Was I her father? Probably. I’d lost count of the number of women I’d slept with. Of course I knocked one of them up. Too bad it wasn’t one of the fifty kindergarten teachers. I bet they were all great mom material. “She can stay here. Until we know for sure, I mean.”
Diane smiled; I guess that was the right answer. She stood and I followed. We were headed into the kitchen. To talk to Landry. We were going to the kitchen to tell Landry, my possible daughter, that she could stay here. Was she my daughter? She looked just like me. And she seemed to hate me. Seemed about right. “Landry, sweetheart, can we talk to you a minute?”
Diane reminded me of a grandma. Very calm, very loving. Maybe she should take Landry. The tiny little girl with the raven hair and the piercing eyes turned her full attention toward us. “Landry, this is Jacks. This is the man I was telling you about in the car. He lives here, with his friends.” Landry shifted her eyes toward Smith and Dylan. And then to me. Her gaze was intense. “Jacks would very much like it if you agreed to stay here, with him.”
The sweet social worker elbowed me in the ribs. “I would, like you to stay. If that’s okay…with you…” Was I supposed to ask her? Or tell her? I would make a terrible father.
Landry stared at me for a beat before she nodded and then went back to eating her pancakes. Diane leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be back to check on you, sweetheart.”
I followed her out to her car, and took Landry’s small pink suitcase from her hands. “You’ll come back, right? To see us? And to let me know about the test.” I knew I sounded desperate, but I was.
“Yes, I’ll be back soon. I’ll give you a few days to settle in and when I have the results of your paternity test I’ll come by. And of course I’ll let you know if Landry’s mother contacts us.” She looked back toward the house, and then to me. “There’s something about Landry… She just tugs on my heartstrings, that one.”
She got in her car and left. That nice polite pretty lady got in her car and left me alone. Now what? Go inside and talk to my kid? Was she my kid? Probably. I hung my head and made my way back to the kitchen. Dylan was sitting next to Landry and they were both reading the newspaper. It was odd to see such a small person holding a giant newspaper. Was she old enough to read? I don’t think I’d ever read the paper. Maybe Dylan should adopt her. “Uh, Landry?”
She sat her paper down and looked at me. “Jacks.”
For such a small quiet person, she was intimidating as hell. “Do you, uh, I mean. Shit. Oh, sorry. I shouldn’t have said shit. Damn it.” Maybe I should just stop talking. Maybe I should run out the door and chase down Diane’s car and offer to pay her an ungodly amount of money to stay and help me. Always seemed to work for Dash. I took a deep breath and tried again. “Landry. Is there anything you need? To be more comfortable here? We can find you a room, and we can, uh, well… I can send someone to the store to get your favorite foods….” Shelter, food, water. Kids were like pets, right?
She just stared at me. I sat down on the bar stool next to her and banged my head on the granite countertop. When I turned to the side to look at her, she was smiling. Not a big smile, more like a smirk. Like me at a loss for words was humorous. Well, that’s a start. I smiled back.
“Good morning, famil—”
I raised my head when Dash walked in, with a sleepy pregnant Lexi trailing behind him. Our lead singer and his girlfriend stopped in their tracks when they saw Landry sitting beside me. No one moved, no one talked. Dagger, Lexi’s giant gray pit bull, came bounding down the hall and into the kitchen. He came right to me and licked my hand, looking for food. Then he moved on to Landry. They stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Dagger put his paws on the counter and pulled himself up until they were face to face. Should I make him get down? Did she like dogs? Was she scared of dogs? Man, I would make a crappy dad.
Landry laughed. She had this adorable tinkling little laugh, like a pixie. She speared a soggy bite of pancake with her fork and fed it to Dagger. He ate it and then licked her face. She laughed again. So she liked dogs. Okay, I’d buy her a puppy.
“Uh, Jacks?” Dash’s voice sounded shaky.
Oh yeah. “Landry, that’s Dagger. And then those two people over there are Dash and Lexi. They all live here too.” I turned to my friends, my chosen family. “Guys, this is Landry.”
Lexi came into the room and held her hand out. “It’s nice to meet you, Landry. I was going to let Dagger run around and play in the backyard for a little bit. Would you like to take him? He seems to really like you, Dylan will go too.”
Landry looked from Lexi to me. “If you want to talk without me in here, it’s okay.” She hopped down off the stool and followed Dylan and Dagger out the back door. Dylan sent me a reassuring smile on her way out.
I took a deep breath and turned toward my people. “A social worker showed up here this morning with Landry. Said she’s my kid.”