This Broken Beautiful Thing (29 page)

“No…she’s never asked about her father. I’ve seen her a couple times looking at other kids when
they’re with their dads but she’s never openly asked me. I guess it’s because she has so many male figures in her life that the fact that she didn’t have a father ever crossed her mind.” I say looking out the window at my little girl.

“She did have a father though…she does have a father.” He says flatly.

“Yeah she does now…” I mumble.

We make our way over to Brent
, and Willow runs into my open arms. “Hey sweetie, you have fun?”

“Yeah M
omma we did.” She turns to Caleb with open arms and his grin only widens as he takes his daughter from me. I smile at the scene.

We say our goodbyes to Brent and
make our way to the car. I show Caleb how to put her in her car seat and we take off.

As suspected Willow slept most of the way and every now and then I would catch Caleb
stealing glances at his daughter in the back seat through the rearview mirror and he’d smile. I also caught him looking at me a couple times from the corner of my eye, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t doing the same to him. We made small talk most of the way and stopped a couple of times too.

We were half an hour away and
Willow was wide awake looking out the window singing quietly to herself clutching the teddy bear Brent gave her to her chest. I was listening to the news on the radio when Caleb spoke.

“
You hungry, Willow?” Caleb says looking in the rearview mirror at her. She smiles and pats her tummy. “Yes are you hungry Caleb?” she replies happily.

Caleb chuckles and shakes his
head, “You wanna stop and get something to eat? There’s a burger place nearby?” He asks me and even though I want to get home and not have to deal with the good looking boy next to me, my adorable daughter begging me from the back seat convinces me otherwise. We don’t eat much take out and it’s usually a rare occasion that we do because I just don’t have the money for it. I did however transfer extra money to my account for this trip but I don’t want to overspend and regret it next week.

Caleb helps Willow out of her car seat
once we reach our destination. We order our food and Caleb refuses to let me pay. I take Willow with me to the bathroom, picking her up onto the toilet I laugh at how short she is, her feet don’t touch the floor by a lot. I’m so thankful she’s fully potty trained now, those days were so hard because she is just as stubborn as her father. She does have those nights when she wets her bed but it hasn’t been as often as it used to.

Walking out to find
Caleb, I notice he picked a table near the kiddies play room. He hands Willow her little kiddie’s meal box and she immediately pulls out the toy. It’s a little motor bike with some cartoon on it. I place her food neatly in front of her and watch her play with her toy, obviously more interested in it than her food.

“Look mommy…just like Hunt Hunt
s and Jacey’s. Ooh and Grandpa’s too!” she says enthusiastically making bike noises as she moves the toys along the table as if riding it. I’m not surprised she picked this toy, she can be the most girly little girl one moment and the next she can be such a little Tom Boy.

“
Hunt Hunt?” Caleb says looking at me but Willow answers.

“He’s the best
! He reads me stories before bed and tucks me in just like Jacey does. Hunt Hunt always takes me for ice-cream too and he bought me a bike but I can’t ride it yet, my feet don’t touch the ground but Hunt Hunt says it’s okay because when I’m bigger he will show me how to ride it.” she rambles on in an excited mess. Even though Caleb is smiling from ear to ear, I see his hand holding tightly onto his leg just above his knee cap and his knuckles are white. I can already tell he’s upset about Hunter and Jace spending so much time with
his
daughter.

“Eat up
Willow, don’t want your food to get cold.” I say to her trying to change the conversation.

“Mommy?” she says after taking a big sip of her milkshake.

“Yeah baby?”

“I miss Hunt Hunt…when is he staying over again?” she says innocently but by Caleb’s coughing
, he’s overthinking Willows statement.

Finally Caleb catches
his breath and gives me a glare as if to say …
We will talk about this later….

“He’s away for work
sweetie, how about I call him later and you can talk to him? Is that okay baby?” I say tucking a few loose strands behind her ear.

She smiles and nods then eats her food. After she’s eaten she asks to go play in the kids room.

Sitting alone with Caleb is awkward, its quiet and I know he wants to say something and its killing me that he’s not saying it.

“
What’s wrong Caleb?” I say with a deep sigh as I sit back in the chair.

“You know
what’s wrong Harley.” He says seriously. “How can you let guys stay over while your daughter is sleeping down the hall?”

“What?
Hunter rarely stays over, he’s her God father and one of my best friends, he is really great with her. Don’t turn this into something that it’s not Caleb. He’s just a good friend.” I say digging into my bag looking for my phone that’s now ringing.

I answer the phone as I read my father’s name on the screen.

“Hey daddy.” I answer avoiding Caleb’s eyes.

“Hey
Hun, where are you guys? Jace says he came there earlier and you weren’t at the apartment?” he says sounding concerned.

“Yeah daddy, Willow and I are going to stay with mom for a little bit. I know you don’t like the idea but I’m already on my way. It was kind of last minute and I was going to call you when I got there.” I say hoping he doesn’t get mad.

He’s quiet for a second or two then he replies and I let out a sigh of relief that he’s not mad , “Okay baby...you know how I feel about you two staying there but if you want to spend time with your momma then I can’t argue with that. Give my grandbaby a hug and kiss from me.”

“Okay will do daddy, thank you.” After ending the call I finally look up to Caleb.

“I don’t want him teaching her to ride anything, I want to do that. I’ve missed out on four years already and I’m not going to miss anything else.” He says looking into my eyes directly and I feel guilty under those piercing green eyes.

“Okay Caleb.
” I say looking back to see where Willow is in the little jungle gym. She’s playing with another little girl.

