Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 82524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
“I see where our daughter gets the early morning shine from,” Addison says over her shoulder, making me smirk as I walk out of the bedroom.
Instead of going downstairs, my first stop is Avery’s bedroom. Peeking my head in, I see she is in the middle of the bed on her stomach, but she’s sideways. Seeing that she is okay, I finally make my way down the stairs toward the kitchen. I grab two cups for coffee before turning and taking the milk out of the fridge. Once the coffees are done, I take both cups upstairs to the bedroom. The sound of the shower is still going by the time I walk back into the room. I take a sip of my coffee before placing both cups down on the coffee table. I think about maybe joining her in the shower, but right when I’m debating, I hear the sound of feet hitting the floor. I sit on the bed and watch the doorway, seeing her shadow on the floor before she walks into the room. Her tiny hands rub the sleep away from her eyes. “Morning,” I say to her and she grunts, making me chuckle a bit.
“Where is Momma?” she asks as she comes to the side of the bed where I’m sitting.
“She’s in the shower.” I kiss her neck. “Did you sleep good?” I ask her and she nods her head. It’s been two days that we’ve been back from San Francisco. The week flew by in the blink of an eye. As soon as we got off the plane, we headed to Addison’s house to make sure everything was okay. We stayed for a couple of hours until we headed out to my house, where we’ve been for the last two days. “Do you want to go and get some breakfast started?” I pick her up and put her on my lap, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her close to me. She lays her head on me as she nods. My chest fills so much it is sometimes hard to breathe, but at the same time I feel a dread. Today for the first time since I found her, I’m going to work. I mean, I was working before but today I’m flying out and going into the office to have a couple of meetings.
“Do I have daycare today?” She looks up at me, and I nod. She climbs off my lap, and I stand.
“Go get dressed,” I tell her, “then meet me downstairs.” She turns and walks toward her bedroom. The shower turns off as I grab her cup of coffee, walking to the bathroom. When I open the door, I find her wrapping a towel around herself. “Avery is up.” I hand her the coffee cup. “I’m going to go make her breakfast.”
“Don’t you have to pack?” she asks me, and my stomach tightens.
“I’ll drop Avery off and then come home to pack,” I say to her. “Are you hungry?”
“Not really, I sort of ate already today.”
I shake my head. “That you did.” I kiss her neck and then kiss her lips before returning downstairs to start breakfast.
Avery eats some pancakes and fruit before we all usher each other out the door. I put Avery in my car before walking over to Addison’s. “I’ll call you later.” I wrap my arms around her. “And I’ll FaceTime you for dinner.”
“Okay,” she says softly, “fly safe.” She kisses my lips. “See you on Saturday.”
I nod at her, giving her one more kiss before I open her door and she gets in. I hold my hand up as she pulls out of the driveway before I get into my car. I take my time driving Avery to daycare, and when I park she hops out. I walk way slower than I should, stopping at her classroom door, I squat in front of her. “I’ll call you tonight,” I tell her, “and then this weekend we could maybe go to the zoo.”
“Okay, Dad,” she says, not even giving a shit that my heart is breaking right now. She has no idea the hold she has on me.
“Give me a hug and kiss,” I tell her and she walks into my outstretched arms and kisses my cheek. “I love you,” I say to her and she just runs into her class, turning and waving at me before joining her friends who are shouting her name.
Packing is a piece of cake. I’ve done this before so many times, I can do it with my eyes closed. Even when I get on the plane, I think to myself that this is the longest I’ve been in one place. The flight flies by, and two hours after I left my house, I’m walking into our office. “Holy shit,” my partner, Levi, says when I walk in, “he’s still alive.” He’s dressed in what for sure was a suit but he took off his jacket. We’ve been friends since our first day in college when we took computer coding together. The two of us were at the top of the class and then we just started hanging out together. We opened the company together and fast-forward about twelve years and here we are.