If Forever Comes (Take This Regret #2)(8)
Author: A.L. Jackson

“What is it?” I asked, my eyes scanning the sea of children jumping from backseats of cars, slinging backpacks onto their shoulders, yelling and laughing as they began their day.

“Daddy, look it…right there!” She jabbed her finger in emphasis, and my sight finally settled on the source of the furor that surged through Lizzie.

A wistful smile emerged on my face.

Kelsey Glenn.

She stood on the sidewalk with her father, Logan. He knelt on a knee in front of her, helping her secure her backpack onto her shoulders. The little girl grinned as her dad lightly nudged her chin with the hook of his finger.

I’d met her a handful of times. Over the summer, the two girls had become close friends. I thought it was cute that Lizzie finally had a playmate that she gushed about almost every time I saw her, the way Lizzie would worry if Kelsey would like something or not, going on about Kelsey’s favorite food or favorite color or favorite show.

There was nothing that gave me mixed feelings like watching Lizzie grow up, to see her excited to have friends, to talk on the phone and giggle like a teenager. She was only six, but the last year had passed in what seemed a blink, a blip of time that now flickered and held as memories in my consciousness. I knew that as the years passed, they would only quicken. Lizzie would be grown before I could make sense of it.

It made me proud and sad, ushering in a fearful expectancy of what the future would bring.

Kelsey spent her time living between her parents’ houses, carted between the two on whichever day belonged to her mother or father. The two girls had been in the same kindergarten class. As the school year had neared its ending, right before everything had fallen apart, Elizabeth had found out her father lived just two streets over from us, and Lizzie and Kelsey had clung to each other over the difficult months that had ensued.

I guess I’d never thought it possible that Kelsey and Lizzie would end up having so much in common.

Lizzie couldn’t stop talking about her.

“What’s her name again…Kelly…Katie…Karen?” I teased.

“Daddy…” Lizzie drew out in a frustrated groan. “It’s Kelsey. And she’s my very best friend. Didn’t you know that? She even gave me a necklace that says so.”

I grinned as I peeked at my daughter in the rearview mirror. She played with the little pendant necklace she proudly wore around her neck. She lifted it a little higher when she caught my eye.

“See!” she prodded.

“Well, it looks like it’s official then.”

“Yep.” She giggled a little.

The sound filled the car, filled my heart. It felt so good to hear her laugh. For so long, it’d been missing. And I knew even if Elizabeth and I never healed from this, our daughter would.

“Well, we better get you out of here so you can catch up with her.”

I came around to the rear passenger side and opened the door. Lizzie slid out onto the safety of the walkway and grabbed her backpack from the seat. She slammed the door shut behind her.

Dropping to a knee, I helped her slide her backpack straps up her arms, then pulled her hair free from underneath it.

Softly I smiled at her, my attention locked on the sweetness in her vibrant blue eyes.

“You have a great day today, okay? I’m going to be thinking about you all day and all night until I see you again tomorrow morning. Then you’re going to come and spend tomorrow night with me. Does that sound like a good plan?”

She smiled a little. “Yeah, Daddy, I like that idea.”

“Lizzie!” The peal of a high-pitched voice reverberated across the lot. “Lizzie, over here!”

We both jerked to see Kelsey running our direction, the biggest grin on her face. The little girl smiled up at me as she approached. “Hi, Mr. Davison. Is it okay if Lizzie walks with me to class?”

“That’s fine by me.”

Lizzie beamed as she squinted up at me, every trace of her earlier melancholy erased. “Thank you, Daddy! I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I dropped a quick kiss to her forehead. “Bye, sweetheart. You be good. I’ll call you tonight.”

“Okay!” she said as the two turned. Giggles rolled from them both as they shot off in the direction of the school gates.

Logan casually walked up, wearing a pair of cargo shorts and a tee-shirt. He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Morning.”

“Morning,” I returned absently, my attention on the two little girls skipping up the sidewalk.

“They sure are cute together, aren’t they?” he mused.

“Yeah.” They really were.

“Kelsey can’t stop talking about Lizzie,” he continued. “She asks if Lizzie can come over and play just about every time she’s at my house.”

“Yeah?” I said, the word not really a question, but a filler to take up the time that passed until my daughter disappeared into the mass of students flooding into the school hall.

“Elizabeth looked a lot better last week when I picked Kelsey up over there. I was glad to see a little color in her face.”

A deep frown burrowed in my brow as I cast a suspicious glance his way.

He was looking forward, watching the girls. His body was relaxed, chunks of his light blond hair stirred up by the short gusts of wind. But he was working his jaw. Nervous. Agitated.

Awareness prickled along my senses like a solitary string that pulled at my consciousness. A warning flare.

This ass**le was digging. Waiting. Wanting.

The anger that had smoldered for all those months boiled, rose up in a swollen rage.

Did he think for one f**king second I’d let him have her? That I’d stand aside and watch the woman I’d loved for all my life fully slip from my grasp?

Yeah. Maybe I’d lost her. But that didn’t mean I was letting her go.

He looked over at me. Flinty green eyes narrowed as they took in my expression. He lifted his chin.

“I’ll see you around.” Then he turned and headed back toward his car. He pitched a fleeting glance at me from over his shoulder before he climbed into his car.

The sharpest shot of possessiveness rattled me straight to the core, deep enough to cut into the compulsory resignation that had spurred me to pack my things and walk out of Elizabeth’s house.

He pulled from the curb and out into the swarm of merging and exiting cars. He caught the severity of my gaze as I followed his departure. There wasn’t a god-damned thing I could do to stop myself from staring him down.

Because it slammed me—the realization that just because Elizabeth couldn’t stomach the sight of me didn’t mean she might not one day want someone else.