Twenty-Nine | Lyric
Twenty-Nine
Lyric
“Rufus!” I shrieked, pulling my hand away as the goat tried to bite it. “You'd better stop being naughty, or I’m going to—”
“Please don’t get rid of her,” Chloe said sadly with tears filling her eyes.
My brow lifted as my face fell, hating how brokenhearted she looked.
“Oh, honey,” I replied, kneeling in front of her while keeping watch of Rufus out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t trust that cheeky little goat for anything. “I would never get rid of her.”
“Then what were you going to do to her?”
“I umm...” I hesitated, unsure of what to say because I had truly been thinking about all the places I could send her—not that I would ever admit that to Chloe.
“Chores,” Ben answered for me as he scratched Magnolia’s head. “She would make Rufus do chores.”
I smiled and let out the breath I had been holding, offering him a silent thank you when he met my eyes.
“Chores?” Chloe snorted. “Goats can’t do chores.”
“Sure they can,” Ben said, nodding his head as he fought for his life to come up with something.
“Yeah,” I jumped in. “Like mowing the grass. Technically, Rufus would have to eat all of the weeds first, but it would still be a lot of work.”
“I thought goats liked that?”
“What?” I asked, putting my hand on my hip as I stood up and stared at Chloe as if she had just revealed mind-blowing information. “Are you kidding me?”
I shook my head for dramatic effect as I pressed the palm of my hand to my head.
“And here I thought it would be the perfect punishment for her biting me.” I turned and faced Rufus, shaking my finger at her. “You better behave, or I won’t let you eat any weeds or grass.”
Chloe giggled, the sound of pure joy filling the air around us. I glanced at my watch, debating whether to stay with them a little longer or get started on the work that needed to be done.
“Go ahead, I’ve got her,” Ben said, reading my mind. “We’ll head inside in half an hour so I can get her a snack before nap time.”
“Sounds great. Thank you. You guys have fun and come get me if you need anything.”
I headed inside, knowing that I needed to focus on getting those designs finished, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what I said to Cole last night.
I knew it wasn’t fair to unload all of that on him when he was simply asking me for another chance, but at the time, it felt safer to put my walls up than to consider a future with Cole.
I sat down at my makeshift desk and pulled out the notepad I had been sketching in. While I could use more modern approaches and do stuff digitally, there was something soothing about hand-drawing my sketches. It always brought a sense of joy to see the ideas in my head come to life on paper.
My mind was so focused on the sketch I was working on that I hadn’t noticed when Ben and Chloe had come inside until I found her standing beside me, looking at the woman I was outlining.
“Is that my mommy?” she asked, her eyes big as she stared at the page.
I looked at her, then at the page, and frowned because I hadn’t noticed the way I had drawn the woman until she pointed it out.
Her long, flowy hair looked identical to Melanie’s, but it was the softness in her face that made my heart ache.
Her smile was so similar that if I allowed myself to, I could picture her as if she were really there.
“No, sweetie,” I said softly. “It’s just a picture I drew, but it kind of looks like her, huh?”
Chloe nodded, continuing to smile at it as Ben came and stood behind her.
“That looks just like my mom,” he replied, a ting of sadness in his voice.
I moved my head in agreement, the emotions building so quickly that I didn’t trust myself to speak. As if sensing my unease, Ben guided Chloe out of the room, promising her a snack and her favorite cartoon while allowing me a moment to gather myself.
By the time Cole got home after picking Kara up from school, I felt like I had conquered the world, when in reality, I had just unlocked some creativity I didn’t know was blocked. I had spent the day working on a whole new set of sketches with an entirely different focus than when I had started.
Melanie had been the inspiration for everything, and I was over the moon about the idea of launching a new brand focused on mommy-and-me trends. I had taken some of the concepts I had originally been playing with and re-worked them, making them fun and appealing to all age groups.
I was prepping dinner when Cole and Kara walked in, both laughing at something that had been said before they came inside.
My heart fluttered with happiness, seeing the two of them together, knowing how safe she felt with him.
I knew no one would ever replace their father, but it was comforting knowing that Cole would do everything in his power to be the kind of father they all needed.
Kinda like how I always knew he would be the perfect father to our children, if we were ever blessed to have them.