He Missed Our Daughter's Birthday Again novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: One Rule

Roderick shows up at dawn and promises Junie a carousel birthday; Leah sets one rule, then finds a hospital badge in his coat that already calls him the boy's father.

Roderick rang my sister's doorbell at six in the morning.

He was still in yesterday's shirt, and he had a bag of croissants in one hand and a paper cup of tea in the other.

He had bought my tea order from the place by the hospital, the one with ginger.

My sister opened the door two inches and said, "No."

"I just want to see my daughter."

"Then you can see her through the crack."

"Please," he said, and his voice cracked on it.

I came up behind her in my robe with one hand under my belly.

"Let him in," I said. "Junie will want to hear this."

My sister stepped aside and glared at him all the way down the hall.

Junie was at the kitchen table in her pajamas, eating dry cereal out of a mug.

She saw him and went still.

"Daddy."

"Hi, bug."

He dropped to his knees on the tile so that his face was level with hers.

"You missed the candles," she said. "I blew them out. I made a wish."

"I know. I'm so sorry, Junie. I should have been there."

"Mommy said it's a better wish when you're not there."

His eyes came up to mine, and I didn't look away.

"She's right about the wish," he said. "I still want to hear it."

"I can't tell you. It won't come true."

"Then I'll make you a different one. A birthday Saturday, just ours. At the carousel."

Junie thought about it with her whole face.

"With the horses that go up and down?"

"The ones that go up and down."

"And you stay for all of it?"

"All of it."

She nodded once and went back to her cereal.

My sister put pancakes in front of her and refused to look at Roderick.

I took my tea out to the porch and he followed me and closed the door.

The air was cold, and the maples across the street had started to turn.

"The hospital rushed the test," he said. "It will be back in three days."

"And if he's yours?"

"Then I'll make sure he's looked after."

"And if he isn't?"

"Then I'll make sure he's looked after anyway," he said. "He's six, Leah. He's got an IV in each arm."

I wrapped both hands around the cup.

I wasn't angry at him for being the man who'd say that.

It was one of the reasons I had married him.

"I'm not asking you to stop," I said.

"You're not?"

"I'm asking you for one rule."

He waited.

"Help that boy. Fund the treatment, sit with him, do whatever he needs. But never at Junie's expense."

"Never again," he said, too fast.

"Say it the way I said it."

"Never at Junie's expense."

"Even if Celia calls you at the carousel."

"Even then."

"Even if it's an emergency."

His jaw worked.

"Leah, if it's an emergency..."

"Then you call me, and we decide together. You don't just go."

He held my eyes, and then he nodded.

"I won't just go."

His phone rang in his coat, and he took it out and looked at the screen.

"It's my dad."

"Take it."

He stepped to the end of the porch and answered with his back to me.

I couldn't hear all of it.

I heard him say, "No, Dad. I'm not leaving her alone."

Then I heard a long pause and the faint, smooth murmur of his father's voice.

"I know," Roderick said. "She's tired. It's the pregnancy."

I put my tea down.

"Did you just tell your father that I'm hormonal?"

He turned, startled.

"I said you were tired."

"That's not what you said."

"Leah." He pressed the phone to his chest. "He's offering to sit with Sammy today so I can be here. That's all it is."

"Why would he do that?"

"Because he's a grandfather, I guess. He's been strange since the party."

"He left the party before you did."

"He had a call."

"I know he did. I watched him take it."

Roderick looked at me for a long second, and then he put the phone to his ear and said, "Thanks, Dad. I'll be there by noon."

He hung up.

"I'll be back after lunch," he said, "and I'll take Junie to the park."

"Hang your coat up before you go," I said. "You're dripping on my sister's mat."

It was raining a little, and he had slung it over the porch rail.

I took it inside to hang it by the door and something fell out of the pocket and skittered across the floor.

It was a hospital badge on a clip, the kind they give visitors.

The printed photo was a blurry copy of his face.

Under it, in block letters, it said: VISITOR: FATHER.

The test wasn't back yet.

Somebody at the hospital had already decided.

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