“You look beautiful,” I told her. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
She giggled and nuzzled into my neck.
“Look, Mama,” Willa said.
Kelly went over to her, and the little girl held out her flower.
“It’s so pretty,” Kelly told her. “We should put it in water.”
“I’ll do that for you,” Pam said. “You two go on and have fun. Willa and I have dinner and movie plans.”
I laughed, and we said good night before heading out.
“Where are we going?” Kelly asked when we got into the car.
“The bowling alley,” I told her. “Colby is getting us a lane.”
“That sounds like fun. I haven’t been bowling in years,” she told me.
We got to the bowling alley, and I immediately noticed Colby and a woman standing at the concession stand. He was staring at her with wide puppy dog eyes, completely engrossed with whatever she was saying to him. But the way he was looking at her told me she could be rattling off the names in a phone book and he would think she was enrapturing. Even though I’d never met her, I knew who the woman was. He’d been pining after her for months and hadn’t been able to build up the courage to ask her out until a couple of weeks ago. This was only their third date, but he wanted to introduce her to me and see how we got along. I had no doubt I’d like her if he did.
Colby smiled at us when he noticed us walking up to them. He nodded toward us, and the woman turned around.
“Hi, guys,” Colby said. “This is Caroline. She works with Jane at the clinic.”
“Hi,” she said, extending her hand to us.
We introduced ourselves, and I could tell Caroline and Kelly were going to get along famously. They hit it off immediately, and when Colby and I grabbed beers off the counter and suggested we go start a game, the girls looped arms.
“I think we should do guys against girls,” Kelly said. I laughed, and she narrowed her eyes at me. “Don’t think we can beat you?”
“Colby and I have been bowling together for years,” I told her. “Not to sound arrogant or anything, but we’re pretty good.”
“We’ll see about that,” Kelly said and headed for the lane with Caroline.
It turned out her competitiveness knew few bounds, but even more than that, she had the skill to back it up. The night was a blast, and it was great to see Colby so happy spending time with Caroline, even though the women totally kicked our asses. He’d gone down swearing he let them win, but I was perfectly happy letting them crow and take my defeat like a man. Especially considering the girls were already talking about coming bowling again sometime soon, and we weren’t going to be able to pull off pretending to let them win twice.
After three games, it was getting late and Kelly slipped her hand into mine.
“We should probably go,” she said.
“It’s so early,” Caroline argued. “I was hoping we could maybe go out dancing for a while.”
“That sounds like so much fun,” Kelly told her. “Another time, definitely. But we have a two-year-old at home, and we need to relieve her babysitter.”
I couldn’t help the huge grin that broke out over my face just hearing her talk about Willa as our daughter rather than just hers. It made me feel like a real family.
When we got back to the apartment, I grabbed her hand and yanked her up against me, gathering her up in my arms. She laughed and looped her arms around my neck.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I just want to steal a few extra minutes with you before we go inside,” I told her.
“I think I can be okay with that,” she said.
Our mouths met, and I eased her up against the wall to kiss her. It was slow and deep, and my body melted into hers. I wished we could just stop time and stay out there for hours, but I knew we needed to go inside. Kelly unlocked the door, and we stepped inside. She turned and gave me one more kiss before closing the door, officially bringing the date to an end. The living room was empty, so we headed for Willa’s bedroom. Pam sat in the corner in the rocking chair, reading a book by the light of a small lamp sitting on the dresser beside her. She looked up and smiled at us when we came in.
“How was your night out?” she asked softly.
“It was a lot of fun,” Kelly told her. “Thank you again for staying with Willa.”
“No thanks needed. You probably didn’t have anywhere near as much fun as we did. I had dinner with a fairy princess tonight.”
“Oh, did you?” Kelly asked with a quiet laugh.
“Yes. And then we built a castle in the living room and watched movies about all her princess friends while we ate yogurt parfaits,” Pam said.
“Yep. You win,” I said. “Can’t get better than that.”
I could see why Kelly loved Pam so much. The older woman screamed maternal and obviously adored both Kelly and Willa. The thought of her not ever getting to have grandchildren of her own must have made her really sad. I knew then I completely agreed with Kelly. There was no way we could just leave Pam behind. No matter how much time Willa spent with my family, Pam was still an important part of her life and they deserved to stay with each other. There was no such thing as too many people loving her.
Kelly thanked Pam again and walked her out of the bedroom to the door. I quietly called good night after her but stayed in the bedroom with Willa. Sitting down in the rocking chair, I watched my daughter sleep. She looked sweet and peaceful; her hair spread out around her head on the pillow. Just like me, she slept
