Page 41 of Reclaim Me

“You told her?”

My heart slows to a stop and then starts again, kicking into overdrive when Rae nods. She knows. My daughter knows about me, and I know about her, and things I didn’t even know were broken in this world, and in me, are being healed.

“She wants to meet you,” Rae says, her features calm and restrained even though I know there must be a riot of emotion happening inside her.

“And I want to meet her. Just tell me when and where, and I’ll be there.”

“Right now. Your parking lot.”

“What?” Rae stands, and I do, too, because I heard what she said, even if my question suggests otherwise. “You left her in the car by herself?” I ask, following her down the stairs and out of the gym.

“I was gone for five minutes. The air is on, and she has her phone so she can call if there’s an emergency.” We’re outside now, and Rae is parked right by the front door, which makes me feel a little better.

A little.

“That’s still not safe,” I tell her, my steps faltering when Riley looks out the window and meets my eyes. “Someone could have?—”

“Hunter,” Rae snaps, cutting me off. “She’s fine. Everything is fine. Now, do you want to lecture me on my parenting decisions or meet your daughter?”

Part of me wants to do both, but I know that’s not an option.

“I want to meet my daughter.”

My daughter. Damn, do those words feel like heaven on my tongue. There’s bliss in every syllable, euphoria in their meaning, and my feet are moving again, this time on their own accord, prepared to take me to Riley so I can find out if shaking her little hand makes me feel the same way.

Rae stops me with two palms on my chest, and the physical contact is a shock for us both. Currents of energy, sharp and decisive, rebound through me, stilling me once again. Rae feels it too. She steps back, her face warped into a mask of unreadable emotion.

“Just wait right here,” she says finally, holding her palms up still but not touching me. “Let me bring her to you, okay?”

“Okay.”

I don’t know why it matters whether I go to her or she comes to me, but I know Rae has thought this part of our interaction through, so I follow her lead. I’m going to have to do a lot of that now, yielding to her, learning from her, letting her take the lead so I can figure out how to be as good at this as she is. From just a few paces away, I watch her open the car door and crouch down to Riley’s level. Riley keeps her eyes on her mom’s face, listening as she explains something I’m too far away to hear. I can guess what she’s saying, though. She’s probably telling her not to be afraid of me. That I might look big and scary, but I’m actually a teddy bear at heart, and while that’s not really true, I’ll go along with it, making it true for Riley the same way I used to make it true for her mom.

When their conversation is done, Rae grabs Riley’s hand and helps her out of the car. They walk towards me looking like a hopeful future and a lost past, and my heart aches because they are both so fucking beautiful.

“Hunter, this is Riley,” Rae says, yanking me back into the moment. “Riley, this is your dad, Hunter.”

Most of the kids I know are either troubled like Taurin or….well, actually, I don’t know any other kids outside of Taurin, but I can still say with confidence that Riley is nothing like any other kid in this world. Where I expect fear or the kind of bashfulness that makes kids cling to their mom’s legs when they meet new people, I find nothing but courage. She looks me dead in the eye, and then, to my surprise and pure delight, she extends her hand to me and says, “Hey, I know you.”

I drop down to my haunches, keeping her hand in mine. “You do?”

“Yep, you’re the man from the cemetery.”

Rae and I both laugh at her candidness, but I’m the only one who responds. “That’s right. I did see you at the cemetery once. What were you doing out there, robbing graves?”

She scrunches up her little button nose. “Eww, no. We were visiting my Nana and Uncle Will.”

“Oh, okay, I guess that makes more sense.”

I glance at Rae, and we engage in a silent conversation over Riley’s head. One where I tell her I’m sorry she had to do that alone, and she says it’s fine because she’s used to doing things like that alone.

“Were you robbing graves?” Riley asks, pulling my focus back to her.

“Of course not! That’s against the law. Do I look like the kind of person who’d break the law?”

My daughter gives me a once-over with eyes that are just like mine and purses her lips. “A little bit.”

I slap my free hand over my heart and let my mouth fall open in faux shock. “What is it, the tattoos?”

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