Chapter Twenty-Four Daisy #2
But then, seeing your father after he cut his finger off and having to go to the hospital and being kept hungry would tend to put kids in a low mood.
“Not everything, surely,” Daisy said.
“Amberly has weird snacks like seaweed chips and cuts our cheese into stars with cookie cutters,” Avery said.
“That sounds cute,” Daisy said.
“It’s dumb,” said Avery. “She’s not our mom. And Dad is either always at the gym or playing Xbox, and everything is bad.”
Amberly was trying; Jonathan wasn’t. The finger thing felt pretty karmic.
“It was an upsetting day. It’s probably not fair deciding that everything is bad the day someone cuts their finger off.
” She took a breath. “Okay, let’s go do bath time while we wait for food. We have, what, forty minutes, Zach?”
“About that,” he responded.
“I think when someone cuts their finger off, no one should have to take baths,” Avery said sagely.
“Incorrect,” Daisy replied. “Off you go.”
There were two bathrooms with bathtubs, but it still took time to rotate everyone through.
They were old enough now to do it themselves, which meant Daisy spent bath time lying face down on her bed trying to recover from the day, which she decided was a futile task around the time Wren was done and ready to have her hair brushed.
Alden scrambled up onto the bed while Daisy brushed his sister’s hair, and he sat down on his knees, chin in his hands, jostling both of them with his movements.
“When are you and Dad moving back in together?” Wren asked.
Daisy paused. “What?”
“You aren’t going to live apart forever, are you?”
She’d made a lot of assumptions about what the kids had seen and observed that seemed stupid now.
Why would kids this age be able to pick up adult dynamics from context? It seemed outrageous that she hadn’t made it clear to them before.
Daisy took a sharp breath. “Dad is with Amberly now. Not me. So he’s going to live with her because she’s . . . she’s going to be his wife.”
Had he not even told them that? He didn’t do anything, not a damned thing except cut his own finger off. What a useless asshole.
“They’re getting married?” Avery popped around the corner and into the room.
“Did you even wash anything, A?” Daisy asked.
“Are Dad and Amberly getting married?” He looked at her seriously.
Daisy looked away. “Yes.”
“That means she’s going to be a stepmother!” Alden shouted, with all the horror a child was taught to feel about wicked and evil stepmothers. In this case, Daisy couldn’t ease his concerns.
“Not mine.” Wren’s expression was angry and vicious.
“Unfortunately, that’s not up to you or me.” Daisy heard the doorbell downstairs. “Hey, come on, that’s dinner.”
“I don’t want a stepmom!” Alden said as he hopped off the bed.
Daisy closed her eyes. “If you have to have one, she seems pretty nice.” That was costly to say, but it also seemed true. Amberly didn’t allow Jonathan to talk smack about her, and she would return the favor by defending her now.
Besides, the kids didn’t need to descend into hysterics.
“But what does it mean?” Alden asked.
“Don’t worry about it right now.” Daisy realized you couldn’t tell kids that, though knowing Alden, he would forget as soon as he got his spaghetti. “There are a lot of things that have to happen before then, and who knows what might change.”
Wren was sullen as she went down the stairs behind her brothers, and Daisy paused, pulling her back for a hug. “Wrenny, it’s going to be okay.”
“I don’t want divorced parents.” She looked up at Daisy with big tear-filled eyes.
“I didn’t want to be a divorced parent.” Daisy couldn’t protect Jonathan from how the kids felt about this. She wasn’t going to pretend everything was fine. “But whatever I am, I’m your mom. That won’t change.”
Wren nodded, and Daisy hugged her again while they walked down the stairs just as Zach walked through with takeout, and Alden jumped out from behind a potted plant and nearly collided with him.
“Are you going to be our stepdad?” Alden asked, hopping around Zach’s feet.
Daisy’s heart went into a full-on spiral, but Zach didn’t even seem ruffled. “Right now, I’m the guy who got you dinner.”
She could see that put him light-years ahead of Amberly, at least in the present moment.
The kids dug into the food, though Wren especially seemed glum. She took her meal and sat down at the table, and Zach did the same.
They ate with only minimal shenanigans, though Alden managed to get a piece of spaghetti stuck to the ceiling, which Zach retrieved. Daisy thought her heart might actually burst.
“Okay,” Daisy said. “Go up and brush your teeth. Then I’ll come in to read you your stories and tuck you in.”
The kids scampered off with only mild complaints. She attributed their good nature to the pasta and breadsticks.
“You didn’t have to do all this.” She touched his arm, his body, warm and solid beneath her hand, a comfort she was afraid of getting used to.
“I know,” Zach responded.
“Do you . . . do you have nieces and nephews? Because you seem like you’re really good with kids.”
“I do. But I always figure you just treat kids the way you wish you got treated. I personally would love it if someone got me pasta when I was hungry. So I followed that instinct.”
“I know I loved it,” she said.
“Then settle down, and don’t act like you’re about to throw me out the front door.” His gaze was serious, so much it made her chest hurt.
“I’m not throwing you out, I promise. But you really don’t have to stay.”
“I haven’t done a damned thing I haven’t wanted to do all day.”
She smiled slowly. “Do you have my bra?”
“What?”
“I left my bra at your house.”
“I don’t have your bra. Does that mean you aren’t wearing one?”
“Yes. Thankfully sort of hidden by the sweatshirt.”
“That’s all I’m going to be thinking about for the rest of tonight.”
For the rest of tonight. Would he spend the night? Did she want him to? It seemed like such a big, dangerous thing to have him in her house, with her kids, like they were a couple when they were very much not labeling it at the moment for obvious reasons.
Dangerous because it made her want things she couldn’t want right now. Because it would be foolish to rush right into something permanent, and Zach . . .
Zach was looking at her like he would stay as long as she wanted him to.
“I have to do story time,” she said.
“I’ll wait.”
She read the kids their stories, but they weren’t as bright and happy as they often were. Of course, the kids were mourning that all of this was different. That Jonathan wasn’t part of bedtime, bath time, story time. She’d mourned it too.
But he’d made his choice.
She needed to make hers. To stand firm in hers.
She tucked Wren in, then followed the boys to their rooms, where she tucked them in too. As she closed Alden’s door behind her, she saw Zach at the top of the stairs. She reached her hand out toward him, and he came to her.
She led him down the hallway, toward the room she’d shared with Jonathan for all those years. “Do you want to spend the night?” she whispered.
“I thought you’d never ask, Daisy.”
At least now she was grateful she wasn’t wearing a bra. Everything would go that much faster. She was desperate for him.
Desperate for this thing between them to carry her away to a better moment in time.
He kissed her, and she let him lay her down in bed. Let him tuck her in.
Let him make her grateful that he was the man she was with today.
She didn’t miss Jonathan at all.