Turning back to Caleb I’m about to ask him if he’s ready to leave but I’m interrupted.

“Hi, Sorry is that little girl yours?” I turn to see an older lady with long straight blond hair pointing to where Willow is.

“Hi, yeah she is.” I say smiling to her and I can’t help notice how
this woman is looking at Caleb and licking her lips as if she doesn’t even notice I’m sitting right there.

“She is definitely your child, she looks just like her daddy… absolutely gorgeous and I just had to tell you.” She says this to
him and this makes him smile wider.

“Yeah she does loo
k like me doesn’t she?” he mumbles to himself. The lady smiles and continues to stand there.

“That’s very sweet of you. Thanks.” I say smiling ignoring the fact that she is totally ogling Caleb right now.

After she finally says her goodbyes I pick up all the empty food containers and throw it in the bin. “She does look like me doesn’t she?” Caleb repeats as he smiles in Willow direction.

“Yeah i
t’s pretty scary actually. She has your hair and eyes and sometimes when she laughs she looks a lot like you.” I say smiling thinking about it.

“Never knew I could love someone so much
after only spending a day with them. I love her so much Harley and she doesn’t even know who I am to her….” He says quietly.

“I felt the exact same way the first time I held her in my arms. She already likes you Caleb and after you spend time with her and she gets used to you
, she will love you too.” I say looking back to him.

“Yeah….now that I know about her I just… can’t picture my life without her.” he says looking up to me sadly.

“Yeah…don’t know what I would have done without her.” I say softly giving him a sad smile.

The mood seemed a lot less tense between Caleb and I as we drove the rest of the way to my mother. Arriving at my mother’s trailer, Caleb helps Willow out her seat and grabs our bags.

“
That’s okay Caleb, I can carry the bags, I don’t think it’s a good idea for my mom to see you.” I say softly, only loud enough for him to hear.

“I’m taking your bags in, don’t argue with me Harley.” He says pushing past me.

“Granny!” Willow yells as my mother steps down the stairs, she looks up and her smile immediately falters as she spots Caleb. She picks up Willow and spins her around then bends down and tells Willow to go and play with the toys that are in her room.

I knew this was going to happen…

As soon as Willow disappears inside the trailer my mom blurts out, “What is he doing here?”

“Mom-
” I try to calm her down but Caleb interrupts me.

“
Roxanne, I know you hate me and judging by your reaction when you saw me I know you know the story about what I did to Harley. You can’t hate me more than I hate myself for what I did and there is no excuse for it. I didn’t know about Willow until yesterday, Ashley never told me anything about it and I swear to you if I had known I would have fought harder for Harley to take me back. I gave up after a few months because she didn’t want anything to do with me and I thought that it would be best for her. If I had known about Willow, I would have tried so much harder and I would have been in her life. She’s
my
daughter too Roxanne and I want to be there for her, I’ve already missed four years of her life and I don’t want to miss anymore.” Caleb says sincerely to my mother.

My mother looks
awestruck, she seems speechless as if she’s trying to find the words, then she does something I never expected.

She hugs him.

“I’m so sorry Caleb…. You know I was a terrible mother but even as shitty as I was I couldn’t bear not having Harley with me. Even though I wasn’t around much, I dreaded every single time her father took her away from me. To find out you have a child that is already four years old must be horrible. You’ve missed out on so much Caleb, I’m still upset about the whole Ashley situation but I could never hate you. You were so good to my Harley before all that happened and I never got to thank you for looking after her when I couldn’t. I know you will be a great father my boy but you better treat my babies right! I do have to say though that you two made one gorgeous little girl and I can’t wait for the day that you have to fight boys, just like you, to stay away from her.” My mom says happily.

Now I’m the shocked
one, I didn’t expect all of that to come from her mouth and I especially didn’t expect her to apologize to him and thank him for looking after me. That boy always had a way with woman. I roll my eyes at their exchange.

Caleb
chuckles, “There won’t be any boys around Willow, especially no boys like me.” They both laugh but I know Caleb is serious.

“Mom, Willow doesn’t know who Caleb is yet and I’d like to keep it that way just until
I can figure out how I’m going to tell her.” I say walking up the steps.

“Of course baby, anything you two decide. You
’re staying over too?” My mother asks Caleb.

“No.
” I blurt out at the exactly the same time Caleb says, “Thanks…” he looks at me then gives me a naughty grin.

“Thanks Roxanne I would love that.” He
smirks at me and I glare back.

“Mom
, where exactly is he going to sleep?” I say placing my hand on my hip with a raised brow.

“Don’t be silly, Willow can sleep by me and you two can stay in your
old room. Don’t act like you haven’t shared a bed before. I know all about Caleb sneaking into your room since you two were younger.” She walks right past me into the house calling out for Willow.

I look back to Caleb and find him laughing. “That’s not happening…Your parents don’t live far, I thought you came down to see them?” he immediately stops laughing.

“I’ll see them later or tomorrow, I’d rather prefer to stay close to you and Willow. I want to spend as much time with her as I can. I’ll sleep on the couch if I have too.” His dimples are showing again.

I let out a deep sigh and walk right past him as he follows me. He places our bags on my bed then stands around and looks around my room.

“It’s still the same…” he says looking back at me.

“Yeah when I moved out I didn’t take anything besides some clothes.” I walk past him and block out the memory.

CHAPTER 24

My mother informs me while I’m bathing Willow that she was unable to get someone to cover her shifts. I think it’s just her attempt to get Caleb and I to spend time with Willow alone….as if playing house could solve all our problems.