Page 51 of Truth or More Truth
She looks at me in awe. “You have a little girl?” She looks around. “Where is she? Is she here? Why wasn’t she sitting with us?”
“I do have a little girl. Well, she’s not so little anymore, but she was little not very long ago. And she’s not here. She’s with her mom in California.”
Emily purses her lips as she digests this information. “Her mom isn’t your wife?”
“No.” I wonder how many more questions I’ll get about this.
“That’s okay. My mommy isn’t my dad’s wife, either.”
I don’t know much about the situation with Emily’s dad—just that he’s not in the picture at the moment.
“Does that make you sad?” I ask her.
“No.” She shakes her head. “I haven’t seen him since I was a baby, so I don’t miss him. But I wish I had a daddy who wants to live with me and who loves me more than anybody in the world except my mommy. He can love her more.”
My heart breaks for this little girl, and I hope she gets her wish someday soon, and I tell her as much. “I want you to have a daddy who loves you and wants to live with you, too.”
Emily asks me bluntly, “Is your little girl sad that you’re not married to her mom?”
“No. She lives with me part of the time and knows I love her more than anybody in the world.”
She gives me a contemplative look. “But maybe someday you’ll love Melissa more than her?”
I shake my head. “No. I’ll never love anyone more than I love Kelli. But that doesn’t mean I can’t love someone else in a different way and just as much as I love Kelli. Loving your child is a different kind of love than loving someone you want to marry.” I feel the need to add, “Your mom will always love you as much as or more than anyone else. You know that, right?” I don’t know Andrea well, but I know enough to be sure what I’m telling her daughter is true.
“Yeah.” She sighs and leans her head against my shoulder. “But I still want a daddy.”
Tears prick behind my eyes as I hold Emily tightly against me. “I know,” I say as I press my cheek to her soft hair.
We dance in silence for a few seconds before I say, “Hey, you never told me your secret.”
Emily’s head pops back off my shoulder. “Oh, yeah!” She looks around in what I assume she thinks is a stealthy manner and then whispers, “You know that love look we talked about?”
She makes the hilarious face, and I stifle my laugh yet again.
“Yeah?”
“I saw Mr. Shannon give that look to my mommy when she wasn’t looking.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “Oh, you did?” This kid is perceptive. I saw the same thing, though Shannon made sure Andrea didn’t see it. Apparently he didn’t pay as much attention to where her daughter’s focus lay.
“Yep.” She pops the “p” as she says it.
“Did you tell your mom?” I ask.
“Nuh-uh.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t think he wanted her to see it. When she looked at him, his face went like this.”
She gives me the most serious look she can muster, and this time I do laugh.
“So you’re keeping Mr. Shannon’s secret?”
“I am, but he doesn’t even know it.”
“Do you like Mr. Shannon?”
