Page 541 of One More Kiss

Andrea

I watchedas Maddie poked at her mashed potatoes, pushing them around her plate with a fork. “You okay, munchkin?”

She blew out a dramatic sigh and propped her head on one hand. “Yeah.”

Something was bothering her, I could tell. “Want to talk about it?”

She set her fork on her plate, her mouth twisting a bit before she answered. “Mrs. Weber gave us a new project for Social Studies.”

“That sounds like fun,” I offered. Anything beat reading out of a book for six-year-olds.

“I guess,” came her plaintive response.

“What’s your project about?” I pressed.

She slowly lifted her gaze to mine. “Our families.”

My heart gave a heavy thump in my chest. I already knew what was coming, but I forced myself to smile anyway. “Well, that’s an easy one. You have me and grandma and grandpa…”

I trailed off when her gaze dropped to the table. “I know,” she replied. “But everyone’s been talking about their moms and dads, and Lissa Rae made fun of me because I don’t have a dad.”

Everything inside me went white hot with anger, spurred by an irrational urge to scream at the brat who’d hurt my little girl’s feelings. I swallowed it down and affected my most serene expression even as my blood boiled in my veins. “I know we don’t talk about him much, honey, but you do have a daddy. Unfortunately, he had things that took him away from you when you were just a baby.”

Her big blue eyes bore into mine. “What was he like?”

An asshole. “Funny.” It was the only redeeming quality I could think of off the top of my head. He drank too much, took things too far, and that was precisely how he’d ended up in jail when I was four months pregnant.

Not that it would have made a difference. He’d told me he was leaving me the moment I revealed that I was pregnant. Going to jail had just taken him away physically. It was a relief to have him out of my life, but my daughter deserved to know about her father, and I would give her whatever truths I could. I still hadn’t told her that he was in jail. I didn’t think she needed to know that. If she wanted to reach out to him when she was older—though I prayed that she wouldn’t—he could explain his own actions to her then. My ex was like a mythical being to her, and I didn’t want to dim her illusion of him just yet.

From the time she was born, it was just the two of us. When she got old enough to ask about her father, I’d told her that he’d had to go away but that he loved her very much and missed her every day. I doubted her father even spared either of us a single thought, but it had appeased her and we hadn’t spoken of it again. Until now.

I smiled over the table at my daughter. “Your daddy loved to tell jokes.” Mostly at my expense, but I left that part out.

Madison smiled. “Do you have any pictures of him?”

The question made me want to cringe. “I might. There are a couple shoeboxes under my bed with pictures in them. Maybe we can look through them after dinner?”

“I’m all done!” she cried as she scrambled from the chair.

Unable to deny her this, I reluctantly stood and headed upstairs to my room. Madison was already on her hands and knees peering under the bed, and she came up with a worn purple shoebox in her hands. “In here?”

“Let’s take a look,” I said as I settled on the floor next to her.

We dumped out the photos and spent the next hour sifting through each picture. She listened in rapt fascination as I introduced each of my friends and reminisced on stories from my past. Finally, I found Blaze’s photo at the bottom of the pile.

We stood around a campfire next to another couple, his arm slung around my shoulders. He looked so young, so innocent in the photo, and my stomach twisted. I remembered that night vividly; it was the same night I’d told him I was pregnant. He’d left me there alone without so much as a backward glance. A little over a week later he’d been picked up for armed robbery.

In retrospect, I should have known something like that would happen. My first mistake was dating a guy named Blaze. It wasn’t his real name, but he’d decided that Jesse Whitacre wasn’t nearly cool enough for the crowd he’d chosen to run with.

“Mom?”

The sound of Maddie’s voice pulled me from my reverie, and I turned the photo around so she could see better, then pointed to Blaze. “This is your daddy.”

“Wow.” Her eyes widened and she picked up the photograph, her gaze eagerly drinking in every detail. “Is this you?”

She pointed to me, six years younger, twenty pounds lighter. More or less. I smiled ruefully. “That’s me.”

She giggled. “What are you wearing?”

I peeked over the edge of the photograph. “Believe it or not, that was the style back then.”

Her nose scrunched up. “If you say so.”

I grinned and began to gather up the photos that littered the floor. When I reached for Blaze’s photo, Maddie hugged it to her chest. “Can I keep this one?”

Everything inside me revolted at the idea, but I forced myself to nod. “Sure. We can buy a frame for it if you’d like.”

“Awesome.” She pushed to her feet. “Thanks, mom.”

“Welcome.” I pasted a smile on my face and shoved the rest of the pictures back into the box to be stored under the bed and forgotten for another six years. If only everything in life were that easy.

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