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"She just didn't like me, everything I did annoyed her. I had no idea I wasn't supposed to pay or hold doors. Do men really not do that anymore?" he asked.
"I think she may be a little hardline about it," Ashley shrugged.
"Fuck it; I'm just glad to be home. How was Tina?"
"Good, she and Sarita ate their weight in popcorn, and we watched that Barbie movie," Harry laughed. "They passed out on the couch, so I carried them to her room an hour ago."
"Just leave Sarita here then, and I'll bring her home tomorrow," Daniel insisted.
"Yeah?"
"Sure. It's Saturday tomorrow so the girls can play in the backyard, maybe I'll take them to the creek."
"Thanks, Daniel."
"No problem."
/Daniel checked on the girls before turning in, and they looked like little angels, as usual. If he hadn't had Tina, he never would have kept going. Losing Candace had been the end of so much for him, but when he got home from the funeral, he still had this beautiful little person calling him Daddy and needing him for everything.
Daniel took a shower and double-checked that he had the ingredients for banana pancakes in the morning, then collapsed on his bed. He would fill the next day with fun for the girls, and hopefully, Tina would be satisfied with his failure of a date. In all honesty, he had about to give up on love. Candace wasn't coming back, and no other women saw him the way that she had . . . it felt hopeless.
CHAPTER2
Two years later
"Dad . . . Dad?"
"Huh?"
"I need you to sign that permission slip."
Tina was racing around the house getting ready for school as he sat at the table with his second cup of coffee.
"What's up? You look like a zombie today," she laughed.
"Nothing. Give me this thing to sign, honey. What's it for again?"
"Class camping trip!" she squealed.
"Jesus! I got to let you sleep out in the woods away from home now? I don't like you getting older."
"I'll be all right, Dad."
Tina was getting bigger all the time, she wasn't a little girl anymore, and it scared him. He'd already had to buy her a bra and wondered when the girls started changing so young. She was beautiful, though, and always looked more like her mother. The sea-green eyes, dark brown hair, and heart-shaped face; he couldn't help thinking of Candace daily.
"It says here you're leaving this weekend, that's so soon," he said, skimming over the words as he dug around in the junk drawer for a pen.
"Sarita's going too," she added in an apparent attempt to calm him down.
Sarita and Tina were in the same class and had been through school. Sarita's friendship had been vital to working through her mother's death. They were as close as cousins, and he was glad she had Sarita.
"I still don't like this, honey."
"I promise I'll be OK."
He knew he was overreacting, but she was all he had.
"Alright . . . I'm being stupid, huh?"
