Chapter 46
Forty-Six
REESE
Things are different.
The ring on my finger doesn’t feel as heavy.
The house isn’t so foreign.
The spot next to me in bed is no longer untouched.
With a smile on my face, I pour a cup of coffee. I sip on it leisurely while simultaneously watching Charleigh crawl around the living room.
Three of the five lawyers from Malaki’s list have already gotten back to me, one of them ready to schedule an in-person consultation as early as Friday.
A week ago, I would’ve gone by myself.
But I find myself scheduling the appointment for when I know that Malaki is back in town, so he can come with me.
I type a quick text to him with the details and place my phone on the coffee table to keep an eye on Charleigh. Although Malaki installed the baby gate before leaving for the arena, I’m not sure I trust her not to climb the thing.
With each passing day, she becomes more daring.
I think she may get that from Zoe.
My phone pings with an incoming text, and I already know it’s Malaki.
I smile.
Malaki
Are you sure you don’t want to fly out here and watch the game?
Flying with a baby sounds like a nightmare, especially one as mobile as Char.
Me
Sorry. Can’t. Charleigh is still grounded.
Could you imagine her on a flight? I’d have to let her roam the aisle.
Malaki
At least there are no stairs.
Me
Malaki
Is the baby gate holding up okay? What did she think of it?
I glance at her, and as if she senses that I’m looking at her, she turns to glance over her shoulder while holding onto the gate.
“Charleigh…” I warn.
She grins, the mischievous glint in her eye loud and proud.
I shake my head and quickly type Malaki another message.
Me
The baby gate is perfectly sturdy, but I think she’s conjuring up a plan to climb it next.
Malaki
Maybe we should look for a one-story house?
My stomach tumbles.
What?
Is he serious?
I look at Charleigh and picture the three of us house hunting together. Butterflies take flight, and I’m suddenly sweating.
Me
We can’t just get a new house because of Charleigh falling down a few steps.
Malaki
Says who?
Me
Says me! That’s insane.
Plus, I could see Benedict using it against me that I’m moving again.
Malaki
I also want you to have the house you want.
This is the house I want—including the people living in it.
Me
I like this house.
I walk over to Charleigh and sit to get on her level. She flops into my lap, and I quickly pull her upright so she doesn’t hit her head on my leg. “Do you like this house?” I ask her.
Her little eyebrows furrow, and her eyes drop to my mouth as she tries to figure out what I’m asking her.
My phone buzzes, and Charleigh reaches for it.
“This is Mommy’s,” I say.
“Da?” she asks questionably.
I stare at her, phone in my hand.
Surely she isn’t asking if it’s Malaki.
Right?
Malaki
But do you love it?
Charleigh scurries off toward the living room, and I follow after her. With my eye on the time, I turn on the channel the game will be on so I don’t miss a thing. I reread Malaki’s text, my fingers hovering over the keyboard.
A house is a material object, and material things don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. I’ve lived in a house, a trailer, a dorm room, a shitty apartment, and now here.
Not many of those felt like a home to me, and I most definitely didn’t love them.
What I did love, though, was all the nonmaterialistic things.
The feeling of independence.
The idea that I was the only one who had a key to the door.
Zoe being next to me.
And now…Malaki.
We could live in the middle of the forest somewhere, in a dilapidated cabin without electricity, and I think I’d be happy. It’s not the walls that surround us or how sturdy each brick is that make me love this place.
It’s who I share it with.
Whether or not it was unplanned, or started off as a ruse, somewhere along the way, Malaki became my home, and that’s terrifying.
“Da!” Charleigh shouts excitedly.
She stands with her hands on the coffee table—the same one that Malaki taped pool noodles to so she wouldn’t bump her chin on the edge. She’s gawking at the TV, watching the Coyotes skate across the ice as they wait for the Blue Devils.
“Da!” she shouts.
I laugh. “That’s not Malaki,” I say. “But close.”
Her pretty brown eyes turn to me with a quiet question, but then she turns toward the TV again.
“Da…da.”
I pause.
My heart takes a tumble.
“What?” I whisper.
“Dada!” she shouts.
I blink though watery eyes.
Zoe comes flying into the living room, sliding across the hardwood floors in her socks. “Did she just–”
I nod.
Charleigh says it again, and it’s the final push I need to type exactly what my heart is begging me to.
Me
A house is just a house. I love the people in it, and that’s enough for me.
A few Blue Devils players spill onto the ice. Charleigh bounces up and down. “Dada!”
Oh my god.
Suddenly, his name is flashing on my phone screen. My heart leaps as quickly as my finger moves to answer it.
“You better get on the ice,” I say as soon as his face comes into view.
He’s in the middle of getting all his gear on, the locker room quieter than normal. “Is that just one of your cross-stitch sayings, or do you mean that?”
He stops getting dressed, his eyes focused on my mouth.
“I mean it,” I say.
His lip hitches, and I can’t help the smile sliding onto my face.
“Dada!”
Malaki’s eyebrows shoot upward, his smile frozen. “Did she just say what I think she did?”
“She did!” Zoe shouts from the other side of the couch.
“Let me see her,” he pleads.
I turn the phone around, and it catches Charleigh’s eye. The smile on her face could brighten an entire room. “Hey, Charleigh-girl,” Malaki coos.
“Dada!” she repeats.
Her hands, still resting along the coffee table, give her enough stability to bounce up and down on her tiny legs with excitement.
“Reese.”
I turn the phone back around. “Yeah?”
He exhales before looking directly into the camera. “I know it started out as a joke…but I sort of love that she’s calling me dada…and I also love that you refer to me as your fiancé.”
I smile and nod, too afraid to say anything.
His throat moves with a swallow. “And I love you…and Charleigh.”
My eyes water.
Charleigh, now beside me, grabs for my phone. It falls to the floor, and the only thing in the frame is her chubby face. “Dada!”
Malaki chuckles, his smile matching hers.
“Say bye to Dada,” he says. “I gotta go win a game so I can get back to my girls.”
His girls?
We’re his girls?
I smile to myself.
We are his girls.