“If I’d known this was all it took to get you to smile like that, then I’d have brought you here way sooner,” I tell Kat as I slide an arm around her waist.
“I always smile,” she replies, giving me a soft nudge in the ribs.
I trail my fingertips over her cheekbone. That is true, but she’s practically glowing today. “Yeah, but not like this.”
“Maybe baby shopping with you has just become my new favorite thing in the entire world,” she says with a contended sigh. “I mean, everything is just so damn cute.”
She picks up a tiny white romper with a baby elephant on the butt and holds it up to me. “I mean look at that. How adorable is our baby going to look in this?”
“They certainly will,” I agree with a nod as my damn cell phone rings. I scowl at the interruption. I cleared my afternoon to do this with her and told everyone I’m not to be disturbed.
“It’s okay. You can take it,” she says softly. “I know you’re busy.”
“I’m sorry. It will just take a minute.”
“I’ll give you a little privacy. I’m just going to look at the blankets,” she says as I take the cell from my pocket.
She goes to walk away, but I grab her wrist and shake my head. “Don’t need any privacy from you,” I tell her. “You don’t leave my side.”
She rolls her eyes but she’s still smiling at me like I’ve just hung the moon for her. I’ve rented this entire store for the afternoon and there is only me, her, and the store manager here, but I’m still not taking any chances with her safety.
It’s Lorenzo’s name flashing on my cell and I answer the call as Kat leads me over to the blankets section. “Everything okay?” I ask him.
“Hey, I know you’re busy with Kat, but I just need to run something by you real quick.”
“Shoot.”
“That night at Little Cesar’s when Mitch was shot?”
“Yeah?” We still don’t know why those three kids burst in and tried to shoot up the place.
“He was there, right? Sal?”
He refuses to call our father by that title any longer. “Yeah?”
“Did he have a woman with him?”
“No, he was on his own that night. Why?”
“I was looking into those punks and the only thing that stood out was that one of their sisters went missing a week before, so I did a little digging.”
“And what does that have to do with Pop?”
“She was eighteen. Brunette. An orphan. You know his kryptonite?”
“So she was his type, Loz. Anyone with a pulse is his type,” I remind him, hoping that his hatred of our father is clouding his judgment.
“Yeah, but she’d just started working at that coffee shop he goes to every afternoon. I spoke to one of the other baristas and after a little persuasion, he said that Sal took something of an interest in the kid. He used to roll up in his Bentley every day and she was flattered and would flutter her eyelashes at him. One day, she just didn’t show up for work and they assumed she’d left. But a few days later, the cops showed up and started asking questions about a missing girl.”
“Fuck,” I snarl.
“Yeah. I know it’s thin, but…”
“Our father is a piece of shit.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time he’s got rid of a problem like that, would it? Maybe she said no? Maybe she changed her mind? Maybe he just got a little… rough?”
“Fuck, Lorenzo.”
“I know.”
“And you think her brother and these other kids either found out or at least suspected that he had something to do with her disappearance?”
“They all grew up in the same foster home together. They know going to the cops would have been pointless. What other choice did they have?”
I swallow the bile that burns the back of my throat and then Kat looks at me and smiles and I’m reminded that I have so many other things going on in my life right now. Things that demand and deserve so much more of my attention than I currently give.
“So, what do you want to do?” Lorenzo asks.
“She got any other family?”
“No. Just her and her brother. Foster parents died in a house fire shortly after she turned eighteen.”
I take a deep breath, screwing my eyes shut. “So there are no loose ends?”
“None that I can find.”
“You’re a fucking bloodhound. You know that? I fucking missed you.”
“I’m sorry I was away so long.”
“Don’t be.”
“We leave this then? You have the wedding and the baby coming. No good can come from opening up this can of worms with him.”
“I know, Loz. But why does it feel so fucking wrong?”
“Because he’s an evil son of a bitch, D. We know that better than anyone. We confront him and what? Finally put him down after all these years? Because as much as I despise the man…”
“I know,” I agree. The thought of killing our own father is equally abhorrent to us. Despite everything he’s done, it’s as though we’re conditioned to respect him. It was ingrained into us from such an early age.
“So, it’s done?” Lorenzo says.
“Yeah.”
Kat holds up a blanket with baby elephants for me to look at and I nod my approval.
“I’ll let you get back to your afternoon with Kat and we’ll talk later.”
“Lorenzo?” I say before he ends the call.
“Yeah?”
“What was her name?” We at least owe her that.
“Megan.” He ends the call, and I slip my cell phone back into my pocket.
“Everything okay?” Kat asks.
I wrap my arms around her and kiss her forehead. “Yes.”
“Can we buy all the baby elephant stuff?” she asks, resting her cheek on my shoulder. “It’s all white so it’s gender neutral and it’s just too cute for words.”
“We can buy all the baby elephant stuff. I’ll even get you an actual baby elephant to go with it if that makes you happy?”
She shakes her head and wrinkles her nose. “I hear they poop a lot and I think we’ll have our hands full with this little one.” She rubs her hands over her stomach and I slide mine next to hers.
A second later, something nudges my hand. “Did you feel that too?” She laughs as she looks down at her belly.
“Was that the baby?”
“Yes,” she breathes, placing her hands over mine and pressing lightly until I feel another nudge against my palm.
“That’s your daddy, little jelly bean,” she says sweetly, and I get the sense she talks to our kid all the time, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard her before.
Daddy. It makes me feel so many emotions that I didn’t expect — fear and worry as well as a sense of hope and peace that I have never experienced before in my life.
Standing here with her in the middle of the empty store, feeling our baby kicking, I wonder how the hell my life has managed to change beyond recognition in just over a few months. And it’s all down to this woman right here.
