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“Good morning!”
Wishful thinking.
Lucy ran into the room and leaped onto the bed, slamming right onto my stomach. I groaned. “Luce! What did I tell you?”
“I know, I’m getting too big, but look, look, look!” She grinned big, showing off her missing front tooth.
I smiled and wrapped her face in my hands. “Look at you. Did the Tooth Fairy come?”
“Yep! She left me a fifty-dollar bill!”
I swore it had been a twenty when I snuck it under her pillow the night before. The tooth was in a plastic bag in my nightstand table with the rest of the ones she’d lost. I didn’t have the heart to get rid of them. Was I just supposed to throw my only child’s teeth in the garbage? That felt so wrong.
“Wow. My big girl. What am I going to do with you?” I pulled her into my arms and snuggled up to her.
Lucy squirmed. “Daddy! Too tight!”
“Sorry, sorry.” She was getting too big for all my affection. She wanted to have her own space and control over her boundaries. I had to respect that. My biggest fear in raising a girl as a single dad was not instilling in her the ability to say “no” and to not take shit from anyone.
Luckily for me, after I loosened my hold on her, she snuggled right into my chest. I kissed the top of her head. Hangover miraculously cured. “What do you want to do today, Lucy Goosey?”
“Hmm…breakfast in bed.”
I laughed. “We can do that. And we can watch a movie.”
“Yeah! And then we should go have an adventure.”
“What kind?”
“Central Park Zoo!”
“Isn’t it a little cold for the zoo?”
Lucy frowned. “We’ll bundle up.”
I sighed. “Whatever the queen says.”
* * *
Not only wasthe zoo frigid, but Lucy insisted on getting ice cream. I was completely flabbergasted at her ability to keep her core temperature regulated when I was shivering in my wool coat. But there we were, standing in front of the sea lion exhibit, watching their feeding time.
“Want some?” Lucy held up her ice cream cone to me.
“No. Thank you, though. I’ll stick to my coffee.” I sipped the dark liquid that was already tepid due to the frosty winter air.
Surprisingly, the zoo was pretty busy, despite the chilly weather. And the sea lions didn’t seem to care at all. They were eagerly flopping around as the keepers challenged them to do tricks in exchange for silvery fish.
“Can you see okay?”
Lucy was standing up on her tiptoes, peeking over the railing of the enclosure. “Yes.”
I laughed. Trying so hard to be independent already. “Come here.”
I carefully scooped her up onto my hip with a grunt, careful of our coffee and ice cream. Soon, I would not be able to do this. I wanted to relish every moment I could.
We’d had a lovely morning together with breakfast in bed and a viewing ofCharlotte’s Web, one of Lucy’s favorites. But in the back of my mind was Lisbeth. Her phone call. What did she want? I kept checking my phone to see if she’d left a message, but no message ever came through. For her to call out of the blue and not leave a message made no sense. Either she was regretful for having called in the first place and happy I didn’t pick up or…
She wanted to make sure she caught me off guard.
