Page 110 of Family Bonds: Alana & Brennan
Had to be like ripping off a blood-crusted bandage on a raw wound.
“Slow down,” he said to Becca twenty minutes later. They were at the table and eating dinner and his daughter was plowing through it as if she hadn’t eaten in days. The last thing he needed was her choking.
Considering he packed her lunch and it was all gone when he emptied her backpack, he didn’t know what the problem was.
“I’m hungry,” Becca said.
“You ate everything I packed today.” Even the extra snacks he always tossed in.
“I shared my snacks today.”
“Oh,” he said. “Why?”
He wouldn’t get mad over that. Not unless someone was shaking his kid down for their food. Then there’d be hell to pay.
“Polly didn’t like her snack. She said her mother put a banana in there and it was soft. Soft bananas are gross.”
He laughed. Becca was particular about the ripeness of her fruit.
“So she had food but didn’t like it?” he asked.
Becca nodded. “She didn’t like her sandwich either. It was tuna. It smelled funny. Polly said she doesn’t like tuna. And it was warm.”
He snorted, but he could see where mistakes might happen when you’re in a rush.
But if there was no ice in the lunch bag that sandwich had to be rotten by then.
It was probably a good thing Polly hadn’t eaten it.
“I’m glad you shared then,” he said.
“That’s right,” Becca said. “Alana said to always share when people need it.” His daughter thought Alana walked on water. He was thrilled they got along so well, but also unsure if he wanted them so attached yet.
“Not always,” he said. “The world doesn’t work that way.”
“How come?” Becca asked.
He realized now he shouldn’t have started this conversation. That it was always good to help those in need, but not the best to help those who couldn’t help themselves and chose not to.
Hell, even as an adult, it was hard to decipher the difference.
Guess he had Rene on the brain and the worry that Alana might think there was more going on with Celia coming over on Saturday than an innocent play date.
He’d bent over backwards to do everything for Rene, and that was one of many mistakes.
“You’ll figure it out when you’re older,” he said. “But you did the right thing and helped a friend out so she wasn’t hungry. But you ate too, right?”
“We shared my sandwich,” Becca said. “Polly said she’s never had a ham and cheese sandwich before and she liked it. Can you make them on Saturday for us?”
“Sure,” he said. Much easier than chicken strips and fries that he would have tossed in the air fryer.
After he cleaned up dinner, he ran Becca’s bathwater so she could bathe and wash her hair.
Just more time dragging things out before he confessed the mess he made to Alana.
Once his daughter was in bed and sleeping, he dragged himself downstairs as if he was walking the plank and picked his phone up.
It was eight and he often called now so it wouldn’t seem odd.
