He chuckles. “You’re always welcome.”
“Please, Momma. Oh, please.”
“Sweetie, you don’t know them.”
“But Mr. Kent does. And Mr…. I forget his name.” She points at Ridge, making us all laugh.
“You sure you want to go?”
“I do. Mr. Kent, can we build more things?”
“Actually, we’re making cookies at my house tonight,” Ridge tells her.
“Oh!” she exclaims. “I love to make cookies. Please, Momma. Please, please, please.”
“Okay,” Delaney relents.
“Yay!” She climbs off the chair, and I reach out to hold it, so she doesn’t topple over.
“Where are you going?” I ask her.
“To get my shoes. I’m making cookies with him.” She points to Ridge and then races out of the room.
“We need to talk to her about stranger danger,” I tell Delaney. I’m smiling but serious at the same time.
“I have. She doesn’t see anyone as a stranger. They’re all her friends.”
“Kent used to be the same way. He was always the most outgoing out of all of us growing up,” Ridge tells her.
“Really? I’m thinking we need to have a little chat. I need some dirt on this one.”
“Nope. Closed book. You see, the five of us were inseparable, so if I give you his dirt, I’m also giving you mine.” Ridge smirks.
“Ready,” Kendrix announces. She has her coat on upside down and her shoes in her hands.
“All right, missy. How about I drive you over to Ridge’s house, and you can make some cookies for a little while?”
“Yay. Let’s go, Momma.” She runs out of the room.
“Wait for me!” Delaney calls out to her. “Thank you, Ridge. Are you sure?”
“Positive. I know the wives offered, and you’re worried, but I promise you, she’s family. I’d never let anything happen to her.”
I stand and go to Delaney, standing as close as I can without holding her. I don’t want Kendrix to see that. Not yet. Not until I tell her that I’m her daddy. That day can’t come soon enough. “Laney, do you want me here with you when you talk to your mother? Or I can to go to Ridge’s with Kendrix.”
She bites down on her bottom lip. “Can you go with her? I mean, I know we can trust them, you trust them, but I don’t know them. I don’t know you either, but I trust you. And I’ve seen you for years in my dreams, and she looks like you, and you have a picture of us, and all these stories, and...”
I lean in and kiss her cheek. “I understand, baby. She’s safe with me. I promise you that, Laney. I hate that you can’t remember our time together, but I promise you she’s safe.”
“I know.”
Simple, complete acceptance. I know she feels this connection between us. I see it in her eyes. I just wish she could remember. I need to help her remember. I want her to have the same memories of our time together. Hell, I even want her to be mad at me for standing her up that night. I want it all. I’d rather fight with her and grovel at her feet than her not have those memories.
The memories of how it all began. The memories of conceiving our daughter.
“Let me get my coat.” She walks out of the room.
“Thank you, man. I can’t….” I run my hands through my hair.
“No worries, brother.” Ridge nods and disappears.
I follow him to find Kendrix on the floor wrestling to get her shoes on. “You need some help?”
“Yes, please.” She huffs and sits back, holding her weight on her arms. “This is hard work.”
I don’t hide my smile. “Good thing I was here to help.”
“I’m a big girl,” she tells me.
“You are. But sometimes it’s okay even for big girls to ask for help.”
“That’s what my momma says to me.”
“Your momma is a very smart woman.”
“I’s going to be like her when I get big.”
“There you go.” I finish with her second shoe. “Now, what do you say we do something about this coat?”
“It feels funny.”
I make a silly face and she giggles, the sound cementing into my heart. “Well, it feels funny because you put it on upside down, you silly goose.” I reach out and tap her nose with my index finger, and she cackles with laughter. The sound warms my soul. I help her out of her jacket and put it back on the correct way as Delaney joins us.
“Ready to go?”
“Where are you going?”
Tillie.
Delaney turns slowly to face her mother. “Where I’m going is none of your concern.” Her voice is low and leaves zero room for negotiation.
“Are you taking her?”
“I am. I’ll be back.” She glances over at me.
“Thirty minutes,” I say, reading her thoughts. She needed to know how far it was to Ridge’s place and back.
“Thirty minutes,” she tells her mother.
“Is she going with you?”
“Gram, I’m going to bake cookies,” Kendrix says happily. She’s blissfully unaware of what’s going on, of the tension in the room between the adults.