Page 41 of I'm Yours

Justin:Have her FaceTime me after. I miss her. Not your ugly mug but her.

Me:Will do.

The door opens and a flood of little girls all dressed similarly to Emmy rushes out, all to their parents’ waiting arms. They’re a mess of giggles and chatter and demonstrations of what they learned. When Emmy spots me, she runs to me and I lift her in my arms.

“Daddy, I danced!”

“Did you? And? Was it everything you dreamed it would be?”

“Uh huh! I had so much fun. And guess what?”

“What?”

“Miss Sadie said I didgreat!”

Sadie walks out of the room with a beaming smile and our eyes connect. “She did, huh?”

“Uh huh! Oh, Daddy, you got me flowers?!”

It’s then I realize I’m the only one who brought flowers for my daughter. Emmy wiggles so I set her down and she grabs the package from me, inhaling the scent.

Sadie makes her way over to us when Emmy calls her name to come see the flowers I got for her. “Uh, so usually that’s only when the girls have recitals. Parents don’t give their daughters flowers after every practice.”

I look around to see the girls begging their parents for flowers like Emmy got and the moms are now glaring at me.

“Oh, crap. Really?”

Sadie’s trying really hard not to laugh and then a woman joins us, her daughter in tow. “So you’re the one that’s going to make us all look bad, huh?”

“Erica, did you see my flowers?!”

“They’re so pretty! Mommy, I want flowers!”

I wince and then bend low, plucking a flower out of Emmy’s bouquet and handing it to Erica. “Hi, I’m Reed, Emmy’s dad. I’ve heard a lot about you, Erica.”

“Hi.”

I stand up straight and extend my hand to who I assume is Erica’s mom. “Hi there. Reed, Emmy’s dad. All I’ve heard about since school started is her best friend Erica. It seems like we’ll need to set up a time for the girls to get together or something.”

I feel like patting myself on the back for how adult I’m behaving. Normally Katherine would have been the one to exchange numbers with another parent and I’d just participate in whatever she was telling me we needed to do. This single parent thing isn’t for the faint of heart by any means, but I’m learning. Slowly.

“I’m Kandace. Nice to meet you, Reed.” She grins, sliding her eyes over to Sadie briefly before returning to me. “I’ve heard a lot about you as well. Emmy, I mean. Not you,” she corrects herself but I can’t help but wonder if what she said first held some level of truth.

“Sorry about the flowers thing. I thought that’s what we were supposed to do.”

Kandace shakes her head and holds a hand up. “Nah, it’s okay. It’s just for recitals but it looks like they’re a hit with Emmy so I wouldn’t worry too much.”

“Got it.”

“I was just telling Reed how great Emmy did in class tonight.”

“She did! Erica is in the class up one level from hers because she did that class last year but I still help teach the new students. She has a lot of natural talent.”

“I’m sure she gets that from me,” I joke. I have two left feet. But then again, so did Katherine. We barely even slow danced at our wedding. I have no idea where Emmy gets her rhythm from, other than like Kandace said, it coming natural to her.

Sadie’s finger pokes me in the shoulder and I want to reach out and tug her close. That damn leotard or ballerina outfit or whatever it’s called is making my head fuzzy. Her curves… so fucking sexy and in all the right places. No other woman has ever called to me the way she does. “Oh, right. I seem to remember you always stomping on my toes when we’d dance.”

“Hey now, I always warned you.” I grin down at her and take a step closer, pointing at our feet.

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