Chapter Twelve ♥
*
Daphne smiled. She had thought about leaning on Major. Thought about it more than she’d have liked. Was still thinking about it, even though she’d already decided that she wasn’t going to. The doors opened, and a man stepped out. His face was a mix of yellows and browns of days-old bruising, but it was better than it had been. “Leo! It’s good to see you again. You look better out of the orange.”
He smiled at her. The glint in his eyes gave away the teasing before he opened his mouth. “I thought we weren’t seeing any more of you. You drop off your hot friend, and then get out of here.”
Daphne made an expression of mock indignation.
“Who’s to say I didn’t? I’m just in town to see you out. Let that be a lesson to you. No more time in jail, right? You’re going to straighten up and fly right?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.” His expression was studiously neutral.
“I can’t be friends with a jailbird, big guy. Not even ex-friends.”
“Oh, come on. It’ll be a fun story to tell your friends.” He winked at her. Apparently with his bruises healing, he was regaining his sense of humor. Then again, Valerie not being there made him a little less distracted, too.
“I know how that one goes, trust me. You think I’m just funning around, but I’m speaking from professional experience.” She nodded sagely. To her surprise, he took her seriously.
“Wait, I thought a bunch of bail bond people were ex-cons themselves.”
“Yeah, sure. After they straighten up and fly right.” She nodded again. That was that.
“Alright, alright. I get it.” He turned to his friend. Daphne turned to him, too. Major had a broad, almost sad smile. He’d been warned about the face, but something about seeing it the first time was getting to him. Daphne understood. “Major. You been doing okay?”
“I’m doing alright. I have… plans this afternoon, but if you want to go out and have a drink, I’m buying the first… two rounds.” He winked. “Just because it’s a special occasion.”
Leo looked from Major to Daphne. “Plans? What are the details there?”
Major shrugged and spread his hands wide. “I’m playing them pretty close to the chest.”
“We’re going to meet Summer.” Daphne said. “My daughter.”
“Oh. So we’re to the ‘meeting the kids’ stage, huh?”
“Who can say. Maybe we are. Maybe I just bullied her into it. Maybe she lied to your face, and you believed it.”
“Maybe I didn’t believe it,” Leo said, furrowing his eyebrows and trying to look smarter than he was. It was cute that he tried, but it didn’t work.
“Maybe you did, though, Leo. Maybe you did.”
“Whatever you say, man.” He laughed.
“I’ll talk to you after you’ve had time to sleep in your own bed for a bit, yeah?” Major’s arm wrapped around his shoulder and they started to walk out the door, side by side.
“That sounds fantastic,” Leo agreed.
“You know you don’t have to be nervous.”
They’d been sitting in the driveway for longer than Daphne would have liked. After all, if Summer saw them sitting out there, and they weren’t coming inside? Meltdown city. Daphne had been watching the window, though, and there was no sign of her daughter.
“Are you kidding? I’m sweating bullets here. I have never been more nervous in my whole life.”
Daphne put a hand on his arm. “That’s sweet, but you really don’t have to feel nervous. I’m still me.”
“I’m not nervous about you, Daphne. I can just imagine you in your underwear, and there you go. Learned it in my first year of theater.”
“You never took theater,” Daphne said, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.
“Speech?” Major’s sly smile gave away the bit.
“You never took speech,” Daphne rejoined, playing her part.
“I heard it on a television show I saw once while I was drunk.”
“That’s the honest Major I know.” She leaned over and pressed a kiss against his cheek.
“You do know me so well, don’t you?”
“And I know that you’re going to do just fine with this, okay? There’s nothing to be nervous about. You’re going to be absolutely fine.”
Major let out a breath. “I’m not used to kids, and this meeting is, well… it’s important to me.”
“I know you’re worried. I get that.” She took his hand in hers and looked deep into his eyes. “But trust me, you’re going to be just fine, alright?”
“I hear you saying that, but it just sounds like you’re underestimating what I’m up against,” Major said. He hoped that it sounded like he was joking.
“If you mess up your first impressions, she’s only two. She won’t remember them.”
“That’s…” Major blinked. “Very reassuring, actually.”
“Yeah, I know. Just don’t cause any permanent injuries, be basically nice and basically attentive, and you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“I can do that.”
“There you go. You’re going to be fine.”
She opened the passenger side door and slipped out, her eyes still fixed on the large bay window. The curtains weren’t moving one bit. For the time being, at least, there was no two-year-old girl looking out at them.
“I don’t know. I’m just nervous.”
“And I’m telling you not to be.” She leaned back into the cabin. “You’ve got a thick skull there, Major.”
“Now or never.” He pushed the door open. “Let’s go inside.”
He’d never been to the new place, but everything about it was like a more spread-out version of the old place. The same photos on the walls, the same smells from the kitchen, the same couch where he and Daphne had–
“Major! I can’t say I expected to see you again.”
He turned and smiled. It had been a few years, and he could see them in the lines of Daphne’s mother’s face, but she had been a handsome woman when he knew her, and that hadn’t changed. She pulled him into a hug, and he squeezed her back.
“I can’t say I expected to be seen again. But it’s good to see you, Mom.”
“You don’t have to call me that.”
He pulled back from the hug and smiled at her. “You’re as much mom as I ever had.”
“That’s very sweet of you to say.” She glanced over her shoulder with obvious intention. “But it’s Grandma, now, if you’re going to insist.”
“If you say so, Gran.”
Daphne cut into the reunion. “Where’s the little one?”
