Page 31 of Irresistible Second Chance

Still, I drove home on autopilot. I had a lot on my mind. Mark had really distracted me with his nonsense, and I felt a little off kilter and anxious. I was the type whose whole day was thrown off if things didn’t go as planned. Nothing was going as planned today. As I pulled up to my house, I told myself to stop being so dramatic and to get a grip on my emotions. I climbed out wearily and let myself inside.

I was glad Dad hadn’t decided to show up at my place that day randomly as he often did now that Mark wasn’t around. Dad had been noticeably busy lately and didn’t just drop by unannounced like he had before. I had a sneaky suspicion that he probably knew Chris was here at night sometimes. I didn’t know exactly how I felt about that. I wasn’t really comfortable with anyone thinking of Chris and I as an item. I needed to be alone with my thoughts. I walked into the kitchen and went into the fridge, looking for a little pick me up. I normally wasn’t the type to eat my emotions, but I totally did that day. I sat on my couch, making my way through a pack of tasteless cookies, blissfully ignoring the number of calories and sugar content.

I picked up another cookie and was about to stick it in my mouth when my phone rang, and I thought about not answering. Then I saw it was Dad. I couldn’t ignore Dad.

“Hi,” I forced myself to sound chipper as I answered. I was far from chipper. Who was I kidding? I was never chipper. I was more sour than sweet.

“Sydney,” he said sounding a little hesitant. I wasn’t used to my father sounding hesitant about anything. I immediately became suspicious. Was he going to try to get me to host his Fantasy Football League again? I sighed, ready to beat him to the punch when he said, “I need your help.”

Hmm...that’s not how I expected this conversation to go. I instantly became worried. Dad wasn’t the type to ask for help. When mom left, he never asked for my help with the household chores or cooking; he never asked me to take on additional responsibilities in the house or help him with Starr. I kind of checked out emotionally when Mom left the final time, and he let me. I’m not sure if it was the healthiest way to cope, but it had worked for me.

“Is everything ok?”

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine,” he rushed to assure me. “It’s just your sister had to go on some sort of influencer tour, whatever that means, and normally she would take the kids, but I told her I would take care of them until she got back...so that she could relax but I’m exhausted already, and I have this uhh...appointment that just came up---.”

“I get it, Dad. No need to explain.” I figured it was another doctor appointment. I had previously insisted on going with him to his appointments, but he had decided early on that he didn’t want to disturb my schedule. He was stubborn. I got that from him.

“Can you take them for a few days?”

I didn’t have plans for the weekend. Chris was coming over that night. I would call him to cancel. Dad never asked anything of me. It was the least I could do. And I still had TJ’s bucket somewhere. She and Johnna could play with that.

“I’ll happily take them.” I meant that. I loved my little sister and part of me felt a little guilty for pretty much ignoring her entire existence during most of her childhood.

“Great,” my dad said, “I’m five minutes away.”

“What?!” Ok, that caught me off guard. I wanted to prepare myself emotionally first before he just sort of dumped them in my lap. Oh well. “Wow, thanks for the heads up, Dad.”

He laughed. “Don’t back out now, we’re two streets away.”

“Ughhh” I said to myself after he hung up. I looked around the house and hoped it was clean enough for company. Of course, it was spotless aside from the pile of laundry I hadn’t gotten a chance to fold. I was more of a dry cleaner’s type of girl, but Chris had distracted me from my usual routine. Speaking of Chris, I still needed to call him to cancel. I picked up my phone and began to text him as I walked up to my door.

I could hear them through the door. The girls were arguing about something. I didn’t know what. I couldn’t make out the words, but they were loud and definitely passionate about whatever they were discussing. As their voices grew louder, and TJ started screaming at Johanna, I suddenly wasn’t feeling all that confident with my ability to keep them entertained enough to not argue with each other all weekend. Maybe I should have told Dad that I was sick.

Too late. The doorbell rang. I placed my hand on the knob, took a deep breath, and took a look in the hallway mirror. I looked cranky. I blamed Mark and then arranged my face into what I hoped was a convincing smile. It didn’t seem too convincing, I thought to myself as I sighed and opened the door. They instantly stopped arguing and smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back. They were so much like Starr. They were little bursts of sunshine even at their worst. Suddenly the smile on my face wasn’t forced. I was glad to see them. It felt nice to be needed.

“Hi, kiddos!” I bent down to hug them, and they embraced me like they hadn’t seen me in a million years.

I’d only pulled away from them for a second before the tattle-tailing began. “TJ cut her own hair!” Johnna said with her hands on her hips. She shook her head as she were so disappointed in her sister. I fought back a laugh and looked at my dad who just shrugged guiltily. So, I guess she cut her hair on his watch. Boy, was he in trouble.

“And grandpa let us paint his nails,” Johnna continued, “Doesn’t he look fabulous?” She said with a fake Southern drawl that made me giggle. Reality TV filmed in the South was my sister’s favorite guilty pleasure and it seemed her kids joined in on the fun too.

She grabbed dad’s hand so hard that he kind of grunted as she pulled him in my direction to show me their handy work. Yikes. Dad’s nails, cuticles and a few tops of his fingers were painted bright pink and yellow. They clearly still needed to work on coloring within the lines.

“They look amazing!” I said, biting back a grin as dad gave me an amused look, leading them into the house.

“And what’s this about your hair TJ?”

The moment those words came out of my mouth, I noticed then that the entire back left side of her hair was cut 4 inches shorter than the other side.

I bit my lip to keep from laughing but couldn’t help it. She giggled and so did her sister as I inspected it. Starr was in for a surprise, that’s for sure, “Wow, are you a hairdresser now?”

“I wanted a new look!” TJ was such a character.

“And I helped!” Johnna admitted. “I held the mirror.”

“So, it was a team effort...what does your mom think?”

My dad shook his head. “She doesn’t know. I figured it would be a nice surprise.” He was going to be in so much trouble with Starr, I thought again to myself. She was tougher on Dad than I was.

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