AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As I nod, she smiles and Freida brings us celebratory french fries and chocolate shakes. This is why I do this. The positive influence that I can enact in Bella’s life is extraordinary. I wish I had someone like myself when I was in foster care, but at least what I’m doing now is making a difference.
We go through the rest of the assignment determining ratios, and she does wonderful. Once she talks about the word problem aloud, it gets easier with every question until our fries are gone and the assignment is finished.
I put a twenty down on the table and scoot out of the booth. She knows what time it is, because we have a schedule. We do homework until around four o’clock and then I drop her off at home and go to work.
“Are you guys ever going to have a ‘bring your daughter to work’ day? Not that I’m yours, but I would love to see how the station works.”
I help her stuff her homework into her backpack. “I’ll ask the chief about it, but no promises.
She nods, and we head out of the diner and get into my car. On the way to drop her off, she is coming up with her own real world ratios for everything she sees.
“The ratio of birds to squirrels in the park that I can see. One to four.”
As I pull up to the curb in front of her house, she sighs. “I’ll see you Thursday?”
“Wouldn’t miss for anything. You know that.”
I watch as she treks up to the front door, knocks, and her mother opens and waves. She mouths thank you as she shuts the door.
Getting close with Bella has helped me come to terms with wanting children. I want to give my child a better life than I had, but if I can’t find someone to settle down with then that might not be an option. What is wrong with me? What repels Felicity from wanting to just go on one date? I have a job, I’m fit, and not a douchebag. Maybe it’s something bigger and if I give her time she will come around.
Nathan is getting out of his truck when I pull in and he waits for me.
“Damon said it’s been busy. They had four wreck calls in the last three hours. So, it might be a long shift for us.”
I prefer busy shifts, because it doesn’t give me time to sit around and get in my head. After getting that letter from my dad, and then Felicity rejecting me, my brain is going in circles.
“You’ll never guess who I ran into at school today?”
He laughs. “Oh yeah I forgot it started today. Who?”
“Felicity.
He laughs again, but this time the knee slapping kind of laugh. “You aren’t seriously still hung up on her, are you? She is not interested. I mean the attitude alone says that.”
Nathan is my friend, but sometimes he can be a real ass. She could have kicked me out of that hospital room when she woke up, but she didn’t. Instead, she let me stay and that tells me that even if she isn’t interested in dating anyone right now, maybe we can be friends until that time comes. Maybe the best thing for me to do is stop asking her out and just be her friend.
“Whatever. She’s intriguing, which is more than the girls you ever meet on that stupid dating app. And at least I know what she really looks like and she’s not fake.”
“Dick move.”
He walks inside and sweat drips down my forehead. Why can’t he just be supportive? What does he have against Felicity anyway?
9
FELICITY
The air conditioning is throwing my hair all over the place, but I don’t want to turn my car off and go inside. Phillip has been my grandfather’s friend for many years and seeing his will is going to make this concrete. I know he’s gone, but a part of me wants to believe that I just dreamed the whole thing and he’s actually on a cruise ship somewhere having the time of his life.You have to do this. Jerry wouldn’t want you to mope around. He would want you to live your life.
The car door squeaks as it opens, and I step out of the car. The sun is brutal today, making me wish I never got out. I remember when Phillips opened his firm many years ago. It was after my father passed, and Jerry took me under his wing. We came to the ribbon cutting, and he was so excited to introduce me to everyone. Even then Phillip was a great friend to my grandfather, but after my grandmother died, they became even closer.
My grandfather is a man of many talents. He liked to play chess in the park, but still had an adventurous side to him. He never wanted to stay in the same place for long once he retired. In fact, Jerry was always looking at the next good deal.
A bell rings as I pull on the front door, and Phillip is standing in the lobby, hands crossed over his midsection.
“My, how you have grown. I remember when you were just a little girl.”
I follow behind him to his office, and take a seat.
