Super Dad

8 • Girls Only Club 🍪

Hours and hours, CJ holds me sequestered in that playroom. Where I play with Baby Gracie, Allie and CJ of course and the best part is there's no rules.

We can start with dress up, and if we're feeling Barbies, we go ahead and bring out the Barbie dreamhouse.

I feel like a little girl again with them, and I will say they're such a blessing to my life. And it aggravates me that their biological mother couldn't see that. Those girls, including Rory are amazing, in their own little ways.

Rory is getting to be quite the pre-teen, she even told me about a relationship she has with a boy in her class named Hunter. I'm sure it won't last long, nothing at that age is ever that serious.

But it's a secret between her and I, she even made me double pinky promise to not tell Chris, her father.

"He really likes you," Santiago's mom tells me, as I carefully pull his little sweatpants up his chunky thighs, "the last doctor we went to, well, she was very cold with him. And he always cried whenever I took him there. But with you...it's like he can sense your pure heart."

"Wow, um," I don't always get choked up at work, but there's times where I just can't help it. I have a fragile heart.

"Thank you so much, that's, wow," a tear escapes my eye, "that is really sweet of you to say. Really."

I guess I'm also sensitive because, before Chris left for his directing job in Puerto Rico. He broke up with me. And I've been a mess ever since.

I've secretly gone to visit the girls while they were under the care of Lisa. Chris's mom. I've gotten so close to them, I just needed to keep seeing them.

The mom smiles at me, placing a warm hand on my back, she then goes to reach for her baby. And I remind her of when she should come back next, for the next baby's check up.

•• CHRIS ••

My 1 year old's been super clingy, and I'm not sure why. Baby Gracie hates whenever I put her down. She's a crying, whining mess if I'm not near.

And I always feel guilty for leaving her, and her sisters. I just got back from a 2 month long stay in Puerto Rico after directing a new action movie.

They love their time with their Mimi, but they're just over the moon when I am home. Especially since their mom left three months ago.

And has yet to return, or return any of my phone calls.

All I can do is showering Gracie with love, and she's wrong if she thinks I'm going to get tired of holding her. I love listening to her little toddler babbles whenever I'm in the middle of doing something.

Thank god for whoever invented the baby carrier, that way I can make my other daughters breakfast and still keep baby Gracie here...content.

She squeals when she sees what I'm currently cutting on the cutting board, and she reaches for the sharp knife I have in my hand, but her little 1 year old arms aren't long enough.

"Tomato? You want a little piece, baby?" I ask, and she kicks her legs down and then scrunches them back up again. As if she were hopping in the air.

I chuckle and cut up the tiniest piece I can, taking the piece I gently put it into her mouth and she happily munches.

"Daddy's making smash burgers for your sisters tonight, and of course you're going to have a little too." I talk to her, Gracie pushes her head into the front of my chest, trying her best to look up at me.

Listening to my voice, concentrating on the sound of it.

"Daddy! CJ hit me. She hit my head." My 8 year old, Allie appears, rubbing her head with her hand, a guilty CJ hiding behind her.