The Daddy Box Set

I glanced up and saw she was struggling to hold it up in front of her. I moved my laptop aside and leaned over, grabbing the top of the quilt. I held it up to almost my height.

“Wow, honey, this is gorgeous,” I said.

Gina beamed at me and then her face fell.

“What’s wrong, honey?” I asked, checking the stitching on the last square. It was the one she invited me to choose the fabric for.

“This was Jess’s idea. And now she can’t see I finished it.” Her lower lip trembled.

“Gina,” I said. “It’s okay.”

Tears filled her brown eyes. “I miss her a lot, Daddy. I wish she didn’t have to leave.”

Little did Gina know was that I was the one to force Jess to leave. I couldn’t tell Gina that; it would break her heart. There was only one thing to do.

“Let’s get ready,” I said to Gina.

“Ready for what?”

I smirked. “We’re going to get Jess back.” I was going to have to swallow my pride and prepare for some groveling. But the past two days had been miserable for both Gina and me. And that meant something. We needed Jess in our lives, and I had to fix this.

After taking the quickest shower of my life, I helped Gina change. With the motivation of seeing Jess again, she’d dressed faster than I’d ever seen.

In the time we were together, we spent all of our time at my place. I used the GPS in my car to get to Jess’s apartment. As I pulled up to the apartment building, Gina started rapidly kicking her feet.

“We’re going to see Jess!” she exclaimed.

“Yes, we are,” I said.

She reached next to her for the folded quilt we brought with us. Gina insisted on showing Jess the final product as soon as we could. I agreed, thinking that it might help Jess warm up to me. It was a sneaky move, but I had to pull out all the stops if I wanted her to come back to us. I was willing to do anything to prove how sorry I was for our fight and for firing her.

Gina bounced like a jumping bean all the way to the building and up the stairs. The elevator was out of order, but thankfully Jess wasn’t on one of the higher floors. Though with the amount of energy bursting out of Gina, I doubted she would notice if we had to go up more flights.

At Jess’s door, I hesitated before knocking. I mentally prepared my speech, one that I had made up on the way over.

“Daddy, knock!” Gina demanded.

“Okay, honey.” I took a deep breath and knocked.

After the echo of the sound had faded, we waited.

Gina pressed her ear against the door then backed up and looked at me. “Daddy, try again.”

I knocked again, harder and two extra times. Jess was an early riser. Maybe she had gone out for breakfast? It was my fault she didn’t have a job to get to.

I pulled out my phone and found her number. I pressed it and leaned closer to the door.

The call went straight to voicemail, and I hadn’t heard it ring inside. She had to be out and ignoring my call. Not that I blamed her, but it annoyed me a little.

“I don’t think she’s here,” I said.

“Maybe she went to see Sierra?” Gina asked.

“Where is Sierra?” I asked. Jess previously mentioned her best friend working at a record shop, but I never bothered to ask where.

“Baker’s Brothers Records,” Gina said.

I leaned down and kissed her head. Gina might have just saved my relationship with Jess.