There was a soft knock on my door and Harper stuck her head in. The Dutch braids Olivia had done the night before were somewhat intact, albeit much frizzier after she’d slept in them.
“Dad? Are you up yet?” she called softly, creeping into the room. “It’s, like, nearly time for breakfast.”
With a sigh, I sat up in bed and patted the spot beside me. “Come here. Let me fix your braids. That one’s about to fall out.”
“But Miss Olivia did these. I want to keep them.” She touched her hair.
Knife, meet heart.
“I won’t mess them up. I promise. Let me just tighten them a bit, okay?”
Harper nodded and sat down in front of me. I didn’t have a brush, but thankfully, my daughter wasn’t tender-headed. I made quick work of clearing any small tangles before following the same Dutch pattern Olivia had used before.
“Did you have a good weekend?” I asked.
“This was a lot of fun, Dad. I didn’t realize s’mores were so good.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, it’s been a while since we did any camping, huh?”
The thought was sobering. When was the last time I did anything fun like this with my daughter? Something outside of our normal day-to-day routine? Since Sarah left, I’d been so preoccupied with running the bar and making sure we could pay our bills that a getaway of any kind was out of the picture.
Until Olivia swept in and disrupted our complacency with her coordinated chaos.
“I’m sorry about that, Harper. No matter what was going on in my life, I should’ve made sure you were my priority.”
“S’okay,” she mumbled, chewing on her nails. “I’m, um, really glad you have Miss Olivia to help you. I like hanging out with her.”
“Yeah,” I said, securing the hair tie.I do, too.“It’s been nice, huh?”
She nodded. “You haven’t been as grumpy.”
“Grumpy, huh?” I asked, gently pinching her arm.
“Yeah, you never smiled or anything. But you do now.”
With a sigh, I pulled Harper into my chest and let my chin rest on top of her head. “It’s been a tough few years, Harp, but you shouldn’t have had to know I was struggling to keep it all together. I’m sorry for not being more present.” I pressed a kiss to her temple. “Things are going to change around here. I don’t want to go back to how things were before, do you?”
“Not really.”
“Then let’s make a promise. At least once a month, you and I are going to do something together. We’ll take the whole day and—I don’t know—take a hike or something.”
Harper scrunched up her nose. “I don’t know that I want to hike, Dad.”
“Honestly, neither do I. I don’t know why I said that,” I confessed quickly. “But we’ll do something actually fun, okay?”
“And maybe we could invite Charlie and Miss Olivia. I bet they’d love to come, too.”
I sat there, not knowing entirely what to say. While I didn’t want to set Harper up for disappointment, I sure as hell wasn’t about to tell her that wouldn’t be an option.
“I’m sure if they’re available, they’d love to come.” Wasn’t that the worst part? Knowing without a doubt that if Olivia were in town and Harper asked her to come over, she would without question. No matter how uncomfortable it might be between us, she’d put the girls first.
Harper hopped down and ran her hand over her braid, making sure I hadn’t messed anything up. When she was satisfied, she gave me an approving nod before heading toward the door. “Come on, Dad. I’m starving, and Uncle Luke promised everyone donuts this morning.”
I snorted. There was no way in hell Lukas had gotten up and driven into town for donuts. “Well, you’d better make sure he’s awake. If not, he’ll sleep in, and then you’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning for some.”
My daughter turned on her heel and ran from the door. I heard her feet thud against the hallway only a moment before the knocking began. “Uncle Luke? Are you up?”
A second later, another voice joined the fray. One that wasn’t nearly as understanding as Harper’s. “Uncle Luke! You promised us donuts!” Charlie shouted. Her fist banged rapidly on the door until I heard Lukas’s muffled, “Oh my god, I’m up!”