His Side

I stood in front of Kayla and our daughter with Summer in my hands. Kayla’s eyes danced over Summer and for a second I saw a hint of sadness that she quickly washed away.

Right now I wasn’t sure how to read Kayla. I wasn’t even sure how I felt about her. I got her reasonings of why she hid my daughter. I had done the same thing to her a year prior, but this time was different because this was both of our child.

I missed Cass’s whole pregnancy and the birth of Summer and now I was in the same boat when it came to Kayla.

I smiled down at Summer when she reached for my cheek. She smiled at me showing the few teeth that she had and I swallowed hard. Aria looked like Summer when she was a baby. Both of them had hints of their mothers in them but for the most part they favored me.

Walking over to Kayla I sat across from her this time. She kept her eyes on me, I could tell she wasn’t sure how to react right now.

Summer had finally noticed that we weren’t alone and fought to get out my arms. Once she was on the ground she wobbled over to where Kayla was.

I watched as she smiled up at her sister and grabbed at her. She looked up at Kayla and held her arms up to be picked up.

I held my breath not sure how Kayla would react to her. I know she said she was over the pain that Summer being here caused her but that was when Summer wasn’t around. Now that she was forced to be around her I wasn’t sure if it would be too much for her or not.

Kayla’s eyes went from Summer to mine.

Again, I saw the hint of pain in them.

Just when I was about to stand and get Summer, Kayla sat Aria down next to her then bent down and picked Summer up.

“Hi!” Summer cheesed at her once she was sitting on her lap.

Kayla stared at her before a smile found its way on her face. “Hi.”

That small interaction made a flame enlighten in my chest. The smile on Kayla’s face was genuine and it was one I’ve missed since she walked out of my life a year ago.

“Baby?” Summer asked pointing to her sister.

Kayla nodded. “That’s your sister,” I said standing up and making my way over to them.

I bent down and picked up Aria, replacing her body with mine.

“Can you say sister Summer?” I kissed Aria’s head then smiled at Summer.

Summer took her eyes off Kayla and looked at me with confusion on her small face.

“Say sister Summer.” 

She looked at Aria and grew excited. “Sis-er.” She attempted and dove forward but Kayla was able to catch her.

I laughed at her excitement.

“Your daughter is beautiful Vince.”

I looked up into Kayla’s eyes and I thought I would see sadness but I didn’t. Her smile reached her eyes and her eyes were bright now.

“Aria looks like her when she was first born.”

Kayla looked at our daughter. “Cass told me the same thing. Even sent me a few pictures.” She replied lowly.

I stared at Aria and felt myself starting to get choked up. I was trying to play it cool and I was thankful that Kayla had brought her to me but that didn’t mean I wasn’t hurt. She had to go through all this without me. Although Aria wouldn’t remember I had missed the first three months of her life. One thing I took serious was being a father and anyone who tried to stop that didn’t sit right with me.

“You know it’s crazy here and I am with two kids and I missed both of them being brought into the world.”

“Vince-.”

“I don’t know the cravings you had, I didn’t get to see you big and swollen, rub your back at night, hear you complain about morning sickness. All that was taken away from me.”

Summer had now forgotten about her sister and was now on the ground in the area I had her toys, playing. Regret filled Kayla’s face.

“I craved bananas and peanut butter together and salt and vinegar chips with honey.” My face balled up. Kayla laughed softly. “I know, sounds gross now. Anyways, I gained 25 pounds, I had morning sickness up until my fifth month. The smell of chicken and eggs made me sick.”

I zoned out as Kayla continued giving me details about her pregnancy because it wasn’t the same. I wasn’t there to experience anything so it didn’t give me the same satisfaction.

“What about your labor. Was it easy?”

She shrugged. “I guess, it was eight hours, took me about three pushes to get her out.”

Aria squirmed in my arms causing me to look at her. “The moment I looked at her all I saw was you.”

When I looked at Kayla again she was smiling.

I sighed.

It pissed me off because I was in an internal battle with myself. I had been wanting Kayla to come back to me for so long and now that she’s here I was so angry with her but I still loved her at the same time. I wanted to just sweep everything under the bridge but I wasn’t sure if it was that easy.

“Can we be fixed?” Kayla asked as if she could sense what I was thinking.

“I don’t know,” I told her honestly.

“How is what I did any different from what you did! Both of us hid something from each other.”

I licked my lips. “Only difference is I wasn’t hiding Summer to be spiteful. I didn’t want to hurt you and I wasn’t sure how to tell you. You on the other hand wanted to hurt me. You purposely lied about getting an abortion then ran from me so I wouldn’t know you hadn’t.”

“I’m sorry I did that Vincent. I missed you through my whole pregnancy I wanted to be with you. Do you remember how it was when I was pregnant the first time? You were so attentive to me; I wanted that back.”

“You could have had that!” My voice slightly rose.

“I know that! I made a bad call.”

“A bad call? You hid my fucking daughter from me!”

“But I came back!”

I blew a deep breath out and Kayla stood up. “I need to go get our stuff out of the car.”

She didn’t wait for me to respond. I watched her turn and head out of the living room and I didn’t try to stop her.

Right now I held resentment for Kayla I couldn’t easily let go of. I was going to need some time before I was able to fully forgive her.