The drive back to my house was electrically charged; finally being the recipient of one of Eden’s orgasms was something that I never could’ve foreseen happening. After experiencing something so life changing, I didn’t exactly think there was enough time during the week for me to get my fill; in fact, it probably wouldn’t even be possible if I had all the time in the world.
She sat very quietly looking out the window once again just as she had on the way to the covered bridge, but the difference on the way back was that she had the faintest smile across her lips. Once we pulled into my driveway I noticed out of the corner of my eye two familiar sets of bicycles. “Shit,” I cursed under my breath, what were they doing here?
Eden’s eyes went wide, “What’s wrong?”
“Oh it’s nothing to worry about, I just wasn’t expecting my daughter and her friend to be here.” I really didn’t want to make her feel cornered about meeting Norah.
Eden followed closely behind me through the garage and into the door that led to my kitchen. Norah’s eyes grew wide once she spotted us, almost as if we had caught her red-handed. “What are you doing here?” I asked, seeing her shove a stack of movies into her neon pink backpack and zip it closed.
“Uh, I live here, duh.” She looked right past me and her face lit up when she noticed Eden’s appearance in our home. “Hi, nice to meet you,” she went right up to Eden, extending her hand for a greeting.
Eden’s hand grasped Norah’s, “Lovely to meet you, Norah. You’re absolutely beautiful. You look quite a bit like your father when he was younger, you have his nose.” She glanced my way and gave a quick wink letting me know to quit worrying so much. Eden was right, she was a woman and could handle this meeting but it was Norah who I was afraid for. Knowing Norah, she had planned everything down to that precise moment so she could scope Eden out, but I didn’t want her to get her hopes up about Eden and me. Eden had made it incredibly clear that she was only here for the week, nothing more.
Norah pushed her arms through the straps to her backpack and rested an elbow on the counter of the island. “Was my dad hot back in the day?”
Eden burst out laughing, filling the entire kitchen space with her melodic sound.
“What do you mean ‘was’? I happen to think I still am,” I retorted, buffing my fingernails on my polo shirt. Was I showing off a bit? Perhaps, but it was all in good fun. Norah’s response was that of any daughter to her father when she thought he was being a bit ridiculous or facetious, and I could almost pinpoint the exact second when her eye roll would occur. “Now what are you doing here? I thought you were spending all week at Polly’s?” Polly, who for once remained eerily quiet in the corner of the kitchen, was making my suspicions even more probable.
“I am, we rode our bikes over to get a movie.” She looked from me to Eden, “Can you believe neither Polly nor her parents have watched Pitch Perfect yet? It’s morally wrong, so I had to rectify it now.”
“You sure she’s only twelve?” Eden leisurely pointed her finger in the direction of Norah who had on another smile.
“Believe me, you aren’t telling me anything that I don’t already know.” I placed my hands on my hips, “Sometimes it’s like she’s the parent and I’m the child instead of the other way around. Speaking of being the parent,” I turned to Norah and gave her a stern look, “Don’t you have something to say to Eden? Perhaps an apology of sorts?”
“No, it’s really not necessary,” Eden tried to intervene but Norah spoke up.
“My dad is right, for once,” cue an eye roll right about… now! She continued to speak, looking Eden directly in the eyes, and Eden’s expression softened towards her. “I’m really sorry for reaching out to you under the impression that I was my dad. But I can’t say that I’m one hundred percent sorry for doing it.” That comment took me by surprise and I straightened my stance and went to move towards Norah or at least shoot her a warning look, but she quickly floored me with her next set of words. “I mean, look at him,” she waved her arm in my direction, “he’s had a goofy smile on his face since the two of you came in.”
I have? I smiled even brighter at the thought of the happiness Eden had brought me just that afternoon. Even though some rather heavy secrets had been revealed, I couldn’t take the time to be pissed about them, because we didn’t have time to dwell on the past.
“So I really should say thank you for putting the effortless smile back on his face,” Norah ended with a shy half smile and a subtle shrug of a shoulder. My heart expanded in my chest at hearing her words. I was one proud dad in that moment and nothing could ever change my views on being a father. Kristina seemed to be able to ignore and spend months away from her daughter, but I didn’t think I could go one day without hearing her sweet voice.
“Norah,” I warned. She had to stop there because if she continued to go on saying such nice things about me I might be inclined to shed a tear.
“No, Daddy, it’s true. You often smile around me because you are an amazing dad but now your smile is almost brighter somehow.” She took a deep breath, “Like you found that missing light in your life. You were a dull sky on a gloomy day and she’s your beaming sun.” She pivoted on her foot away from me, “Let’s go, Polly. It was really great to finally meet you, Eden.” She started to walk out the door that led to the garage but quickly turned around and jogged back to me. She stood up on her tiptoes, kissed my cheek and whispered into my ear, “Bye, Daddy.” And was quickly out of sight.
Eden leaned up against the counter, “Baylor, you have done an amazing job raising her. She’s so profound and wise.”
I shrugged a shoulder, acting a little bashful, “Thanks, I’m not perfect at this whole parenting bit, that’s for sure. But Norah and I go with the flow and learn along the way. She’s a great kid.”
Eden seemed to start getting a bit nervous, looking all around the kitchen and never at me, then she began fiddling with the leather cuff bracelet that was on her left wrist. She wasn’t going to go all shy on me all of a sudden; I wasn’t going to have it.
“How about a snack?” I offered. She thought about it for a moment then nodded her head. “Just hop up there on the island and I’ll whip us up something.”
At first she gave me a sideways glare but then complied and began swinging her dangling legs after kicking her sandals off onto the floor. The action caused me to chuckle a bit because it reminded me so much of something Norah would do.
She began looking around the kitchen once more, “Your house is beautiful.”
Digging around in the fridge, I said, “We like it,” without looking back at her.
“So Kristina really doesn’t see Norah that much?”
I found a Tupperware container full of strawberries and shut the fridge, taking them over to the counter. “Hardly ever, actually. Norah says it doesn’t bother her but little things she says and does lead me to believe otherwise.” Opening the container I pulled out a strawberry and brought it to my lips, taking a bite out of it to determine the sweetness. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Eden watching my mouth the entire time. Taking my hand and wiping it on my jeans to get rid of any traces of strawberry juice, I then pulled myself up onto the counter right next to Eden. “She’s really close to my mom. It gives them both something to look forward to.”
I held out the container, allowing Eden to choose a berry, and she took a generous bite, causing the pale red juice began to run down the side of her mouth. I completely checked out once she darted out her tongue to lap up the wayward juice.
“Baylor?”
“Huh?” I finally said while coming to. Just the act of her eating a strawberry then licking up the stray juice of said strawberry was enough to do me in.