by Raine Thomas
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Of course she’s okay,” the stranger said. “We were just—”
“You were just touching my daughter without my permission,” Will snapped, stepping away from Katie to stride over and grab her coat from the chair.
“I got her permission,” the stranger said, jutting her chin in Katie’s direction.
Will paused a couple feet from her and gave her an incredulous look. “In what world is a five-year-old capable of giving consent?”
“Consent for what? I was merely showing her—”
“I couldn’t care less. She’s my kid. If I ever see you near her again, I’m pressing charges.”
“Charges for offering dance instruction? Seriously?”
He started to reply but was interrupted by another female voice.
“Is everything okay in here?”
He turned to the door and saw his physical therapist, Dr. Everly Parker, standing there. The concerned look on her face took the leading edge off his temper. It was clear Katie was fine. His therapist had work to get done. Making more of a scene wasn’t going to help anything.
“It’s really nothing,” the stranger insisted before Will could speak.
Clamping his teeth together to stop himself from arguing further, he walked back to Katie and squatted to help her back into her coat.
“Will?” Everly said, evidently needing him to confirm the stranger’s assessment of the situation.
“We’re fine,” he muttered as he finished zipping Katie into her coat. Seeing one of her shoelaces was loose, he made quick work of retying it and then rose to take her hand. “Tell Cole I said hi, would you?”
Everly smiled. “Sure. Katie, did you get your lollipop?”
Katie reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a blue Dum-Dum. Will released her hand and nudged her. She brought the free hand to her chin and tapped it in Everly’s direction.
“You’re welcome,” Everly said, having known Katie long enough to interpret the sign for thank you. She gave Will another smile. “Drive safe.”
“Thanks.”
He took Katie’s hand and headed out the door, not bothering to speak again to the stranger. He frowned when he saw Katie glance over her shoulder before exiting the room. Had she been looking at the stranger? Why would she do that?
He waited until they got out to the driveway and stopped beside his pickup truck before asking, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
She nodded again.
He battled with himself, unsure how much to press the matter. In the fourteen months since his daughter ended up on his doorstep, he’d become what his dad liked to call “obsessively overprotective” of her.
How was he supposed to be anything but? Katie was so young and sensitive. She didn’t usually respond well to females either, though he wasn’t entirely sure why. Despite over a year of therapy, she had yet to utter a single sound. Her inability to communicate effectively made it a challenge to learn everything she remembered about the first four years of her life. It also made him even more protective of her than he might have been otherwise.
Now it prompted him to ask, “That woman didn’t touch you anywhere…weird, right?”
She tilted her head and gave him a puzzled look.
“Never mind,” he mumbled, digging for his keys and pretending to ignore the heat rushing along the back of his neck.
He absolutely was not explaining that question.
“Alley-oop,” he said.
She lifted her arms so he could grab her and lift her into the backseat of his Dodge Ram. The truck was too tall for her to climb into without assistance yet. She settled into her booster seat and started buckling herself in as he closed her door.
His gaze shifted to the sporty white coupe parked beside him. He imagined it must belong to Everly’s next client since it hadn’t been there when he pulled in. It rather surprised him. Based on how snobbish she seemed, he’d have guessed she drove some kind of luxury sedan. A decal of two ballet slippers with winding ribbons adhered to the back window told him the stranger was probably a dancer.
At least that explained things some, he thought with lingering irritation as he got into his truck. The positioning of Katie he’d seen when he walked into the waiting room must have been ballet-related.
A tap on his shoulder had him glancing at Katie as he secured his seatbelt. She lifted her Dum-Dum in question.
“Oh, no,” he said with a shake of his head. “I think we learned our lesson from the Laffy Taffy incident. My back seat will never be the same.”
Her chin drooped and her lower lip emerged. She looked so damn dejected…and freaking adorable.
His dad also liked to tell Will that he was terrible about setting limits with Katie.
He was right.
“Fine. I’ll make you a deal. You don’t mention I said the ‘h’ word when you see Grandpa and I’ll let you eat the sucker.”
Her expression brightened. She made a fist and held it up. He gave her a backwards fist bump and started the truck.
“Just promise that the sucker will stay in your mouth and not end up anywhere inside the truck. Or your hair,” he thought to add.
He saw her nod as he turned to maneuver the truck into a three-point turn. Soon they were off on their fifteen-minute drive home.
He flipped on the stereo once they exited the gate. The playlist they’d been listening to on the drive to the appointment picked up where it left off. The Void’s single, “Welcome to Wonderland” filled the silence. As much as Will liked the song, he fought a groan. Katie had become a huge fan of The Void and its lead singer, Archer. Now his stereo had been hijacked and he’d heard the song a minimum of seventy-two thousand times.
Still, when he saw Katie bopping around in her seat waving her Dum-Dum like a conductor’s baton, he grinned.
He also knew his truck’s seats were doomed.
