Single Dad "Starting Over"(Hunter Hayes Fanfic)...Completed

Chapter 76

Fortunately, I manage to remember before I'm completely consumed with passion, that we are in Hunter's Living Room. Harper could walk in on us, if she wakes up. "Hhhhh Hun,"

"Mmmmm." He utters as he continues to kiss my neck.

"Bbb babe, we should probably work on our "ccc communication skills" upstairs, bbbehind closed doors. Don't you think?"

"Huh?" It takes him a moment to process what I said. When he does, he stops kissing me and gently places his forehead against mine. "Lord Liddy, you have NO idea what you do to me."

I blush. "I think I'm starting to learn."

"Come on, let's finish our "practice session" upstairs." He smirks.

"Good idea." I say while grabbing his hand and following him to his room, smiling the whole way.

______________________

The next day

Hunter's POV

I pull into Renee's drive and shut the engine off. "Here we go, punkin. Time to see your mom."

I hear her sigh from the back seat. "Hotay."

"Is something wrong?"

"No, I jut wish mommy, would play more wit me."

It breaks my heart to see her sad. "Do you ask her to play with you?"

"Yup."

"What does she say?" I'm afraid I already know the answer.

"She busy."

Damn, I knew it. "Tell you what, I'll talk with your mom about it, okay?"

She smiles and shakes her head.

"Alright then, why don't you grab Jazzy and I'll get your bag."

Within a few minutes we are standing outside Renee's door. "Do you want to ring the bell?"

"Yes, pees." She says as she stretches on tip toes to push the button.

"I can't believe you can reach that on your own! You didn't need daddy's help! You are growing in to such a big girl!" I exclaim as I pick her up and twirl her around making her giggle. I love the sound of her laugh.

When I hear the door open, I stop and put her down. "Hello Renee."

"Hi." She flashes me a smile before looking down at our daughter. "How's my Harper today?"

"Good." She says shyly while continuing to hold my hand.

"Ready to come inside? I have a surprise for you. Do you want to see?"

I note the excitement on Harper's face. She loves surprises. "Yes, pees."

Renee smiles as she steps back and motions for us to come inside. "It's over there." She says as she points to the further end of the living room.

When Harps see the gift she squeals and runs to it. "Daddy look a doll houz."

"I can see that, baby girl. It's beautiful!"

"I think she likes it." Renee laughs.

"I think so, too." I can't help but smile as I watch my daughter happily play with her new present. "She's going to love it."

"I hope so. I had never really thought about getting her one, but that's all she's talked about since Liddy gave her one for Christmas."

"Yay, I understand. That's about all she and Lid play with, nowadays. It's gotten to be even more popular than having tea parties."

"Really?"

"I know that's hard to believe but it has." When the conversation lulls I take the opportunity to change the subject. "So uhm, I was wondering if we could talk?"

"Of course. Would you like some coffee, first? I have your favorite."

"Sure." I say as I follow her into the kitchen.

"So what's bothering you, Hunter?"

"Nothings bothering me, really. Why do you ask?"

"Because you're rubbing the back of your neck and you only do that when you're nervous or stressed."

I laugh. "You still remember that?"

"Yes, we haven't been apart that long." She smirks, as she hands me a cup of coffee made just the way I like it. "I remember lots of things about when we were together."

I'm not sure what to do with that comment, so I ignore it. "Well, I wanted to talk to you about Harper."

"Is something wrong with her?"

"No, she's physically fine. But she's been sad lately."

"Oh, do you know why?

"Yes." I nod. "She's unhappy because you don't play with her with when she comes to visit."

She hangs her head for a moment. "I do try, really I do. But I'm not very good at it. I've never had a lot of exposure to young kids until Harper. So I don't know what to do."

"Harps loves to have tea parties, play with dolls, and color. But she likes to do all that stuff with somebody. She really is a lot of fun, you just need to relax and talk with her. She'll tell you what she wants you to do."

"You make it sound so easy."

"It kind of is. Just think back to the things you liked to do when you were little."

"That's going to be a challenge. I don't remember a lot about my childhood, but I'll try. Who knows maybe I'll surprise myself and channel my inner child." She laughs. "But if it doesn't work I might need YOU to help teach me."

"You'll be fine. Just spend some one on one time with her. She'll do the rest."

"Oh, speaking of time, that reminds me, I'll be around more over the next few months. My next acting job doesn't start till the end of July. So I available to spend more time with Harper."

"That's great." I pretend to be excited even though I'm not sure exactly how I feel about her news.

"Maybe WE can take her to her favorite park sometime and I could get a few pointers on the best way to play with our daughter."

"Ah, yay, uhm okay." Where did that come from? She's never asked to do anything like that before.

"So congratulations on your engagement. I saw you announce it on the The View.

"Thank you. Liddy and I are very excited."

"I noticed you were very upfront with how you feel about her. I'm surprised your record label let you do that?"

"I didn't really ask their opinion or follow their suggestions."

"How come?"

"Because I don't want Liddy to be treated the way you were by my fans. They were horrible to you. I'm really sorry about that. I should have tried to shield you more and I didn't."

"Yay, you're right, you should have. If you did, things would be so different. We'd still be raising our daughter together because I never would have asked you for a divorce."

_____________

Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!

Please continue to vote and COMMENT!!

I'm at 9.9 READS!!! This is so exciting, almost at my goal of 10 K!!!! Maybe by my next update!