Page 69 of The Path To Us

“Love you, Beau. I’m happy for you. Are you happy?”

“Happier than I’ve ever been and considering what transpired recently, feeling like I’d never again be happy after Chris died, I’m not taking it for granted.”

“Yeah,” she says quietly.

We tell each other goodbye and I take the quickest shower of my life considering that I’ve now left Zoey alone for over ten minutes after I left her alone for ten minutes because I was busy sucking face with her mother.

When I emerge from the bathroom freshly showered and dressed, I find Zoey in her room, Macaroni next to her as she plays at a pretend kitchen.

“You take long showers,” she says when she notices me.

“Sorry.”

She shrugs. “It’s okay. I like to sit in the bath for a long time, too.”

“Ready for your surprise?”

She nods and stands up. “What is it?”

“How about you get dressed. Wear something Mommy won’t get upset if you get dirty. I’ll tell you on the way.”

“Yay! I’m excited!” she cheers, standing up and moving quickly to her dresser. She pulls out a drawer and finds a pair of cotton shorts and I help her find a shirt that doesn’t look like it’s meant for only nice occasions. Luckily for me, Addy dresses Zoey the same way she dresses herself. Casual and comfortable and nothing too fancy. She strips down to nothing right in front of me and I turn my head, not sure if that’s allowed even though she’s my niece and she’s only five.

When I see her dump her dirty pajamas in her hamper, I turn around. “Ready?”

She shakes her head. “My hair.”

“What about it?”

She places a hand on her hip and juts it out. “Unca Beau. It’s messy.”

“Oh. Right. Do you have a brush or something?”

Zoey huffs like I’m an imbecile and grabs my hand to lead me to the bathroom I was just monopolizing. Like a practiced pro, she pulls open a drawer at the bottom of the vanity and finds her brush and some spray and hands me both.

“Do I use this first?” I ask her, looking at the spray.

“Uh huh. It helps.”

I read the label and notice it says it’s detangling spray for kids. I look at her hair. Back to the bottle. Back to her hair.

I wonder if it will take the entire bottle.

I’m impressed that it takes us just a few minutes to work through her hair that now smells like green apple, according to the bottle, and is brushed out nicely. But then she hands me a hair tie and I begin the panic all over again.

I manage to get her hair up in a ponytail, but I’m not sure that it looks better than it did before we brushed it. It’s messy at best, but at least it will be out of her eyes when we’re running around the farm.

“Okay. Shoes and let’s grab Macaroni. He’s invited, too.”

“Yay! What are we doing?”

“Patience, Squirt.”

“I don’t like that word.”

I bark out a laugh and grab a couple bottles of water from the fridge before loading up Zoey and Macaroni in my truck and heading out to the farm.

On our way, Zoey asks a lot of questions trying to figure out where we’re going but I keep deflecting, wanting it to be a surprise.

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