Like Everly and her All-Star pitcher husband Cole Parker, Will had chosen to live relatively close to the ballpark to make it an easier commute on practice and game days. His and Katie’s home in Atlanta’s Piedmont Heights was less than thirty minutes from the field depending on the city’s usually heavy traffic. He initially bought the house with the intent to renovate and flip it, but he’d fallen in love with its character. It had been a bonus when the house had another listing beside it for his father to flip and make his own.
The side-by-side living arrangement worked well for them, something Will hadn’t expected back when it first came about. Not that he and his dad hadn’t gotten along well before, but his dad essentially disengaged from his former life in Chicago to follow Will and Katie to Atlanta. Will expected him to have some regrets. That hadn’t been the case.
Will supposed it really wasn’t all that surprising. Frank Campbell was as sturdy, stubborn, and reliable as the strongest oak. He had flown to Denver within hours of taking Will’s call the day Katie entered their lives. It hadn’t taken him more than one look into Katie’s eyes to instantly acknowledge her as his granddaughter. Knowing Will needed help, he’d started making plans to adjust his life that very day. He sold the hardware store he’d opened the year he married Will’s mother. He renewed his general contractor’s license. He partnered with Will to start Campbell Investments and worked with him to identify the first house they’d flip together.
He’d kept Will sane.
They didn’t discuss it often, but when they did Will always let his dad know how much he appreciated everything he’d done. He didn’t think he ever would have gotten to this point on his own.
Beyond changing his career path and his hometown, his father had been there when Will learned the unsurprising results of the paternity test—that Katie was, in fact, his daughter. He had guided both Will and Katie through having her evaluated by doctors and therapists. He had helped Will understand what it meant to be a father…and not just a father, but the single father of a traumatized little girl wit
h special needs. He had served as a kind of bridge for Will and Katie to get to know one another and learn what this new life meant for them both. He had taken charge of the legalities of Will pursuing and winning full custody of Katie, something that had finally become official a few months before.
In short, Will pretty much owed his father everything. Which was why when he pulled into his own driveway and discovered his father’s old clunker of a work truck parked where he usually parked the Dodge, he had to let it slide.
Or so he mentally grumbled as he cut the engine.
“Looks like dinner with Grandpa tonight, kid,” he said as he unbuckled his seatbelt.
Katie gave a thumbs up in the rearview mirror. Most of her communication involved simple hand gestures combined with ASL signs they’d learned together. The many evaluations she had undergone showed that her vocal cords were perfectly fine. It would be up to her whether she ever decided to use them.
He got her out of the truck and let her run into the house to hunt down her grandpa while he walked to the mailbox and collected that day’s haul of junk. He preferred to manage his accounts and banking virtually, so he didn’t generally get much of value via USPS.
A few people were out walking their dogs or handling yardwork. He waved and returned their greetings. Another reason he’d chosen to settle in this house was how welcoming the neighbors were. From the moment he and his dad first started working on their houses, everyone had been friendly and supportive. They looked out for each other, and at this point in his life, Will wasn’t about to turn away from a strong support system.
He heard his dad’s rumbling voice as he opened the front door and stepped into the cheerful sunroom he’d built adjoining the foyer. Within seconds, the sound of rapid clicking preceded the barreling approach of the family bulldog, Gump, as he raced across the hardwood floors. Will braced himself for impact and bent down to greet him.
“Hey there, bud,” he said, giving Gump an appropriately enthusiastic belly rub as the dog flopped with a solid thud to expose himself. “What trouble did you get into today, huh?”
Gump snorted loudly and wetly in response.
“Sounds about right.”
Will gave the dog one last pat and then kicked off his sneakers, making sure they ended up in the covered storage bin he’d bought for that purpose so Gump wasn’t tempted to destroy them. After hanging his coat on one of the hooks along the righthand wall, he headed to the center of the house with Gump on his heels.
“You’re one sticky young lady,” Frank was saying as Will entered the family room attached to the open concept kitchen.
His dad stood behind Katie at the kitchen sink. She was perched on the small wooden stool Will had made for her, washing her hands with her grandpa’s help. It was clear from the blue tinges around her lips and smearing her cheeks that the Dum-Dum was to blame.
“There we go,” Frank said, stopping the water and grabbing the nearby hand towel so Katie could dry herself. “Now try to stay clean for dinner, all right? There’s a cheese pizza on the way with your name on it.”
She nodded and climbed down from the stool. Gump nearly bowled her over as he did his best to scent out what remained of the blue raspberry treat. Will watched as his dad bent down and tapped a finger against his cheek. Katie leaned over and gave him a resounding kiss. Chuckling, his dad returned the kiss on her cheek.
“Can you give us some guy-time, kiddo?” Frank asked.
She nodded again and took off in the direction of her room at a jog. Gump charged after her. Will lifted an eyebrow over his daughter’s sudden burst of energy and chalked it up to the sugar she’d ingested.
“That kiss sounded juicy,” he observed, pausing by the recycle bin so he could dispose of the junk mail.
His dad ran a hand along his beard-covered chin. “It’s all good. The beard’ll absorb it right up.”
