Chapter Thirty-Seven
Reed
It had been a week since Kennedy had come back into my life. A blissful week where I could think about her whenever I wanted without feeling guilty. A blissful week where my dreadful ex-wife didn’t come banging on my door. A blissful week where my daughter could not stop smiling. Had you told me a week ago that I would be in this state of happiness again, I wouldn’t have believed it.
It had been a good week at work too. Without the feeling of depression weighing down on me, I’d gotten through my work with much more gusto. I was happy to see clients again, and a lot more dedicated to getting things done. I didn’t even mind doing admin work, which I usually found dreadfully boring.
“This is more like it,” Warren said as he walked into my office that afternoon.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re smiling again. And I bet you’re not just smiling because it’s Friday.”
I laughed. “It feels good to be happy again.”
“I’m glad to hear it. So, tell me what’s been happening? The last time I saw you was last week, and you were down in the dumps. Now I walk in and see you grinning at your computer. What did I miss?”
Warren had been away all week, and I’d been dying for him to come back so I could tell him the good news.
I shrugged. “Not much. Like I said, I’m just feeling happy. Must be this coffee,” I said and held up my mug. “Did you see that they replaced the machine? This new one makes the best coffee. I might not even see the need in getting from the café anymore.”
Warren looked at me. “You’re happy because of a coffee machine? No way, I don’t believe it.”
I laughed. “I am happy because of the coffee. But that’s not the only reason I’m happy.”
“Kennedy is back in your life!”
I chuckled. “What else could it be? She is!”
“Seriously? What happened?”
“Remember that boring senatorial gala I was going to last Saturday?”
“Oh yeah, with your cousin? The one you didn’t really want to go to.”
“That’s the one. Turns out Kennedy was the caterer for the event. I had no idea that she was going to be there and she had no idea that I was going to be there. It was Trinity that spotted her first, actually. Before I could stop her, Trinity had run to see her. And . . . well, we both just realized how much we missed each other.”
“Just like that?”
“The gala was also incredibly boring. So, we decided to sneak out and go back to my place.”
“And what exactly did you do at your place?” Warren teased.
“Oh, you know, the usual. Ate dinner together, talked, that sort of thing. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“You never give me any of the juicy details,” he complained.
“Well, that’s because I don’t want you picturing my girlfriend naked.”
“I already picture her naked,” he said and laughed. “But I’m glad to hear you calling her your girlfriend again. That’s awesome news, man. I’m happy for you. So, what’s the deal now with her being a nanny? She still going to do it?”
“She’s actually working for her best friend Camille, who works for a wedding and event business. She’s not entirely too sure what to do because she’s doing pretty well there, and they really want her to stay, but she also wants to come back to us. I think she’s going to talk to Camille and see if there’s a way she can do both. I think that would probably be best. One of her friends has helped out this week, and I’ve been dropping her off at school in the mornings. But we’ll see how things go. I’m just glad she’s back in my life.”
“So am I,” Warren said. “You were a miserable sod without her.”
“He was?”
I turned around and saw Trinity and Kennedy standing in the doorway smiling at us. I was glad that she had walked in on that part of the conversation and not about the part where Warren said he thought of her naked. Considering my daughter was with her, that would’ve been very embarrassing. I grinned at them.
“Yeah, I was very miserable without you. And poor Warren had to put up with me moaning all day long. This is a nice surprise. I didn’t know you were coming to visit today. Hey, angel,” I said to Trinity.
“Hi, Daddy. Hi, Warren,” she said brightly. “Kennedy surprised me today and picked me up from school. I had no idea and I almost walked right past her. We decided to stop by and surprise you too.”
Kennedy smiled. “We won’t stay. We know you’re busy. But I wanted to know if you were free tonight for movies and pizza? I don’t feel like cooking tonight.”
“Pizza and movies? That sounds great.” I couldn’t think of anything better, actually.
“YAY!” Trinity yelled in excitement.
“Great. We’ll stop by now to get everything as it’s on our way home. Trinity is going to choose the movie, and I’ll pick out the pizzas. Should I get some wine too?”
“Wine would be great.” The night just got better and better.
Kennedy walked up to me and kissed me. “I’ll see you later,” she said. Then she looked at Warren, “Good seeing you again.”
“You too. Sounds like you have the perfect night planned,” he said.
She grinned. “I think so too.”
As soon as they were out of earshot, Warren grinned at me.
“Wow, I forgot how hot she was.”
“You weren’t picturing her naked were you?” I said.
He grinned. “Me? I would never do such a thing,” he said.
I threw a pen at him, and we both laughed.
“You lucky bugger,” he said.
“Trust me. I know.”
