“Um, Bella, we don’t have a change of clothes. You can’t get back in the car wet.”
Of course she pouts and looks right at Cooper. Little girl is smart. Cooper gives her pout one glance and of course comes up with a solution.
“Sure, Princess. You go play and when you’re done, we’ll buy you a towel and a new outfit at a store.”
After squealing her thanks, she takes off like a bat out of hell, racing toward the fountains while we sit on the bench and watch her.
“Coop, you can’t just give in to everything she wants. I can’t afford to just buy her a new outfit whenever she wants. I’m going to take the job you’re offering, but I need to save for a place.”
Cooper’s jaw begins to tick and then his face softens. “I’m glad you’re taking the job because I know you want to work, but Bella and you aren’t going anywhere. I make more than enough money to support both of you, and I have four years of her life to make up for that I missed out on, on top of four years of making up to do with all the time you and I missed. You don’t want to work, you don’t have to. You want to stay home and take care of Bella, I’m more than fine with that. Whatever money you make is yours. I don’t care what you do as long as you both are under the same roof as me.”
I want to get angry with him because I don’t appreciate him going all alpha-male on me, but I can see it in his eyes. Guilt. He thinks he owes us because he wasn’t there.
While still watching Bella, I tell Cooper, “This whole situation, you not getting to see Bella, wasn’t either of our faults. It was a crappy situation, but we’re here now and you don’t need to make up for anything. I don’t want you to take care of us. I want us to be equal.”
He looks over at me and takes my hand in his. “Baby girl, I own several training facilities left to me by my dad. I have endorsements and contracts, and I make decent money fighting. I make more than enough to take care of you, and that’s my job. Your job is to take care of our princess. My dad’s life insurance policy was several hundred thousand dollars and I didn’t even touch it. I put it in a trust account for Bella. She can use it to go to college, get a car, buy a house, whatever she needs or wants to make sure all her dreams in life are within her reach. If we have more kids one day, we’ll make sure they one as well. Please, just let me do this. Let me take care of my girls.” I glance over at him and see the need in his eyes. It’s obvious this is important to him.
“Okay, but don’t spoil her, Coop. She needs to learn that getting handed everything isn’t reality. You, of all people, know it takes hard work to accomplish your dreams.”
“Okay, I’ll try my best,” he says, and for some reason, I think he’s full of it, but I let it go for now.
We sit and watch Bella for a while until Cooper gets up and walks over to a woman and gives her a big hug. She turns to face me, and I see it’s his mom. What a nice surprise.
He calls Bella over to make introductions. “Mom, this is my daughter, Bella Faith. Bella, this is my mom, your grandma.”
“Oh, Liam! She is absolutely beautiful! And she looks so much like you.”
Bella looks confused and asks, “Are you my grandma like my mom’s mom? I call her Grammy, and who’s Liam?”
Ms. Cooper laughs. “Liam is your daddy’s real name. All his friends call him by his last name, which is Cooper. And yes, I’m your daddy’s mom, so that makes me your grandma as well. You can call me Grandma if you like.”
“Okay! Cool! Now I have two grandmas! Do I get another grandpa, too? I call mommy’s daddy Papa. I can call daddy’s daddy… uhhh… Grandpa.”
Everybody goes quiet, clearly at a loss on how to handle this, so I step in and explain the situation to Bella the best I can. Fortunately, we haven’t had any deaths in our family, so I haven’t had to explain death to her.
“Angel, remember the fire that happened in our apartment?”
“Yes, all my toys and clothes and bed went away.”
I hear Cooper suck in a loud breath at the same time his mom puts her hand to her heart. They can’t possibly think I would tell my daughter the whole story of that day. I rush out the words before they freak out on me.