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“What? Oh, shoot!” I jump up and snatch my phone from the coffee table. “I’d better find Amy. I’m surprised that she hasn’t come looking for me.”
“Mommy?”
I jump when I hear Amy’s voice. When I turn around, she’s standing in the doorway, wearing her coat. Carly laughs.
“I think someone’s ready.”
“I’ve been sitting on the stairs waiting to go, Mommy Carly,” Amy says. Then she looks up at me. “What were you talking about, Mommy?”
I hide a grimace. I hadn’t expected for her to be practically outside the door. Hopefully, she didn’t understand any of what we said.
I give her a smile and beckon for her to follow me as I leave the room, getting my coat and dropping my phone into my bag as I sling the bag over my shoulder. Carly enters the hall as we’re leaving the house, giving me an encouraging nod.
“Focus on Amy. I’ll talk to Ben.”
“Thanks, Carly. I won’t be long.”
Hopefully, Carly will be able to talk some sense into Ben. She’s the level-headed one out of the three of us. Although I can understand Ben’s side of things; he became Amy’s de-facto parent when she was born, and he saw Amy like his daughter. Amy adores him. I know that’s not going to change even with Luke around, but Ben feels threatened.
He has to understand that while I have my own reservations about the whole thing - he is a billionaire, after all, while I’m not exactly poor, but I’m not rich, either - I have to think about what is the best for Amy. And if Luke is still the decent guy I remember him as six years ago, he’ll not take Amy away from us.
I don’t know if we can come to an agreement, but I hope that we can once things have calmed down.
It doesn’t take long to get to the park from our house, and Amy immediately runs over to Grandma, who is sitting on a bench against the fence. Grandma puts her book aside and smiles as Amy practically jumps on her.
“Hey, Grandma!”
“Hey, gorgeous! Careful, you’re getting heavy!” Grandma hugs Amy tightly before setting her back and looking at her with a proud smile. “You’re growing up far too fast for my liking. I want you to stop growing.”
Amy giggles.
“Silly Grandma! I want to grow up and be like Mommy!”
“I’m glad you want to be like someone.” Grandma cups Amy’s face in her hands before tapping my daughter’s nose with her finger. “Once you’ve played in the park, shall we go and get nuggets and fries.”
“With ice cream?”
Grandma winks at her.
“I’ll talk with Mommy about it. Our little secret.”
Amy whoops and scampers over to the climbing frame. I smile and shake my head as I sit beside my grandmother.
“You indulge her too much. Ice cream?”
“She’s my granddaughter. I’m allowed to spoil her.” Grandma puts her book into her bag. “I’ve booked into my usual Air B&B for the week. If you need me to help out with getting her to kindergarten, let me know.”
“Are you sure? You came here to see your great-granddaughter, not to be a maid.”
“It’s the least I can do.”
I need to tell her about Luke. But I don’t know how. I’m still trying to comprehend it myself. And I don’t know how Grandma is going to react.
Hopefully, she will know what to do better than I can. She does have a clear head, after all.
“By the way, your father hasn’t been trying to contact you, has he?” Grandma asks as she watches Amy climbing up to the slide.
“What? Of course not. I blocked him years ago, and I haven’t had any contact from him since that I know of.”
