It had been nearly a week since Emrys had revealed Amy's paternity and he was anxious to start getting to know his daughter.
"Why? Are you having doubts already?"
"No. I want her to know I'm her dad. It's just that Amy only knows me as the absent cousin."
"True," Emrys said leading him through the living room.
She stopped in the arch to the playroom. Looking inside Ochre could see Amy playing with the violin.
"She's better than you were when you came here," he joked. He smiled when Emrys laughed.
"Not yet, but she really does love to play. She's taking classes on her own at the skill center rather than following Saffron all day, which is what I thought she would do."
Ochre frowned. He looked at Emrys, "she's not even five years old yet. Should she be taking formal lessons?"
"I talked with the teacher before she started. He's having her practice chords at home and teaching her to play children's songs. His class is spent listening to different genres of music and exploring a variety of instruments. More of a music appreciation really. He's only doing the chords because Amy shows so much interest in the violin," she finished talking and looked at him with one eyebrow raised. Daring him to question her further.
He didn't take her up on the challenge. "You obviously know better than I."
She immediately softened, "Not better, longer. So I've had more practice."
"Amy," she called.
Amy stopped playing and turned around.
"Come here," Emrys called and gestured for her to come to them in the doorway.
Amy put down her violin and walked over to them.
Emrys took her hand and walked her to the living room. They sat on the couch while Ochre sat on the love seat.
"Do you remember Ochre from dinner a couple weeks ago?"
Amy nodded, "He's the spaceship pilot."
"Right," Emrys agreed. "He's also your dad."
Ochre was surprised when Emrys just blurted it out. Amy was frowning at her mom.
"He's not my daddy. He doesn't live with us," she argued.
"Sweetie," Emrys said hugging Amy, "not all mommies and daddies live together. Like Uncle Toya's mommy and daddy, sometimes they can live in different places."
"You didn't say he was my daddy when we ate dinner."
"No, I didn't. I never told Ochre that you were going to be born so he didn't know that you're his daughter."
Amy glanced at him from behind Emrys and Ochre tried his best to seem as friendly as he could.
"Do I have to call you 'Daddy'?" she asked.
"I would like you to call me 'Daddy' but if you don't want to yet I understand. I've never had a daughter before so I'm hoping you can teach me what I need to do."
Amy looked at him thoughtfully.
Ochre was surprised when she got up and joined him on the love seat. She gestured for him to lean down.
When he did she whispered into his ear, "I never had a daddy before though, so I don't know what a daddy is supposed to do."
Ochre had to swallow past the lump in his throat before whispering back. "Maybe we can learn together then."
"Okay," Amy smiled and hugged him.
Ochre wrapped his arms around his little girl for the first time and thanked his lucky stars he had this chance to start making things right with his daughter.
Amy let go before he was ready to release her.
"Can I go practice now?" she asked.
"Yes," Emrys said.
Amy gave him and Emrys each a hug before leaving the room. A couple minutes later the violin began playing. Ochre braced his arms on his knees and propped his head on his hands.
"You did a good job raising her Em," he said when he could talk again.
"I had your mom and dad to help me. They've done more than I have," she admitted.
"No," he said looking at her. "She's loved and freely offers her love to everyone around her in return. That's only something she could do because of you."
Emrys blushed and looked down, "Thank you. Sometimes I wondered if I've done right by her, with work taking me away as it does."
"Don't doubt it, Emrys. You've raised an amazing little girl."
Random Rambling
Again, moving on...
No comments:
Post a Comment