Page 100 of Nothing to This

“Why do you not be wedded?”Sky asked at dinner that Sunday night.

She stopped eating to look at her daughter straightening her spaghetti.“What, sweetpea?”

“I want Daddy to live with Sky,” Sky said.“Always.”

Kye’s mouth was full when he chimed in.“Me too.Daddy can live here.”

JD had been gone for a week, a whole week, yet he was still prominent in their children’s minds, and not only because he called every night.He hadn’t gone far from her thoughts either; he’d wormed his way into all their affections.Okay, so the twins had always adored him.Still, she hadn’t expected her child to ask such a direct question.

Okay, play it cool.

Subduing her shock, she set down her fork.“Well, guys, Daddy and I never got married.”

“Why not?”Sky asked.“If yous do it, he’ll live here always.”

Marriage was so much more than that.Oh to see the world from the perspective of a five-year-old.

Not one to pass up an opportunity, this was a chance to get their opinions.“Would you like him to live here?”

Kye chased a vegetable around his plate with his fork.He wouldn’t know what he was chasing, but seemed to enjoy the pursuit, typical male.

“I love Daddy,” her distracted son said.

“I love Daddy more,” Sky said.“Daddy is my friend.”

“Daddy is friends with both of you.He’s Mommy’s friend too.”

Sky stopped eating, blinked once, and twice, like she was trying to put her thoughts together.Being patient, she waited to see what her daughter came up with.A part of her worried the little one might ask something she couldn’t answer.No going back now.

“Why did Daddy leave us?”Sky asked.

She took her daughter’s hand.“We told you, Daddy is coming back next week, sweetpea.He didn’t leave because he wanted to, he had work things to take care of.”

“Daddy is the boss,” Kye said, sucking the piece of mushroom from his fork between his lips.“And rich.”

“Yes,” she said.“He has a lot of money.But we don’t love Daddy for his money, we love him because he’s our friend.He’s good to us.He’s a nice person and he is good fun, isn’t he?You have fun with Daddy?”

Kye grinned and nodded fast, still chewing the mushroom.“Daddy’s the best.”

“Do you love Daddy too, Mommy?”

That put her on the spot.Sky kept blinking.Her innocent, expectant eyes never wavered.Kye slowed in his chewing and stopped trying to figure out what he’d put in his mouth to await her response.Neither of them appeared too eager, though she got a sense the importance of her answer wasn’t lost on them.

For a week, she’d been thinking about JD and what kind of future they could have.What kind of future did she want with him?As usual, she kept coming back to one thing: she just didn’t know what the future held.

She could play it out either way.The relationship fell apart, they ended up hating each other and their family ended up full of friction and anger.The alternative was everything went great, she and JD got married, made it work, and life was everything the fairytales promised every little girl.

“I do love Daddy,” she answered.The best course of action was the truth.“He gave me you two and I’ll always be thankful for that.”

“Will Daddy come back and live with us forever?”Kye asked.

Sky picked up a string of spaghetti with her fingertips and sucked it into her mouth.“Always.I don’t want him to go away again.”

“Finish your dinner,” she said.“When you’re done, Mommy will call Daddy and you can talk to him while I tidy up.”

“Then you talk to Daddy?”Sky said.“Tell him to come home to us.”

“He’ll come home, sweetpea.But you can ask him during your bedtime call.”As the kids always did.“He knows you want him to come back to us.”