“I thought it would be like Fun Dip.” She makes a face, making me chuckle.
I’ll take her comparing my cooking to powdered fish food over her silence any time. The jokes that usually had her laughing uncontrollably barely got a smile, and her toys were left basically untouched for a few days following the encounter with her mother. It was like she was a completely different kid. I vowed never to leave the house with her again if it meant preventing this from happening again.
Eli is actually working on this problem right now. He asked me to come over earlier while he went to some appointment with his lawyer, who, come to think of it, is probably Ruth’s lawyer. I would’ve agreed to babysit no matter what, but the homemade meal he promised made it all the more appealing.
“You’re harsh, I think,” I say, which only makes Zoe giggle. She then steals two cookies from the pan and jumps down from her stool, running toward the living room.
“Not that disgusting if you’re stealing more!”
I don’t know how anyone could resist the laugh she lets out again. I could be in the foulest mood—which I was for a while after crossing paths with two girls who made my life in school a living hell and pretended they didn’t recognize me today—and I still couldn’t help but smile if I heard the sound.
As I’m following her toward the living room, a creaking noise comes from the front of the house, making me tense. Eli isn’t supposed to be back for another hour.
I’ve never been brave. Not when facing bullies and certainly not when facing a possible home invasion. When I moved into my first studio in the city and had to live alone for the first time at the age of seventeen, I couldn’t sleep for an entire month. Every noise would make me jump. I’d barricade my front door with two dressers before getting in bed each night.
I look back at the little girl snacking next to me. If protecting her means facing the break-in fears I’ve had since watching one nasty horror movie with Eli when I was a tween,so be it.
The knob of the front door turns, and I grab the first thing I can get my hands on—namely a wooden spoon—and rush toward the door just as it opens, weapon brandished.
I will deny I was the one who let out that shrieky yelp until the day I die.
Eli jumps back as he steps inside and sees me, wild-hyena style, and then, the prick has the nerve to smirk. “Nice,” he says in that deep voice of his.
“You couldn’t text?” I ask as I let the stupid spoon down.
“And miss that? Not a chance.”
Asshole.
“Daddy!” Zoe shouts. It doesn’t take a second before she’s throwing herself into her father’s arms, looking so tiny in them. He picks her up and settles her on his hip, then kisses her temple. I conclude right then and there that nothing is sexier than Eli in dad-mode.
“What happened to your braids?” he asks Zoe as he pets her head adorned with two tiny buns.
“Cassie made me these. She’ssomuch better than you.”
I chuckle. At least she’s like this with everyone.
Eli throws me a look that only makes me laugh harder.
“She said she could make me a crown braid one day,” Zoe tells her father like I’m some world-renowned hair stylist instead of a girl who watched YouTube tutorials to pass the time when I was thirteen. It’s one thing I love about kids; how you could be the most ordinary person, and in their eyes, you hang the moon.
“Did she?”
“Yes.”Zoe’s eyes widen, then she turns to me. “You can make me one on my birthday.” She says it likebirfday because of her missing front tooth.
“We’ll be at Nana’s cottage on your birthday,” Eli tells her.
“Cassie can come to Nana’s!” To me, she says, “It’s so much fun. There’s fish in the lake, and sometimes they fight each other.”
I want to laugh as much as I want to cry, because based on Eli’s face, I know I won’t be here by the time Zoe’s birthday turns up. If they’re going to the cottage, it’s probably sometime around August.
“Cassie will probably be very busy,” Eli says, the humor also gone from his voice.
“Why?” Zoe asks.
I force a smile, then swerve the question. “I’ll make you a braid crown tomorrow, if you want.”
She still seems skeptical, but the promise does the trick. She swivels out of Eli’s arms, and when he tells her it’s bedtime, she says, “Can Cassie do story time?”
