"I thought I did too, but it's all ruined now."
Ken smiled as he came up behind Beth, careful not to startle Joanna. She looked at him warily, but he offered her a reassuring smile. "Hey, don't worry about it. That happens sometimes. It just gives us the chance to try again, right?"
Beth beamed at him. "Jo, this is Ken." She paused, glancing back at Joanna. "Your father."
Joanna's eyes widened, and she dropped the spatula that had been dangling from her fingers. "Y-you're my dad?"
He looked at Beth, and she nodded at him encouragingly. "That's what Beth said, and my god, you look exactly like me."
Her cheeks flushed, and she looked between him and her mother as if doing the calculations in her head, trying to fit pieces of herself in different slots belonging to each of them.
"You didn't know about me?" she said at last, her voice a little sad.
"No, I didn't. I'm so sorry that I haven't been a part of your life, but if you and Beth are okay with it, I'm going to make every effort to make up for it now."
Joanna looked at him, her eyes sparkling with uncanny intelligence. "If you didn't know, then it's not your mistake to make up for. Mom told me what happened with the goblins."
Ken's heart squeezed. Then she knew why he wasn't with her, and she didn't blame him for being gone? That was far more than he ever could have dreamed of. He'd been prepared to fight for her to see him as her father, and maybe he would still have to, just not as hard as he had expected.
"Then you know I absolutely would have been here if I could have been," Ken said. "And that doesn't stop me from wanting to be here now, finding ways to make up for all that lost time, even if it's not my fault. Is that okay with you?"
Joanna hesitated, but then Beth placed her hands on her shoulders. Joanna looked up at her mom and Joanna's expression softened when she saw how happy Beth was. It was clear that she loved her mother deeply, and that made Ken hopeful for their relationship in the future.
"That's okay," she said finally. "But if you hurt my mom I'm gonna hurt you back."
He laughed. "I'll do my best, I promise. One step at a time, we'll become a family again."
"Starting with breakfast?"
"Starting with breakfast."
Ken couldn't help but smile at the adorable little girl standing in front of him, her long dark hair in wild disarray from trying to cook.
Beth laughed and ruffled her daughter's hair affectionately. "Sounds like a good start to me," she said, and her stomach grumbled, causing another round of laughter. "Now let's see if we can get this back on track."
Together, the three of them worked together to fix the breakfast that had gone wrong, laughing and joking as they cracked eggs and whipped up pancakes together. For a moment, Ken forgot everything that had happened before this day; he was simply a man who had found his daughter for the first time and was getting to know her for the very first time too. And that was more wondrous than anything else he could have ever imagined or hoped for.
"So, what grade are you in now, Jo? Is it okay if I call you that?" Ken asked once they got the eggs under control and a proper omelet on the go.
"I just started my freshman year," Joanna said proudly, but then her face fell. "Although I think I got suspended already."
Ken's eyebrows shot up. "Suspended? What happened?"
"It's a long story, but more or less, the other girls were bullying her, and when she tried to fight fire with fire, they turned the story on her to make her sound like the bad kid and the instigator," Beth explained. "Although that doesn't excuse some of the horrible things she said, and we still need to talk about punishments."
"Punishments? Is that really necessary?" Ken asked. "You two have already been through so much."
"I know, but if you'd seen the things she said—" Beth shook her head while she finished stirring the pancake mix. "You know what? Fresh start. I shouldn't be talking about this when you two are just meeting. You know what you said was wrong, don't you honey?"
She nodded sheepishly.
"Good, then don't do it again, and we'll leave it at that. Want to pour the mix onto the pan?"
Joanna climbed onto the stepping stool in front of the stove, and Beth helped her make perfect little round pancakes. They were so adorable together, that Ken caught himself stealing little glances at them every few seconds, between adding new bits to the omelets.
"I don't want to go back to that school," Joanna admitted. "The girls are mean and I don't fit in."
"Where do you want to go instead, then?" Ken asked.