“Well, I bought this before I called you.” He shrugged. “Worse-case scenario, I took it home and ate it by myself.”
I motioned inside. “Please come in.”
Just then, Juniper stepped into the living room. “Mr. Hawkins,” she all but shrieked. She peered at me. “And you brought me ice cream.”
“You can go ahead and call me Logan.” He glanced over at me. “If that’s okay with your mother.”
“Can I, Mama? Can I?”
It did seem a bit strange for my daughter to be so formal with a man who was quickly becoming a major part of my life. “It’s fine.”
“Okay, why don’t we get some bowls out and test out this ice cream?”
“Yay,” Juniper cheered. “Logan brought ice cream.”
* * *
After the ice cream, I heated up our dinner. Nothing fancy, only some frozen pizza. I hadn’t exactly had a lot of time to shop and prepare.
As a man with a housekeeper who also prepared his meals, Logan probably didn’t eat a lot of frozen pizza, but he didn’t seem to mind.
I was quiet during dinner, just watching him chat with Juniper about LEGOs, cartoons, and movies. I thought back to all his interactions with her, all the way back to his trip to Denmark. Even though he had been on a business trip that had nothing to do with us, he’d remembered and gone out of his way to bring her back LEGOs.
At the hospital, he thought to bring a laptop and a movie he thought she’d liked. Sure, Moana wasn’t exactly an obscure movie, but Logan was a thirty-nine-year-old billionaire who didn’t have any children. I doubted he spent a lot of time watching Disney movies, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had no clue about anything kid-related.
What it showed me, what every interaction he had with Juniper proved to me, was that he cared about her, that he paid attention to what her interests were. That he even valued her as a person and not just as my daughter.
“No, I haven’t seen most Disney movies made in the last… Well, a while,” he said to Juniper, a sheepish look on his face. “I don’t see a lot of movies, honestly.”
“You need to see Frozen and Zootopia,” Juniper said. “I think Zootopia is my favorite, but Frozen has better songs.”
Logan nodded, a serious look on his face. “I’ll make sure I watch them.”
I took a bite of my pizza, thinking about how the conversation had unfolded to follow my existing thoughts. The important thing, really, was that Logan just gave a damn. Lionel never did.
Sure, he would act nice to Juniper and seem happy to spend time with her, but he didn’t really pay attention to her or what she wanted.
His birthday and Christmas presents always seemed so random, like he’d gone to the store and picked out the first thing that caught his eye, and he didn’t get age appropriateness. For her last birthday, he’d gotten her a doll from some show aimed at young teens she didn’t even watch. The year before, he’d gotten her a baby toy. It even had a teething ring on it.
It’s one thing to guess wrong, but it’s not like Lionel didn’t know his daughter wasn’t a baby. I sighed.
Logan glanced over at me, concern on his face. “Something wrong?”
Juniper looked at me, too, her face scrunched in an attempt at what I think was supposed to be seriousness.
“Just been a tiring week,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. Everything’s better now.”
Logan glanced down at his watch. “As much as I love spending time with you two lovely ladies, I need to get going.”
Juniper crossed her arms over her chest and stuck out her lip. “No fair.”
“Juniper Blue,” I said. “You do not talk that way to our guest.”
“I’m sorry, Logan,” she said, hanging her head.
He ruffled her hair. “I’m sure I can visit again soon.”
Juniper lifted her head, a bright smile on her face. “Good. Maybe I can be the foreman, and you can be the worker.”