Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 116708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Though, in my experience, the last one might have been the hardest part of all.
Truett
“That’s a fifty-dollar bill,” I said, sleep still thick in my voice. Holding my phone up in front of me to keep it in view, I poured a cup of coffee.
“What about this one?” the seeing-impaired gentleman on the other end of the app asked, holding up more cash in front of his camera.
“That’s a five and the two on the counter are ones,” I replied, padding down the hall to my office.
“Perfect.” He set the money down. “Can I ask you one last thing?”
I sank down into my rolling chair and clicked the mouse to open my computer. My baby was already there waiting on me, her smiling face filling the screen. I lifted a finger for her to hold on a minute and then turned my attention back to my phone. “That’s what I’m here for, sir.”
His voice smiled. “And I appreciate that. You have no idea how nice it is to have volunteers like you.”
I hated the praise. Loathed it. I wasn’t a hero for helping people. If anything, it was a debt I owed society. One of many I’d never be able to repay.
“What was your other question?” I asked to refocus him—and myself.
A bag of coffee filled the screen on my phone. “Is this decaf? I won’t be able to function by noon if I don’t get some caffeine in me.”
Boy, did I relate to that. I was going to need an entire pot to get through my day.
It was Wednesday again. My favorite dreaded day of the week. The last seven days had been… Oh, who was I kidding? It was always the same. Wake up. Eat. Work. Wait for Wednesday. Sleep. Wash, rinse, repeat. But this week, I had the near-impossible task of avoiding all thoughts of Gwen added to my list.
Nothing had ever been more exhausting.
“That is regular coffee, sir. You should be good,” I answered.
“Great. Thanks again for your time.”
“No problem. Have a good one.” I ended the call and immediately clicked back to Kaitlyn. “Good morning, my love.”
“Daddy, look!” She lifted a dead weed that could only barely be classified as a flower.
“Wow. That’s gorgeous.”
She giggled. “Mommy took me to the park yesterday and there were a bunch of white flowers but only one pink one. And I got it!”
I smiled, trying to fight back my disappointment. Damn. I wanted to take her to the park. When she had been younger, we had spent every Saturday morning there. Kaitlyn loved the swings. Though I was more partial to the slides. She was scared of how tall they were, so she would crawl into my lap and we’d go down together, laughing in harmony.
I longed for those days. Back when we had shared a roof and she was in the room next door, where I could tell her bedtime stories every night.
I should have been the one with her at the park that day.
I should have been there every day.
Instead, I whispered a sad, “That’s great, baby. I’m glad Mommy took you.”
Staring at her prize, she twirled the bent stem between her fingers. “Do you think if I planted this in the backyard it would grow into a huge pink flower?”
“No.” I chuckled. “Even if it would, Jazzy would dig it up.”
She let out an adorable sigh. “Ugh, Jazzy would totally dig it up. Oh! Oh! Guess what else we saw at the park?” She waited exactly zero seconds before blurting out, “A kitten! It was soooo widdle and cutie cute, cute, cute. It was hiding in the bushes and meowed at me and everything.”
“Oh, yeah? Did you meow back?”
She laughed loudly and the camera shook as she put her elbows on the table. Closing her eyes, she let out a sound that was more of a chirp. “Meow. Meow. Meow.” Her eyes popped open wide, all bright and sparkling, filled with untamed curiosity. “But then the mommy cat was rude and kept grr’ing at me like this.” She blew a dramatic hiss through her teeth. “So I couldn’t pet it.”
“That was probably wise. Can’t have you bringing home rabies.”
She looked off screen and shouted, “What? Why?”
Her mother’s muffled voice came through my speaker. “Come on. Tell Daddy bye. We need to go. I have to be at work early today and I still have to stop and get gas.”
My stomach sank. God, I hated when our chats were cut short. I looked forward to time with her all damn week; a few minutes just wasn’t enough.
One could say her mother and I didn’t have the best relationship, but immeasurable amounts of love had once existed between us. It would have been easy for me to be mad about her stealing Kaitlyn away early. But I’d been raised by a single mother. I knew firsthand that solo parenting could be a difficult balancing act. Especially since I couldn’t be there to help.