His chuckle reverberated through the phone and wrapped me in its comforting sound. But there was still that nagging voice in the back of my head.
If he was trying to fix things with the mother of his children, then my presence probably wasn’t a good thing.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I said.
“I know. I know you’re hesitant, but it’s not for me. It’s for them. They’ve really missed you. They ask me about you every day.”
I smiled as my heart melted at his words.
“They do?” I asked.
“Oh yeah. Sydney always wants to call, and Daniel keeps trying to come up with all these dinner ideas. He thinks if he cooks for you then you’ll come over and eat.”
“Oh, if he cooks then I will definitely come over,” I said.
“If he cooks you won’t be eating anything other than a messy, soggy bowl of cereal and orange juice scraped up off the floor.”
“Well, that sounds more than wonderful,” I said with a giggle.
“It’s good to hear you laugh again, Brooke.”
“It’s good to hear your voice again, Kevin.”
I could hear it in his voice. I could hear how much he missed me and thought that maybe—just maybe—he was the one asking me to dinner, using the kids as an excuse to get me over there so he could see me again. I had to admit, the thought was nice. But I didn’t want to come between him and the mother of his children. If she really wanted to fix things, then I had to give her the benefit of the doubt. People made mistakes. Sometimes big ones. But that didn’t mean they weren’t deserving of the opportunity to right those wrongs.
I didn’t want to be the reason Kevin kept putting off fixing things.
But still—
“Okay,” I said.
“Okay, you’ll come to dinner?” Kevin asked.
“I’ll come see the kids, yes,” I said.
There was a brief pause and I held my breath to see how it would pan out.
“That’s great, Brooke. We can’t—I mean, they can’t wait to see you.”
I felt my heart jump at his response as I pushed away from my desk.
“I’ll send you my address and you can come around six?” he asked.
“Sounds good. I’ll catch a cab.”
“No need. If you send me your address I can send a car.”
“Thank would be nice, thank you. I’ll see you guys tonight. Give the kids a hug for me.”
“Trust me, I will. And they’ll hug you, too. A lot.”
And he wasn’t kidding.
I knocked on the door promptly at six and Daniel was the one to pull it open. He barreled into me and almost knocked me off balance. Sydney shot herself into my arms and I held her close, my smile making my cheeks ache it was so big.
“You came! You came!” Daniel said.
“Of course I did. I told you I would,” I said.