“Nice.”
Moving to one of the stools at the kitchen’s wide island bar, Frank took a seat and said, “So what’d the doc say? She give you the all-clear?”
“Yep.”
This had been Will’s last PT appointment. He had suffered an elbow injury to his UCL less than a month before the end of the previous season. The team doctors immediately ordered him to undergo treatment with Everly.
At first, he resisted the idea. Yes, he had met Everly a few times before then because she worked part-time with the team to provide PT and treatment suggestions, but she was also married to one of his teammates. It felt odd seeking treatment with her.
One appointment with her had changed his mind. Now she was a blessed angel who could do no wrong.
“Damn,” Frank said. “Guess you’re not coming to work with me this spring, after all.”
His wide grin belied the words. Will knew his dad was at least as relieved as his team and its fans were going to be that he’d been cleared to pitch. The media had blamed the team’s failure to make it to the World Series the year before on his injury and the inability of the remaining bullpen to step in and save games. Will was pretty certain everyone from the team’s owner to the grounds crew thought the same thing.
It added to the weight of responsibility he carried every day, and it was why he had focused so hard on getting healthy during the off-season. Even then, he had cut things close. He reported for spring training later that week.
“Nope,” he said, grabbing a glass from a cabinet and heading to the fridge to fill it with ice water. “I have a feeling you’ll manage without me though.”
“I imagine I will. I suppose I’ll head over to Gareth’s after dinner and tell him he’ll need to pack.”
Gareth Dixon was the third reason Will had opted to keep his house. Gareth and his wife Althea lived in the house on the other side of Will and Katie’s. They were both retired. Where Althea was delighted to have time to spend in her garden, visit with her friends to play cards, and venture over to their daughter’s house during the week to watch her three grandchildren, Gareth had been bored out of his mind. He had run a successful pediatric counseling center for more than forty years. The transition to having so much time on his hands had tempted him into making updates to his house he’d had no business undertaking.
The moment he met Katie, all that changed.
Now, in exchange for Will and his dad correcting the mistakes Gareth had made around his house and because he wanted to, Gareth spent time with Katie. Sometimes he did therapeutic activities with her and worked with her in a counseling capacity, but largely he served as another friend and source of support. If Will and his dad had to work, Gareth usually stayed with Katie. It was an arrangement that worked well for all of them.
For the upcoming spring training trip, Gareth agreed to travel with Will and Katie to Florida so he could stay with her during Will’s games and inter-stadium travel. Will also planned to spend some one-on-one time with his daughter while they were away. His dad had to stay in Atlanta and work on a couple of their reno projects that were at critical phases in their timelines.
“I think Gareth packed a month ago,” Will said after downing the water. “But I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you.”
Frank issued another chuckle. “I’m sure you’re right. I also need to tell Jason you’ll be playing. He wanted to take in a few games this year.”
Unlike Will’s two older sisters who still lived in Chicago, Will’s older brother Jason lived in Tampa. He and his wife, Krista, made an effort to get together with Will, Frank, and now Katie a few times a year. Spring training made it convenient for all of them.
“Let him know I’ll have tickets for him to any games he wants,” Will said.
“Will do.”
The doorbell chimed.
“That’ll be dinner,” Frank said, easing off the stool. “I’ll go grab it. Why don’t you round up your little girl and make sure she kept her hands clean?”
His dad liked to say things like “your little girl” or “your daughter.” It had started in an effort to r
emind Will that yes, he actually was a father now and that little girl was his responsibility. The habit had just stuck.
Will didn’t mind. The difference now was that instead of fatherhood terrifying him, it filled his heart with unimaginable love.
Heading to Katie’s room, he prepared himself for what he might find. The last time she’d raced off to her room with so much energy, he’d found her trying to dress Gump in one of her doll’s outfits. He’d never forget the look on Gump’s face. The dog had stared at Will like it was all his fault, even though Will had been the one to rescue him.
And hey, Katie hadn’t actually gotten around to painting his nails, now had she?
Her door was cracked open enough that Gump could have escaped if he wanted, so that was something. Loud music flooded the hallway outside her door.
The Void, of course.
He made a mental note to tell her for the nine-hundredth time to keep her stereo at a lower volume as he pushed her door open. He spotted her standing in front of the floor-length mirror in the far corner of her room. Her intent expression made him curious, so he didn’t immediately announce himself. He leaned against the doorjamb and watched as she carefully positioned herself, turning out her feet, lifting her arms, and holding her spine ramrod straight. She lifted her chin, met her gaze in the mirror…
And beamed with more joy than Will had ever seen from her.
Oh, his heart.
He couldn’t contain his own broad smile. Was this the miracle he’d been hoping for? Could dance really be the key to breaking through his daughter’s lingering trauma?
Gauging Katie’s reaction now, that sure seemed to be the case. She looked like another child.
His smile eased as the full irony of this discovery struck him. After spending fourteen months and thousands of dollars on doctors and therapists, it appeared his daughter’s savior had come in the form of a perfect stranger.
