Page 121 of Paper Hearts

Hand in hand, Eddie and I walk out the back screened-in porch toward the lake, a familiar path I used to take with Ender. I smile as she holds her hat with one hand and skips beside me. “I missed you. So much.”

Eddie grins up at me. “Me too. I was sad.”

“Because I was gone last week?”

“Yes.” She sighs, swinging our arms back and forth.

“I have to leave again soon. To LA for a couple weeks. You want to come with me?”

She looks up at me, squinting into the sun high above us. “What’s LA?”

“It’s in California.”

Her eyes light up. “You mean Disney Land?”

I laugh. She’s been to Disney World a handful of times but never Disney Land. “Yep. That’s there. Would you like me to take you before school starts?”

Her shoulders roll forward, her eyes dropping from mine. “I don’t wants to go to school.”

“I know, but we still have time. We can go to Disney Land and have fun before then.”

“Okay.” She sighs. “I guess so. Look, I can do it,” she tells me, chewing her gum and desperately trying to make a bubble with it. Her tiny tongue peeks out, covered in purple. Her eyes go cross-eyed as she tries to see her handiwork.

“You’re so amazing,” I tell her, reaching down to pick her up when we’re on the dock. I know the second I set her down, she’s going over the side, headfirst into the water without thinking.

“When I turns six, I don’t need you to swims with me,” she says when I set her on the dock and she’s immediately taking her sandals off.

I have enough time to set the towels down before Eddie tosses her hat off and jumps in the water. Shaking my head, I wait for her to surface and smile. “Couldn’t wait?”

Struggling, she treads water, breathing heavily, a familiar smirk on her lips. “Nope!”

I use the ladder and swim over to her, three feet from the edge of the dock. “You’re going to give me a heart attack.”

Eddie wraps her arms around my shoulders, water dripping off her nose, her bright blue eyes shining. “What’s that?”

“A heart attack?”

“Ya.”

“Well, I didn’t mean literally.” I take a raft Brenna tosses over the side of the dock as she and mom approach with Ben. Treading water, I set Eddie on it. “But a heart attack is when your heart stops beating.”

Her eyes widen and she covers my hands on the edge of the raft. The way her tiny eyebrows dig deep in the middle, her dark hair in her face… she’s so much like her daddy.

“I wasn’t serious.” I laugh, only to have her lunge off the raft and into the water again.

I can tell this is going to be a whole day thing.

Brenna, Harper, and Mom get in the water with us and we’re only out there long enough for Eddie to kick me in the face twice before she points to the grass on the other side of the dock. “Who’s he?”

When I look up, Ender’s eyes are on mine. He’s waiting. For us.

“Y’all want some time?” My mom moves closer. “Do you want me to take her?”

“No. Give me a minute.” I hold Eddie by her hands as she tries to use my shoulders as a diving board to launch herself into the water. She does, kicks me in the throat and belly flops into the water.

I look back at Ender and he smiles, shaking his head. I take in his appearance as I get closer, swimming over to the grassy area. He’s holding a stainless steel mug in one hand, the other tucked inside the pockets of his cargo shorts. The bandage on his wrist is still there and the closer I get to him, the more I realize Theo hit him a couple times.

“Hey,” I say, emerging from the water. Part of me wishes I would have grabbed a towel, but the other doesn’t care. It’s not about me, or him. This is about our daughter. “You want to meet her?”

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