that was half-him, that looked like him, too, though Charlotte was everywhere in her face. He looked up at Charlotte as he picked up his daughter, carrying her to them. Charlotte looked at peace, while Megan was a sobbing mess.
“I’m so happy you’re here,” Penny rambled in endless sentences. “I have so much to show you. I have so many pictures. I always draw you. Mom said to always have pictures of you and they’re in my room. I also have a doll house. Oh, and I play Minecraft on my iPad, and I have a character that I named Dad. He looks like you, too, but he’s all squared. I put him in a cell with bars, and now I can make a door for him. He can finally leave.”
He sat her down on the island and kissed her everywhere, pulling back to look at her between kisses. She smiled up at him, her front teeth were all gone, though he could see a new one breaking through. When she smiled, his chest lit up like fireworks. She had happy tears, and she awkwardly wiped at her eyes, shrugging at them, exclaiming, “I don’t know why I’m crying.”
“You’re happy,” Charlotte said. “Didn’t I tell you this was going to happen?”
Obviously there seemed to be a history of this conversation being had. Penny looked up to the ceiling. “You did,” she confessed. “But we waited so long for you, Daddy, and I didn’t believe Mom anymore. I’m sorry, Mom.”
“That’s okay.”
“People kept saying you were never coming out.”
“Kids being kids,” Megan intervened, looking like she was holding back a glare. “We always said ignore them.”
She nodded. “Yeah, Kane said they were being bullies and to be strong and he was always going to be there for me.”
“Kane sounds like a good kid,” Thames said, running his fingers through her tangled hair.
“I keep telling Mom that, but she just rolls her eyes.”
When Thames glanced to Charlotte, sure enough, she was rolling her eyes. She gave Megan a pointed look, and Megan avoided her son’s eye. Whoever this Kane kid was, there seemed to be shared tension there.
Whatever. Thames didn’t care. He was on cloud fucking nine right now, basking in his daughter’s presence.
He thought if he died right then, he would die a very happy man.
Chapter Ten
Charlotte
“Do you think he heard me?” Megan asked in a hushed tone.
We watched from the kitchen as Conor and Penny talked. She was in his lap, chatting away, her arms in the air, going over one of her millions of stories. It was probably about Minecraft, or school, or Kane. It was all she talked about these days.
“Oh, he heard you,” I replied, evenly. “I saw it in his eyes when he walked in.”
Megan sighed, shooting me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, Charlotte.”
“I know.”
“I was upset, and I reacted.”
“I understand why, but I wasn’t trying to keep him from you.”
“I know.”
“And if I was, it would never be because of that.”
“I know,” she repeated, sincerely. “Are you upset with me?”
I was definitely upset. I was going to have to have an awkward conversation with Conor about it. It being Locke. I was always going to tell him, but I wanted to at least do it at my own pace.
“It’s fine,” I managed out, genuinely. And it was fine, and it wasn’t fine, either. What it was, was a fucking mess, actually. I couldn’t blame Megan for reacting. He was her son. She loved him, and she would have wanted to see him straight away. “Calling you at three in the morning wouldn’t have worked, anyway. You were working.”
“That’s true.” Now she was saying whatever to conciliate me. “Why did he come here so late?”
“He walked from the motel Locke had dropped him off in.” When she gave me a questioning look, I shrugged. “I don’t know, either. We didn’t talk about it.”
I didn’t know whether Locke had dropped him off before he saw me or after. The jerk.
“What did he do all day before coming to you?”
“Again, no idea.”
“Well, what on earth did you talk about?”
I just gave Megan a look, and slowly she got the gist. She let out a dry laugh. “Oh, right. Not a lot of talking was had.”
I bit my lip to stop from smiling, but she nudged my shoulder, her face reddening as she stifled her laughter. I shook my head, embarrassed. When I looked back at them on the couch, Conor was staring intensely at me for a few seconds,