She shook her head. “Hell, no. Emma’s only two right now, but she is a handful. A beautiful, wild, rowdy handful.”
I shook my head. Emma, perhaps hearing her name, started to make noises from inside the car. I looked inside and found her sitting in her car seat, animal crackers in both hands. She smiled widely when she saw me. “Lizzie!”
She made a grabbing motion with her hand and I reached in and took away one soggy cracker. I handed it to Olivia, who stood behind me, before getting inside the car and caressing her soft cheeks. I missed Hunter at this age.
“How’s my sweet girl?” I asked.
She grinned at me, a little slobber coming out of her mouth. I laughed and used the bib tied around her neck to wipe it away. Mason placed Hunter in the seat next to me, his blue eyes lighting when he saw Emma.
Emma had her dad wrapped around her little finger, and she knew it. She got excited when she saw him, banging her hands up and down in front of her. “Dada!”
“Hey there, sweetheart. Give daddy a second to grab Hunter’s car seat, yeah?”
I didn’t think she understood what he was saying, but she nodded anyway. He shot me a small smile and climbed out, moving toward the back. I watched as Hunter reached out his hand toward Emma. She wrapped her tiny little fist around his finger and he looked at me, smiling a bit.
“She got bigger, Mommy.”
I nodded. “She sure did, but babies grow pretty fast at this age. Are you excited to play with her?”
He nodded seriously. “I’ll be careful, too, Mommy. I won’t let anything happen to her.”
Olivia turned around from where she sat in the passenger seat of the car. “That’s good, sweetie. I know Emma’s excited to have you around.”
His eyes widened. “Really?”
Olivia nodded seriously. “Really.”
I watched as my little boy brightened from that. Olivia and I shared a smile. I forgot how happy I was being here. Not just in this car, with all these people that I loved, but back in Chicago.
No matter how many times I’d tried to convince myself otherwise, California wasn’t home. It could never be, and I wasn’t happy there.
At least some good things came from the divorce.
It gave me the courage to come home.