I shake my head. “No. I want to know first how you feel about this. It’s just an idea at this point.”
She peers at me for a second, making my heartbeat pulse with every flutter of her eyelids. “I love how you are here, Dad.” She cocks her head toward her breakfast plate. “You cook, you joke, you smile, you laugh. I wouldn’t want to change any of that.”
“Me too, kiddo.”
“But—”
My body stiffens hearing that one word, which has the power to change my future.
“I would love to get a dog brother for Snowy. Clem promised that would be my gift at your wedding. Can’t we move to someplace bigger, maybe, with a backyard?”
Hearing her words, my lips curl up and my fists slowly start to unclench. I relax back in my seat. “Why do you get a present at my wedding?”
Mere giggles and happiness streaks like a comet inside me upon seeing her this happy.
In the last year, I’d lost all hope that we both could be sitting at the breakfast table, talking, smiling, planning something for the future.
“I gave you Clem. If I hadn’t been such a doll, she’d have left the first day, given how angry you were back then. What else do you need?” She tosses her hair back, with a smug smile on her face.
“Agreed on that, doll face. But I too wasn’t thinking exactly of this apartment.”
* * *
“Holy shit! I didn’t know these grounds were a part of the Kings Security campus.” Clem’s gaze skids around as we walk under the overgrown trees.
“This belongs to the Kings family. Connor built these houses sometime back, in case families want to settle inside the campus.” I point to the several cozy, cottage-style houses.
“Oh my God! These are so beautiful. Why didn’t you show me these before, Dad?” Mere runs through the grass field.
I open the latch to a wrought-iron gate and motion for them to enter. “Take a look around.”
I carefully watch as they both stroll in the freshly mowed backyard. Clementine’s fingers trail the shining firepit coffee table before her gaze meets mine. The excitement in her eyes is contagious and my heart beats in a fast-paced rhythm.
“Are you serious?” she whispers.
I pull her close, enveloping her in my arms. “Only if you and Mere are on board with the idea. Otherwise, we can look at other places.”
Though in my heart, I’m hoping they say yes to this. This is the safest place I know.
“I think we’ll be very happy here.” Clementine’s eyes shimmer with love and hope as she stands on her toes and pulls me down, placing a kiss on my lips.
“Then let’s check out the inside.”
Mere and Clem, hand in hand, curiously walk from the living room to the dining area to the kitchen. After inspecting the two bedrooms on the first floor, they take the stairs up to the second floor, and I trail behind.
Mere enters one of the two bedroom and smiles. “You guys can make this your room. It’s like our loft.”
“Great idea, and you can take the next one.” Clem bumps her shoulder with Mere’s.
As always, they are two steps ahead of me, already planning the living situation.
“Are you crazy?” Mere’s nose scrunches as if she’s been told to sleep in the doghouse. “I’m not sleeping next to you guys.”
“Why not?” I step inside the second bedroom. It looks perfectly good to me.
“Dad, I’m fourteen. I know you and Clem are going to have sex.”
I look at my daughter as if she has grown two heads. “Please stop. I don’t want to hear you say that word ever again.”