Page 34 of Their Forever Daddy

“Oh my god.” Huffing out an annoyed breath, Edie planted her fists on her hips and glared at the cabinets. Then at Daddy. “Fine. You win. I’ll eat.”

For the first time in Jesse’s memory, Daddy looked completely and utterly lost. “What?”

“You win,” Edie repeated with another roll of her eyes. “I’m going to take a shower but then I’ll whip us up some biscuits and gravy, since that’s apparently what your girl is craving.”

“That’s your answer to all your cabinet doors flying open?” Looking more and more confused by the second, Daddy gestured wildly to the scene around them. “To have breakfast?”

“Well, I’m certainly not going to stand here and argue with two bossy males,” Edie replied, a smirk curving her lips. “I know how to pick my battles.”

“What are you talking about, woman?”

Jesse slapped a hand over her mouth to smother the giggles threatening to escape. It wasn’t that she wasn’t also concerned about the cabinets, but she’d just never seen her Daddy looking or sounding so… flustered.

“Ken.” Edie shrugged, as if that simple answer explained everything. “He was a nag when he was alive and honestly, being dead has only made him worse.”

One of the cabinets above the sink slammed shut again, so hard it bounced right back open, making Daddy jump and jerk around at the sound. Turning back to Edie, he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose the way he did when he was trying hard not to lose his patience. “You have to be fucking with me.”

“I’m not. He’s a quiet sort, just like he was when he was alive, but he gets kind of rowdy when I’m not taking care of myself. So, you win. I’ll be back down after my shower.”

With that, Edie turned on her heel and swept from the kitchen with all the regal air of a queen. Jesse watched her go, then looked back at her Daddy, who was still standing in the middle of the kitchen, his eyes now open and looking utterly, adorably befuddled.

She couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing.

Edie

* * *

The shower helped calm her frayed nerves a good bit. Thank god, because she wasn’t sure she could take much more of Jesse’s soulful looks and Grant’s too-knowing eyes before she broke. Especially with her conversation with Grant still swirling around in her brain.

I think it might actually kill me to have to live the rest of my life knowing the woman I love is still in love with someone else.

What was she supposed to do with that information? Even if she did want to work things out with Jesse, to give her another chance, it wasn’t like that was actually an option. Jesse and Grant were getting married for fuck’s sake.

She could just tell Jesse she forgave her. The thought had crossed her mind more than once over the past two days. It would solve all their problems and get Jesse out of her hair sooner rather than later.

But she couldn’t seem to bring herself to lie about it. And she wasn’t particularly keen on digging into why that was.

So she put it out of her mind—again—and crouched to pull open the drawer holding her t-shirts. And paused with her hand hovering over the pile of haphazardly folded clothes when she spotted that same fucking polaroid from the day before sitting on top.

Hadn’t she shoved that under all her clothes yesterday?

“Obviously not,” she muttered to herself, picking up the photo and pushing it to the bottom of the drawer. She’d been so flustered at the time she must have left it sitting on top and just not realized it.

That was definitely what happened.

Shaking off the lingering unease, she grabbed a shirt at random and pulled it over her head before slamming the drawer shut and heading downstairs.

Halfway down the steps she paused, tilting her head to the side and listening. Jesse was laughing at something, and the familiar sound made her chest ache with longing as it filled the house. And then Grant joined in, quieter and deeper, but it somehow melded perfectly with Jesse’s more high-pitched shrieks. A perfect harmony of joy that made her realize with a sudden clarity exactly how empty her house was on a regular basis.

Maybe once the dust settled from this… whatever it was with Jesse, she’d make it a point to go out more often. The club in Charleston had plenty of single members. She could probably find another Little girl of her own if she put the effort in.

The idea left her feeling a little hollow, again for reasons she wasn’t super interested in exploring until later. Annoyed with herself, she finished her trek down the stairs to the kitchen.

Where she found Grant and Jesse, the latter with flour dusting her face as she tipped her head back, offering her lips up for a kiss. Grant, who was so far flour-free, leaned down and brushed his lips across hers.

It was such a simple, intimate moment, and for the first time in years she felt like an intruder in her own home.

Lying was sounding like a better and better option all the time.

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