“I’m hungwy!” Darla announces and I laugh. “Chicken nuggets please!”
“There’s a McDonald’s right up the road.” He grins. Darla claps her hands and squeals.
“Can I wide with you, Daddy?” she asks. I look up in alarm. I wasn’t ready for that question at all and Brendan senses that.
“If it’s okay with your mommy, maybe I can ride with you?” he asks, looking at me.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” I tell him as I unlock my car. Brendan and I haven’t sat in the same vicinity since before I got pregnant, so this is new.
He gets in on the passenger side and buckles his seat belt as I get Darla situated. We start to drive down the road to McDonalds and the rain begins to fall. Talk about perfect timing.
I pull into McDonalds and everyone gets out of the car. As soon as we walk inside, the rain really starts coming down. I send Darla into the play area while Brendan orders the food.
“You’re doing really great with her,” I tell him as I reach for my bank card.
“I wish I would have done this sooner,” he admits. “What are you doing?”
“Paying for my lunch,” I tell him.
“I said I’m buying lunch,” he reminds me.
“You don’t have to buy mine.”
“I know, but I want to. What do you want?”
With a sigh, I place my card back into my wallet, then tell him what I was going to order. He orders the food. While we wait for our tray, I grab the cups and go fix our drinks. I set them back on the tray and Brendan carries it into the play area where Darla is still playing. She sees the food and comes running over.
Brendan hands her nuggets and fries to her along with her toy. We almost seem like a complete family, but I know the truth. We’re far from a family. There’s too much brokenness around; it’s just being camouflaged perfectly.
We eat in silence. No one utters a single word. All you can hear is chewing. When Darla finishes she asks if she can go play and I tell her to go ahead. I look at how Brendan watches her and I smile. He clears his throat and I look up. He opens his wallet and hands me a check. My eyes widen and I refuse to even look at it.
“Paige, I want you to take this. Consider it back child support. I’ve been shitty and I’m trying to fix it,” Brendan tells me.
“I don’t want your money, Brendan,” I reply.
“Don’t be so hardheaded, Paige. Just take it please.”
“No. I’m not taking your money.”
“Then I’ll just leave it in your car somewhere. Please just take it,” he insists.
I want to argue more but I just stop. It’s useless. Even when we dated, arguing over the simplest things was never worth it, he won every time. He slides the check over to me; I refuse to look at it. It’s folded in half and I keep it that way. I tuck it into my purse and leave it there.
“Well, thank you,” I tell him.
“You’re not going to look at it?” he asks.
I shake my head. “No, I’ll look later.”
“She really is great. I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t do this sooner,” he tells me.
“And you’re getting ready to move. How are you going to tell her that?” I ask him.
“I declined the job, Paige.”
I stare at him again. “You did what?”
“I turned the job down this morning. I’ve already missed out on way too much in her life and if it’s okay with you, I’d like to keep seeing her. I want to build a relationship with her. I know you and I are well over and that’s how it has to be, but there’s no reason why she can’t have both parents in her life.”