Page 150 of Mr. Aster
“It’s entirely my pleasure, and it is long overdue.” I looked at Charlotte, “Come with me, Char. I am excited for you to meet Darcy.”
With that unexpected moment behind me, I took my daughter’s hand, feeling an odd sense of comfort that I would have her all to myself without help from the nanny to pick up the slack.
We walked into the foyer, and I smiled at Darcy as she stared at the paintings on the wall.
“I haven’t quite made out what those images are?” I said, finding her more beautiful than ever. She wore a simple sundress, and her hair was filled with natural beachy waves flowing freely down her back.
“Daddy, they’re mountains,” Char said with annoyance. “Even I know that.”
“You are very observant,” Darcy said, smiling vibrantly at my daughter. “But the big question is, which mountains are they?”
“I don’t know?” Char answered with intrigue as if these were incredibly important mountains, and she wanted to know everything about them immediately.
Charlotte’s tenacity was one of the many things I adored about her. She loved to learn, and I loved seeing the wheels turn in her head when she did.
“I didn’t know either, not until I moved here. They are called the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range,” Darcy said as she walked over to the windows that lent the views of the hills and lush mountains that framed the entire city of Puerto Vallarta. “Aren’t they beautiful?”
“It’s like a jungle?” Char asked, rushing to Darcy’s side, looking up at her as if Darcy were Minnie Mouse at Disneyland.
“Yes, a lot like a jungle. They even have ziplines that people use to fly through the forest like a bird.”
“No way,” Charlotte said in little more than a whisper, almost like she saw it in her mind’s eye. “Do you go to the jungle?”
“I do,” Darcy answered her.
I loved watching the two loves of my life bond so easily, and I hadn’t even contributed a single word. Darcy was much better at this than I was with Charlotte, and Ibusted my assto make my daughter find me interesting. With Darcy, Char seemed effortlessly intrigued by her.
My heart was filled with love and happiness, and I couldn’t express it as I watched the magic fly between the two people I loved most.
“I went down a zipline and even sawmonkeys,” she said so excitedly that I feared my daughter’s response.
All sense of love and adoration of this moment was replaced by sudden panic and fear.
“Like at the zoo,” I interrupted my daughter before she could respond. “And I’m sure there are snakes and frogs up there, too.”
That should do the trick. Charlotte hated the reptile exhibit at the zoo, so her mind should easily veer away from the monkey aspect of this conversation.
“A monkey like you were named after?” Charlotte asked Darcy, not having heard a word I’d said as usual.
Darcy’s eyes roamed over to my dumbass and arched her eyebrow, making me brace myself for what might come next.
“Why, yes,” Darcy said.
“I like your name, Darcel.”
I closed my eyes and admitted defeat. I would’ve been a natural-born idiot if I didn’t think this would bite me in the ass.
“I absolutely love it, too,” I admitted.
I was now being ignored bybothwomen I loved more than anything in this world.
“Well, I hate that name,” Darcy said. “I like it better when people call me Darcy.”
“Hate is a bad word, Darcel,” Charlotte chastised as I watched their adorable connection rapidly dissolve.
“That’s very true,” Darcy answered. “I shouldn’t say that word, but because I did, maybe it shows how much I don’t like that name.” Darcy eyed me, then looked at Charlotte, “In fact, I think some people tell people that’s my name because they’re mean or angry with me.”
“Oh no,” Charlotte said. “My daddy told me that’s your name.”