When I got home that evening, Trinity and Kennedy were in the living room, drawing. I went to kiss them both hello and smiled as I looked at their drawings.
“Look how good Kennedy is getting,” Trinity said and pointed at the drawing in front of Kennedy.
“Yeah, I tried to draw you again,” she said. “I’m going to do the same drawing all the time and see if I can get better. So far, there’s only a very mild improvement, but it’s an improvement none the less.”
I chuckled. “Your first drawing was of a stickman with glasses. This is way better. Although, mind giving me less of a paunch next time? I know I’ve been eating a lot more junk lately, but you don’t to rub it in.”
“Kennedy said that is what you are going to look like after all the pizza we eat tonight,” Trinity said.
“Hey, you weren’t supposed to tell him,” Kennedy said, and they both started chuckling.
“Ha, wait until I start drawing the two of you. You won’t be laughing then.”
“Want to draw with us now, Daddy?” Trinity asked as she saw her opportunity.
I pulled up a chair. “I’d like nothing more,” I said.
We sat like that for almost an hour, just drawing and talking and laughing. I hadn’t taken the time to do things like this with Trinity over the years. I was too busy working and too busy trying to ignore the emptiness inside me. I’d been a good father, but there had been a lot of things that I hadn’t done right. It was good to just sit there and spend time with her again. I tried to make my drawing as ridiculous as possible, and instead of drawing them as humans, I drew them as dinosaurs. When I showed Trinity the end result, she was delighted and told me that I had a future as an artist. I wasn’t even sure that my dinosaurs looked like dinosaurs, so I knew she was only trying to be polite. It still amazed me at how kind and considerate she was for someone her age. How thoughtful and mindful she was of other people’s feelings.
“I think I should stick to being a doctor,” I said. “But it’s nice of you to say that.”
“But you’ll still draw with me even if you don’t want to be an artist?” she asked. No wonder she wanted to tell me that I was good. She just didn’t want me to stop drawing with her.
“Are you kidding me? There’s no way you’re going to get me to stop. This is a lot more fun than I thought it would be. So, who wants pizza?”
“ME!”
We sat down together in the living room, eating our pizza and drinking our wine. We had poured some cranberry juice into a plastic glass for Trinity so that she could pretend like she was drinking wine too. She had taken a sip of mine and told me that it was disgusting. Trinity had chosen two movies that we’d all already seen with her before, but it didn’t matter. She giggled at the funny parts before they even happened and we spent most of our time laughing at her.
It was one of those simple evenings that had no airs or graces about it. We finished the bottle of wine together, ate too much pizza, and then still followed it up with coffee and cookies. By the end of the second movie, Trinity was fast asleep, and we were both stuffed.
“I can’t move,” Kennedy said, her head lolled to the side. “I think I ate my weight in cookies and pizza tonight. I think they put something in that food. I literally couldn’t stop myself.”
“I can’t move, either. They say that you eat more when you are happy.”
“That makes sense,” Kennedy said. “I hardly ate when I wasn’t with you. Now I can’t stop.”
“Oh well, we’ll just have to be happy and fat together.”
“I can deal with that,” she said.
“Hey, I have an idea. Maybe we should all sleep here tonight,” I suggested.
Kennedy chuckled. “That’s such a good idea. Do you have any blankets or pillows downstairs? The thought of walking up those stairs is too daunting to even consider at the moment.”
“I do, actually. We’ll have to use these cushions as pillows. But I have a whole bunch of blankets in that closet over there,” I said.
I got up to get them and made a little bed on the living room floor for all of us. Trinity stirred when I tried to pick her up.
“I’m still watching,” she mumbled.
I laughed. “No, you’re not. We’re all so tired. Trin, we’re going to all sleep here on the floor tonight. What do you think? I’m busy piling up the floor with cushions and blankets.”
Her eyes widened. Even in her sleepy state she still found enough energy to get excited about the night ahead. She smiled. “Really? All of us together? Even Kennedy?”
“All of us together. Even Kennedy!” I said.
That woke her up. For the next ten minutes, she helped us set up the living room and turn into a massive sleeping area. The whole thing probably took more energy than it would’ve taken to just walk up the stairs and sleep in the bedroom, but this was way more fun. Once we were all set up, I switched off the light and crawled into the makeshift bed. None of us had bothered to change out of our clothes or even brush our teeth—a fact that Trinity found absolutely wonderful.
“Good night, monkey one and monkey two,” I said to the girls.
Trinity giggled. “Good night, Daddy. Good night, Ken.”
“Good night, Trin. Good night, Reed.”
Despite all the cushioning, the floor wasn’t the most comfortable place to sleep. And yet, despite this, that night ended up being the best night sleep I had ever had.