“She got a little excited that Mama was finally finishing her job, and got all tired out.” Gran leaned against the wall. “She’s asleep in the back, if you want to take a look, but I wouldn’t recommend waking her unless you want to catch hell. Dinner’s just going to be a minute.”
Daphne punched Major’s arm. “You see? There was nothing to worry about.”
“This just makes it worse,” he intoned.
“You should have a seat, at least. I’ll help Grandma finish up. If Summer wakes up, then you’ll get as much time as you want with her and more.”
Major limped over to the chair and settled down. “That sounds fine.”
“Oh, your leg.” He’d been so good on it that Daphne had almost forgotten about it. A week was hardly time enough to get over a bullet wound, however ‘mild’ it was.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll get over it.”
“I completely forgot about it.”
“I did a decent job hiding it,” Major said. “so I hoped you might.”
He sat down and looked around the dining room. It was bigger than the last one. The last one had been an annex onto the kitchen, so it didn’t say much.
The photos on the wall showed a smiling toddler, apparently taken on someone’s camera phone and printed off in large-scale. Otherwise the photographer must have been very irresponsible for choosing to pose the little girl with so much stuff that she could get into trouble with. He smiled.
Her dark hair reminded him of her mother. He heard Daphne’s voice from the kitchen as she spoke softly with Gran, presumably explaining all the nastiness they had gotten involved in over the past week.
Whatever they’d discussed while they were out of the room, Grandma came in carrying a pot between her hands with a smile on her face. Daphne came through, though her expression was less gleeful. With how tense things had been for the past month, he couldn’t blame her for being exhausted.
“Dinner’s done.”
Major pulled up to the table. His leg was sore when he tried to pull it, but that was nothing new. “What are we eating?”
“Well, usually these days, I can’t lie, it’s boxed macaroni. I’m eating for one, and with Summer here, well, it’s not like I get a lot of choice.”
“You have not been letting her eat that stuff for every meal.”
Grandma shrugged. “I mean, with some protein, sure.”
“Mom!”
“Hush, now. You’ll wake your daughter up. And what do you want from me? Gourmet?”
Daphne stared, and the older woman wasn’t budging. If they weren’t going to come to blows, Major had to be the one to make sure of it. He eyed the steaks on the table. “Well, this doesn’t look like macaroni.”
“No, I shouldn’t say so,” Grandma said. Her lips were pressed into a tight smile that dared Daphne to say something. Daphne never responded well to being dared. Both of the women had powerful tempers, and it always showed.
“Well, I think it looks excellent,” Major chimed in, careful to keep the conversation moving. “Do you still say grace?”
“Only before every meal, sugar. Bless us, oh Lord, and these Thy gifts, that we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord, Amen.”
“Amen,” the younger said.
Daphne pulled one of the steaks onto her plate and started cutting, whatever hackles she’d had raised now lowered. “Has she been okay for you? You’re not too worn out, are you?”
“You kidding? This is the most excitement I’ve had since you moved out.”
“I’m glad you’re not having too bad a time.”
“Hardly,” she scoffed. They ate in silence for a few moments. Major watched them, trying to gauge the mood in the room. Was now a good time?
He let out a breath and rubbed his mouth. “Daphne, there’s something I’d like to talk about.”
A voice from down the hall called out before he could receive an answer. “Gigi!”
“That’ll be Summer,” Daphne said, her tone apologetic.
“The famous Summer I’ve heard so much about?”
“The very same.” She ducked out the room, calling into the room, “I’ll be right back.”
True to her word, Daphne came back only a minute later, a slender young girl propped up on her hip and leaning her head into Daphne’s neck.
“Hey, there, little girl. There’s someone who wants to meet you.” Daphne pointed. “Did you have a good nap?”
“Hello. I’m a friend of your mother’s.” Major tried to make himself seem friendly; he wasn’t sure if it worked. He’d always been uncertain of himself around children.
“Hello,” Summer said in a small voice.
“I like your dress,” he offered.
“Thanks.”
Grandma pinched a hip gently. “Don’t be shy, Summer.”
Summer spoke through her place nestled into Daphne’s neck. “How do you know my mommy?”
“We used to be very good friends,” he answered. It was part of the truth, at least.
“Why not anymore?”
“You know, Summer?” He looked from daughter to mother. “I don’t know. But I’d like to be friends with your mommy again.”
“My mommy needs more friends.”
Daphne’s eyes looked ready to pop out of her head at that. Grandma snorted.
“That’s enough for now, thanks, Summer.” Daphne’s expression was caught between embarrassment and amusement, and Major wasn’t sure which was winning out. “Are you hungry? Did Grandma feed you?”
There was a long pause while Summer thought about it. “I’m hungry.”
“Do you need help into your chair?”
“Uh-huh,” she nodded.
Daphne pulled a chair out; it had a high-chair strapped to it. There was, as far as Major could tell, no way that a two-year-old could have climbed into it. But then again, maybe he was underestimating the little girl. She settled herself into it, and Daphne pushed her in.
“There you go.”
She could barely reach onto the table top, but she wasted no time in taking a bite that Daphne had cut off for her and putting it into her mouth.
Major took a deep breath. Now or never.
“There’s one more thing, Daphne. Something I should talk to you about.”
Daphne looked up from cutting off bites for Summer, still holding knife and fork at the ready to increase the size of the growing pile of bite-sized morsels. “What’s that?”
“Daphne, I really want to be a part of your life again.” Major’s stomach twisted as he got down on one knee. “Will you marry me?”
He waited for an answer while Daphne teared up. It was the closest he’d seen to her crying in as long as he knew her. And then she took him in her arms and she wept.