearing what Lucy had to say, however, gave me hope that there was a very real future with Cassie and that we were heading in the right direction with what we were doing. I still didn’t want to rush anything, but I did feel a lot more comfortable going in a more serious direction with her.
We stopped by the locker room to get our things, and as I pulled my phone out, I swore under my breath.
“Don’t say bad words,” Lucy told me.
“Sorry pumpkin,” I said.
“What’s wrong,” David asked.
“Work thing,” I said. “Looks like a kid I started sponsoring recently got himself hurt up in Colorado, and so far with me being his only sponsor, I have to be there. Press and all, you know how it goes.”
“Why can’t the media cool it?” David asked.
“You know how it is,” I said again. “Once a story hits, it’s out there, and they have to flood the whole internet with it. I better get out there myself to at least save face with everything going down. I don’t want it to come back to haunt me.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “You going to call the nanny to watch Lucy?”
“I’m sure Cassie will do it,” I said as I read the email I’d received. “And if she’s not able to come in tonight, can I bring Lucy to your place until Cassie can get her in the morning?”
“No problem,” he said. “Are you leaving tonight?”
“If I can,” I said. “I’ll let you know.”
“Better yet, if you need me to watch Lucy, call me and I’ll come over to your place. The game would be better on your big screen anyway,” he said.
“Gee, you’re a pal,” I rolled my eyes. “But I will.”
“Let me know,” he said before telling Lucy goodbye.
I held Lucy’s hand in one arm, and my gym bag looped over the other, doing my best to type a quick response to the email on my way to the car. I knew I had to focus, and getting Lucy home and some dinner in her was the most important thing to do right then.
But I also had to get out to Denver, and before I could do that, I had to make sure Cassie would be able to watch Lucy for a few days.
As I got into the car, I texted Cassie and asked if she would be able to come by my place after she left the dinner she was having with her family.
Something came up and I’m going to need you to watch Lucy for a couple days if you can. No rush on dinner, just when you’re done there if you could come over here, that would be great.
I hit send, and by the time I was pulling out of the parking lot, she’d responded.
Sounds good. I was going to stop by your place when I was done here anyway, so I guess that really works out.
I smiled. I loved how comfortable she was with coming over these days, and it alleviated some of the guilt I felt with asking her to watch Lucy on such short notice.
That was part of being teammates, which was still something I had to get used to. But then, with Cassie, I was happy taking my time. I didn’t want to rush anything with her. I also didn’t want to waste a minute.
She was something special, I knew that.
And I was eager to see where we would wind up together.
