“Come on, sweet pea. We both have a big day today. You’re going to make so many friends,” he coaxed. He wasn’t sure if Delilah would care about being in the local daycare, she had been placed in one when she lived with Penny, but Ridge was afraid that his daughter had become too comfortable being with him twenty-four-seven.
In response, she threw her pink teddy bear across the room in defiance.
“Please, baby? Daddy has to go to work.” Ridge wasn’t sure if it was his pleading look or that he retrieved her bear, but Delilah smiled up at him before touching her hand to his cheek. She really was a good little girl and rarely fussed. He just hoped that the transition to Carson wasn’t too hard on her.
Ridge hadn’t heard anything from California in search of his ex, Penny, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. Penny was flighty, but abandoning her daughter was far out of the realm of Penny’s nature.
Finally, Delilah looked content enough that he was able to place her in the gated play area of the living room while he took a quick five-minute shower. The life of a working single-parent was an adjustment Ridge was trying to wrap his head around, but he knew his daughter could easily keep herself occupied for a few extra minutes.
Grabbing the small video baby monitor, Ridge made his way to the master bathroom, ridding his clothes in his bedroom along the way. As he stepped into the spray, he took a final look at the colored video screen to find Delilah playing with the light-up fire truck his aunt had bought her.
Ridge couldn’t help but think about the woman from yesterday as the hot water washed over him. She was petite, much smaller than his six-foot-four stature. He pegged her at five-foot-three or so. She had long wavy brown hair that curled just above her waistline. He had never felt something so soft as the strands brushed against his hand when he managed to catch her from falling off the stairs. He wondered if she had been as affected by him as he was by her. She had initially startled him by standing on the opposite side of the door when he had opened it to leave, but then her doe-eyed gaze had stopped his heart with an impact that left him gasping for air. Ridge had been selfishly happy for the distraction of her almost-fall because it allowed him to pull his eyes away from hers.
River, she had said her name was. He didn’t think the name fit her, but he supposed he really didn’t know her that well.
When Ridge had returned from a tour of the fire department building, he had indulged in a dinner with the entire Carson family at Angie’s diner, which led to the daycare drop off for today. Poppy and Amy had insisted that Delilah would enjoy her time there since Amy had her own hobbies she focused on during the day. Ridge felt bad assuming that his aunt would have been available for daily care, but he was glad for the alternative. Thankfully his aunt and cousins had promised they would try to help out when he was scheduled for the evenings and nights.
All he had to do now is head over to the daycare center and make sure it was a good fit for him and Delilah. Ridge was a little overprotective after all.
Tugging on one of the freshly cleaned Carson Fire shirts, Ridge pulled on a pair of jeans over his boxer briefs and slipped on a pair of socks and sneakers.
Back out in the living room, Ridge watched quietly as Delilah mimicked the sound of the fire engine’s siren squalling. A smile emerged on his lips as he remembered the way he had been enthralled with the noise as a little boy.
“Are you ready to go?” Ridge asked her as he approached the gated area. Delilah looked up at him with sparkles in her eyes and held out the bright red truck.
“Dada.” She pointed at the little man behind the steering wheel and immense pride flushed over him.
“Yep, that looks just like Dada,” he told her as he knelt down and gently rubbed his hand over her hair. She quickly put the truck down and raised her arms to be picked up, the teddy bear grasped firmly in her left hand. He wasn’t sure if she should bring it to the daycare, but she could at least bring it in the truck.
The drive to the center took him through the surprisingly busy downtown of Carson. People waved at him as he drove down the street and he wondered if they knew who was in the truck or if they were just polite.
Pulling into the parking lot for the daycare, Ridge was surprised at the facility's size, which to his eye looked brand new. Once he parked his truck, the nervousness of leaving Delilah took over. Ridge’s hesitancy grew ten-fold. The last couple of weeks had been spent with his daughter, more than he had spent in the first few months of her life, and Ridge wasn’t sure he was ready for the separation. But to his surprise, his cousin’s wife opened the door to the main entrance and waved in his direction. She seemed to have been expecting his arrival.
Ridge extracted himself, Delilah, and her diaper bag out of the truck with great care and headed toward the red head with a large smile on her face.
“Welcome!” she exclaimed as they approached and Delilah cooed with an equal amount of excitement at seeing someone she recognized.
Engrained in manners, Ridge leaned down and kissed her cheek in greeting, chuckling as a blush grew across her pale cheeks.
“Follow me,” she gestured and they followed her into the building. They were immediately assaulted with screams, but not ones in terror. “It’s breakfast time for most of the kids and today they get to decorate their pancakes.”
“Ah, makes total sense,” Ridge said as he continued to follow her down the hallway away from the loud shrieks.
“This is where she’ll stay if you want to let her get familiar and I can give you the rest of the tour.”
“Sure,” he said as he stepped inside the brightly painted room where a plump woman sat in a rocking chair with a tiny infant, feeding it a bottle while a boy of college-age sat on the floor with a few other children toddling around.
“This is Ms. Sally and Mr. Tate. We have one dedicated teacher in each room and then an assistant that rotates around. I’ll work on introducing you to the rest of the staff after we fill out some paperwork.”
“Sounds good,” Ridge said as he squatted down and set Delilah on her feet. His nerves were getting the better of him, but he wanted to put on a brave face for his daughter, who at the moment, seemed enthralled by the other children.
“Ms. Sally,” Poppy began, “this is Ridge Connelly and his daughter Delilah. They just moved here to Carson.”
“Well, it’s lovely to have you. I’d come over and welcome your little one, but this one just started her bottle,” Ms. Sally explained as she continued to rock in the wooden chair that looked older than Ridge. “Are you any relation to Joseph or Amy Connelly?”
“They’re my aunt and uncle. I used to visit during the summers.”
“Well, welcome back.”