Only One Kiss (Only One 1)

“Ralph,” she says, blinking away the tears in her eyes and trying not to cry. “You don’t have to—”

“When the nurse came out and told me that she died on the table, I collapsed onto my knees, and then I threw up. I must have passed out at some point because when I opened my eyes, I was on a bed and the doctor was examining me.”

“I can’t even imagine the horror of that,” she says. She walks over to me now and puts her hand on my arm. “It must have been horrible.”

“I don’t even know if I understood what he was saying. It’s almost as if I was having an out-of-body experience, and I kept thinking this has to be a nightmare. He has to be lying. I listened to the words that came out of his mouth, but I can’t remember much from that time. What I do remember is when they brought Ari in and placed her in my arms. She was wrapped in this white blanket and a pink hat and the biggest eyes I have ever seen in my life and at that moment”—I smile now—“I knew then that I had to be strong for her. I live for her, and I’m not sure I’m okay with sharing her with the world.”

“I get it,” she says. “What if we have a Daddy and me segment?”

“What?” I ask. She leans over, her hand reaching out to rub Ari’s cheek with her finger.

“It’s Ari’s and your world.” She smiles at her and holds up her hands to grab Ari. I want to stop her from touching my girl, but Ari throws herself at her, and Candace catches her, kissing her cheek. “You can post things that you try with her. Little clips of what is working for you.”

“Like how I get her to stop crying at three a.m. when she’s been up for four hours, drank three bottles, and has a clean diaper, and all I want is for her to stop crying?” I mention. “How I put her in the car and took a drive for an hour just so she could sleep?”

She looks at me and then looks at Ari. “Yeah, like that,” she says, and my eyebrows go together. “Are there any sponsored brands that you have to wear?”

“I’m working on that,” I answer. “I just wear my Dallas stuff,” I trail off, and she looks at me.

“Okay, so this is how we are going to start,” she says. “We are going to close down your website.”

I laugh at her. “I don’t have a website.” She looks at me smiling.

“Well, you actually will,” she says. “I want to post a picture of last year’s hockey thingy.”

“Hockey thingy?” I joke with her, making Ari laugh. “You mean headshot?”

“Yeah, that,” she says. “We are going to post it on your Instagram and Facebook and tell them that new content is coming and all that good stuff.” I look at her. “What?” she asks.

“I don’t really have a Facebook page,” I say. “I mean, I did at the beginning, and then it slowly faded because I didn’t keep up with it.”

She looks at Ari. “Your dad is really making this hard for me.” Ari turns to her, grabs her face, and sucks on her cheek. Instead of throwing her off or giving her to me, she just squeezes Ari closer to her. “Also, what do you think of doing charity?”

“What?” I ask, not sure my heart can focus on anything except the sight of my girl loving someone other than me.

“Is there a charity you promote or are associated with?” she asks. Ari lets go of her face, and Candace has drool running down her face and she just walks over to the table, not skipping a beat. “You used to help Justin with his, right?”

“Yeah, for underprivileged children,” I say. “I never thought of starting my own. To be honest, it was on my bucket list. But with everything that’s happened, it was put on the back burner.”

“Do you have an assistant?” she asks, and Ari starts to whine in her arms.

“What do you think?” I laugh at her and just watch her with my daughter.

“Ariella.” She looks at my daughter and wipes Ari’s face before wiping her own cheek. “What are we going to do with your dad?” She looks at me. “Okay, I think we need more time to meet,” she says.

“Well, my schedule is open most days. Miranda comes to watch Ari, but other than that . . .” I say.

“This is what you need to do. Step one is you need to set up a photo shoot,” she says, and I put my hands on my hips. “It’s going to be fine. We can use the pictures for a good six months.”