Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Without discussing it, we both seemed to make up our minds about what felt like home. And it wasn’t my crazy expensive, perpetually broken, house. It was Owen’s cozy, warm, inviting house.
“Come here, you,” I said, scooping up Adelaide and making our way downstairs to greet Owen.
“There’s my girls!” he said, coming over to us. He wrapped one arm around me, put the other on Adelaide’s back, and leaned in to give me a quick kiss. “How’d work go?” he asked.
I’d been slowly phasing work back in. Just a couple hours here and there to keep clients happy. And everything from home while Adelaide slept or kept herself occupied in her enrichment center.
So far, so good.
“I got a full hour and a half of uninterrupted work time. It was a miracle.”
“Were you good for Mommy?” he asked as he lifted Adelaide from my arms.
“Ma-ma-ma.”
“Yeah, Mama. What do you say I take Adelaide with me to the store to get the makings for dinner and you just relax?”
“I say stop talking dirty to me.”
That got a sexy little chuckle out of him.
“What do you want for dinner?”
“We’ve had a heavy week, and I need to fit into my old suits eventually. Maybe fish?”
“Fish it is. But for the record, I like your body exactly how it is. And for you, milady?” he asked Adelaide, who babbled back at him. “Pureed pears and sweet potatoes? Quite the refined palate you have there. We will be back,” he said, giving me another quick kiss before making his way to the door, grabbing the diaper bag and my car keys before slipping Adelaide into the pumpkin seat before heading out the door.
“Well, it’s you and me, boy,” I said to Tuna, who whined to see his baby being taken away. “We probably should do the laundry or run a vacuum,” I said. “But I think we should curl up in bed and take a nap. Thoughts?”
It didn’t escape my notice how a carefree nap wouldn’t have been possible just a few months ago. There were so many things that having Owen in my life had changed.
I didn’t have to do every feeding or every diaper change. If the sink got full, he would run the dishwasher without having to be asked. Daily tasks no longer kept compiling until I felt suffocated by them as I tried my best to take care of my baby. Because now, there was someone to do the chores. Or take care of Adelaide while I handled them.
It was such a foreign thing, having an equal. Even in serious past relationships, I’d never been able to rely on someone to pick up the slack. Let alone take care of something before I even thought about doing it.
I really couldn’t have found a better man to be a partner.
Sure, things were still in the beginning stages.
But I knew.
I knew down to my marrow that he was the one.
And, what’s even more important, I believed he felt the same way.
Did I often doubt myself about that, given what I’d been through in the past? Yes. But Owen went out of his way to show me that he was nothing like the men I knew, that he could be relied upon, that he was here for me, my daughter, and anything we could need.
“He’s one of the good ones, right?” I asked Tuna as he stared at me on the bed.
His tail thumped his answer.
Owen - 8 months
“Da-da, Da-da, Da-da!” Adelaide threw out her arm with her sippy cup, accidentally sending it flying across the floor.
I’d never get tired of hearing her say that word. Dada.
Each time I heard it, my heart felt close to bursting.
She wasn’t mine, not by blood. But she was mine in every way that counted.
I was there for midnight feedings. I was there, sneaking her downstairs in the early mornings so Willa could catch up on sleep. I was there when she was sick, when she got her first real boo-boo, when she got up, when she went to bed, when she said her first word, when she crawled for the first time.
It was three months ago when Willa, uncharacteristically shy, sat down next to me on the couch with Adelaide on her lap and asked me if it would be okay for her to teach Adelaide to call me Dada.
It felt like the biggest gift she could possibly give me. And I planned never to take it for granted.
“Thank God these things are spill-proof,” Willa said as she snatched it up. “The cleaners just finished an hour ago.”
“It’s so strange to see this place so empty,” I said, looking around the vast, hollow space.
Sure, we’d been slowly emptying the place out for months. Once we stayed at my house, neither of us wanted to leave. Slowly but surely, things that were necessary or important to Willa found their way into the house, closets, guest rooms, or basement. Until she and Adelaide were woven into every corner of the home the same way I was. Exactly the way they should be.