When Constellations Form (Light in the Dark 4)
Thea sits back. “Oh, no.”
“What?” I ask around a mouthful of food.
She looks down and I slowly follow her gaze watching as her boobs leak.
“Shit, oh, no.” She bites her lip, looking at me with panic in her eyes.
I don’t have my coat, since they took it when we sat down.
She begins to cry, which draws more attention than her leaking boobs.
I can tell she embarrassed and uncomfortable, so I stand up and start stripping out of my shirt. I don’t have anything on underneath, but my wife is uncomfortable and I’ll be damned if I keep letting her feel that way.
I undo all the buttons and once I have it off I help her put it on, pulling it around her chest.
“Thank you,” she mouths, wiping at her eyes.
She looks around at the people staring and then averts her eyes to her food.
“There’s nothing to see here,” I bite out to the staring people.
I sit down and Thea raises her eyes to mine. “You’re the best.”
“I didn’t do anything special, sweetheart.”
We finish our meal in peace, and I’m surprised. It’s a nice restaurant so I expected them to kick me out for my strip show.
When we collect our coats, Thea gives me my shirt back. The ring of milk has dried on her dress. I’m not sure it’ll come out, but what do I know?
Thea zips up her coat and we wait for the car to be brought around.
Once inside, I expect her to want to go straight home, but instead she surprises me by saying, “Can we get McFlurryies?”
“We can get anything you want sweetheart.”
There’s a McDonald’s not too far, so I head there.
“I’ll let your mom know we’ll be home soon,” Thea tells me, fiddling with her phone.
Her phone dings. “Aw, she sent me a picture of Xael. She’s sleeping in her bouncer and Prue has her head on her feet.”
Prue has taken surprisingly well to Xael. I thought she’d be fine, but I didn’t expect her to love her so much. I think Prue thinks she’s a helpless, hairless puppy.
When I pull into the McDonald’s drive-thru line, Thea shows me the photo and I grin.
“My girls,” I whisper.
The urge to get home is nearly overwhelming. I just want to get home so I can hug and kiss her and tell her goodnight.
I made a vow with myself that no matter what, no matter where I am, every night I’ll say goodnight to my daughter.
I place an order for our ice cream and move forward in line.
I get to the window and pay, and then to the next window to actually get our ice cream.
Normally, we’d park and eat it, but tonight Thea says, “Can we wait and eat this at home?”
“You read my mind, sweetheart.”