“Do you know what you’re saying?”
“I think so. But what about you? I’m just an object to you aren’t I? Maybe that’s not what you want.”
“That’s not true. I didn’t always know…when I took you I was in a bad place, my head was all fucked up. I couldn’t see past making him pay and taking something of his. I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was the baby, maybe it started before that…I think I’m in love with you.”
She looked at me as if she thought I was pulling her leg. I couldn’t fault her, I wouldn’t believe me either. But it was true. I didn’t know it until I said the words out loud. I lifted a hand to her face and removed the last bit of tears as I brought her face closer to mine.
“I love you Katya and if you’d let me I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
Epilogue
“Put that down.” Her wild giggles as she tried to escape me warmed my heart. I picked her up and blew bubbles in her tummy making those giggles get even louder until they became squeals. She’s her mother’s daughter for sure; loud. I put her on my hip which I like to tell myself is her perfect place to be and walked deeper into the house to find the rest of my family.
I took the paperweight from her before she smashed me in the face with it and didn’t even bother asking her how she got it off the desk in my home office. I found my wife and son in the kitchen working on a science project for school. That one takes after his mom too, he got her brains.
The smiles on their faces when I walked into the room, was worth every hell I’d ever been through. My wife waddle around the kitchen island and came over for her hello kiss, which I was only too happy to give her. I put my little terror on the floor and put my hands on the mound of Katya’s tummy where my unborn son or daughter was cooking.
“Hello beautiful, I missed you.” I kissed her lips, which apparently was too much for my brats who made gagging noises behind us. I’m sure Junior who was five was the one who set that off and as usual my two-year old princess followed her big brother.
“I missed you too. I think the baby’s gonna be early.”
“Why what happened?” She smiled and patted my arm. I love when she makes light of my mini freak-outs, but where she and the kids are concerned I don’t mind looking stupid every once in a while. A common cold can send me into a panic.
“He or she has been very active all day.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” I didn’t miss her eye roll as she went back to help our son and save him from his sister, who was doing her best to help him with his project, which meant certain destruction.
Leanna might have her mother’s lungs, but she’s all me. In fact both of my kids have all of me, whether it’s looks or personality. I dropped my jacket over a chair and rolled up my sleeves as I went to help. Almost everything in this house was a family project.
I saw that my daughter had already been set up on her baby table with her own baking soda and whatever she had in a cup to make her own volcano or whatever it is they were making. I guess she’d made a detour to my office at some point to nab the paperweight, which was almost as heavy as she is.
“Hi son, how was your day?” I listened as my kid told me excitedly about his test scores and his new friend, the frog the class had adopted and everything else that he could recall from his day. I paid attention to every word until his sister interrupted us to give me her report.
I admired my son’s patience as he waited for her to ramble on and on, both of us pretending that we understood her baby twang. Once she was done and I could get a word in edgewise I rounded them up for bath time.
I’m sure they’d already eaten because I was a little late getting home and it was way past their dinnertime. I also knew that my wife had waited for me to come home before she had her own dinner. I ran the bath for my son before taking my daughter into her own room to set her up as well.
Junior doesn’t had started tending to his own baths in the last couple of month, something I was still not too sure about, so I kept my ears tuned until I heard his mother go in to sit on the chair I’d set up in there for her. She was getting too big to be comfortable sitting for that long in the toilet seat.