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Her small frame shifts, adjusting her shoulders as she clears her throat. Hailey’s eyes flit from Aiden and then back up at me, and I swear I see a glossiness in them before she blinks, and it’s gone.
I’m not so miserable of a person that I can’t give a compliment when I know it’s due.
For almost a year, she carried him and then a little over two years after, she managed to raise and love him without me.
A fresh vat of misery sours my glee. For years, she’s managed this alone. Her mom helped, I’m positive, but that should have been me. Hailey took those opportunities away as easily as a criminal does to goods. Robbery. Theft.
Time is what she’s stolen from me instead of possessions.
“We,” Hailey says thickly. Her now the one correcting me. “We did good.”
My heart soars.
The girl must be a magician because she, in spite of everything, has found the one phrase that burst the underlying hostility—not all the way, but enough—that I’m not so miserably defeated anymore.
Everything else, the anger, frustrations, theconfusion, all momentarily wiped away like a snap of the fingers. This girl is going to give me whiplash with how rapidly she draws these emotions through me.
“We,” I agree with a nod. She’s right. We made him together.
I’m as mesmerized as I am enamored, watching Aiden. He’s not doing anything spectacular, being a kid, but still, I’m fascinated as I’ve never been before. I thought I understood what that word meant, but like everything else with Hailey, I suddenly find myself having doubts.
His tongue pokes out. The action creates three lines to form wrinkled divots between his brows when the toys don’t do what he wants.
My eyes widen, and I debate wiping at my lashes in my doubt because they’ve crinkled the exact same way mine do when I’m frustrated.
Fascinating.
You might as well call Aiden a hypnotist because I’m deadweight to his trance.
“He’s perfect,” I drawl, bewitched.
Aiden’s making me feel more whole than I have in my entire life, and we haven’t even been formally introduced yet.
More banging, more crashing of toys smashing into one another. Hailey chokes back a combination of a chuckle and a snort. “Did I mention how he’s also a bit of a hothead?”
She gives me a playful nudge and although I’ve been warmed from the inside out, I manage to keep my facial expressions more demure. I stay composed even if my smile begs to reach my hairline.
New things, more comparisons, greater similarities, that he’s mine through and through with every new second I watch.
“Are you ready to be introduced? Say hi?” Hailey asks sometime later. She sounds as nervous about asking the questions as I am to answer them.
Am I?
I attempt to smooth out one of the many creases from my shirt, knowing it’ll do nothing, regretting that I pulled the decently clean item from my hamper this morning in a rush. It doesn’t do much other than give me added time to rationalize my thoughts.
Anxious, I’m anxious.
Why are my hands trembling?
I latch tighter to the fabric on my torso, steadying myself. The wrinkles of before are nothing compared to the ironclad hold my fists create now.
I’m full-on shaking. It’s not as embarrassing as her having to repeat the question because I’ve taken too long to respond.
This time Hailey doesn’t wait, stepping farther inside the room without me. Squatting, she gets down to Aiden’s level with a smile, handing him back the car he’s dropped.
I yank at the hem one last time, shove the nonexistent hair back from my eyes, and wash away any remaining insecurities like the stoutness of someone swallowing a spoonful of vinegar.
It’s time for my son and me to be introduced.
