A wide grin forms on my face. It makes me happy to know she wants to be around me. I know I haven’t been the best person to be around. I can’t thank her enough for how patient she has been with me. Especially with Amari. She’s such a great mother to our daughter, even when I haven’t been the best father.
"Here, let me take your bags.” Brooke grabs them out of my hand and walks back into the kitchen.
“Where’s Amar–” Before I can finish, Amari comes into sight with wide eyes.
“Dad! You’re here!” she says, walking down the stairs in her pink nightgown. I reach for her and wrap her in my arms. “What are you doing here?” she asks in her small voice.
“I came to cook you guys pancakes,” I say. I embrace her as she wraps her legs around my waist.
“Oh, good. I’m starrrrving.” Blakely and I laugh.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” B says as she cuts the strawberries.
To be honest, I don’t. I haven’t ever really cooked before. I should have read up on how to make pancakes before I came. I’m going to make myself look like a fool.
B looks over my shoulder and giggles. “Here,” she says, grabbing the spoon out of my hand. “You need more milk. This is too thick.”
“I thought thicker was better.” I grin at her, hiding that fact that I have no idea what I’m doing. I never thought pancakes could be so difficult. I should have helped B out more when she would make them for us. She always prepared us food. I took her for granted because now all I eat is fast food or processed food, and I can tell how badly it’s affecting my body. Well, that and all the alcohol.
She shakes her head with a small grin on her face, holding back a bigger laugh. “Not for pancakes! They’re supposed to be fluffy, not like a brick.” She pours in some milk and stirs it into the mix. I can’t help but admire how much she has grown since the few years we haven’t been together.
“Okay, chef. What’s next?”
She laughs, and the sound of her voice brightens my mood. “Mix an egg into it while I finish up these strawberries.”
“Okay. Yeah…I’m pretty sure I can handle that,” I joke, grabbing the egg, cracking it on the edge of the bowl, and dropping the egg in the bowl. I scoop a bit of batter onto my finger. “How does this look, chef?” She turns toward me, and I rub the batter onto her nose.
She gasps and looks at me in shock. “Kai!”
We both turn to Amari as she laughs in the background.
“Oh, do you want some, too?” I ask, scooping more batter onto my finger before heading over to Amari, who's still laughing.
“No.” She squeals.
She crawls under the table so I can’t reach her. “Come here, little one.”
“No. Dad. No,” she says through her laughs.
I reach my arm under the table and rub the batter on her cheek. “Ah ha. Got you.”
“Dad!” she squeals.
The minute I’m up from the floor, Blakely is right behind me and slaps a whole handful of batter onto my face.
Wild laughter erupts, filling the kitchen. I can’t shake the feeling of this simple moment. Simple moments that I used to take for granted. Before Amari was born, we used to always play around with one another.Everything got so serious after Amari. Then, my dumbass didn’t help anything.
I look at Blakely and Amari, each of them covered in batter, and I realize how much I’ve missed this. I’ve been a dumbass, caught up in my own head, but here we are, laughing together. This is what I want. I want my family to wake up under the same roof every morning. Playing and laughing together. But deep down, I know before bringing anything up about us getting back together, I have to work on myself first. I have to become the person and father they need me to be—and what they deserve.
And maybe.
I’ll eventually be the husband Blakely deserves.
Blakely
“You look beautiful tonight,” Liam says.
I didn’t think we would go to something fancy like this, so I didn’t pack for it. Good thing Paige had a simple black dress. It hugs my curves just right, and I’ve paired it with black high heels that crisscross at the ankle.
