You again- Jaele

|| Chapter One ||

Jace -

"Daddy, push me! Push me Pleassse!"

Before I could officially settle myself onto a park bench, Promise was begging me to give her a push on the swing. She lifted her legs and leaned her head back, showing off her missing two front teeth in a brilliant smile.

"You can do it, hon I'm right here!"

I called back to her, testing the weight of my phone in one hand. This park was busier than usual, I had expected it to be empty because of the howling wind and frigid snow piled on top of just about everything. The sun was still shining, half-hidden behind luminous gray clouds and a thin compliance of sleet. Since I couldn't say no to my five-year-old, I bundled her up and we set out for an adventure of candy canes, hot cocoa, and a good day at the park together.

"Daddy please!"

Promise's reindeer mufflers had now fallen off into the snow, abandoned.

"Alright, I'm coming."

"Hurry!"

She whined, swinging herself as far as she could before giving up.

"I'm hurrying, babe, I'm hurrying... Look, you see me? I'm coming right now."

I didn't want to leave the crumb of warmth I had found on the park bench, but stood up and slipped my phone into my back pocket. My ears and nose were so frozen. I could hardly smell the cold but sweet wind. I walked over to the swing set, sweeping down to pick Promise's mufflers up and I set them back over her little frost bitten ears. 

"You ready?"

I grasped the chain of the swing in my hands and pulled her back as far as it would go.

"You're about to ended the danger zone, girl!

"Yayyyyy!!"

Letting go of the chain, I pushed her back and forth gently then a little harder to build up a good rythm.

"Higher!"

Her every wish was my command, I began pushing her faster until she was screeching with glee.

"Too high! That's too high daddy!"

She was laughing in relief now, that high pitched giggle-squeal that only kids could achieve. Which made me laugh, and suddenly something inside me didn't hurt as much as it used to. For the last three years, this little girl has been my entire life. Our Daddy-daughter days together is all I look forward to after work, on my days off, weekends. I spend as much time as I can with her. Isabela hasn't been on my side since I was released from prison. That was such a long time ago, it was difficult for me to remember exactly what happened leading up to that point. My therapist said it might be because a lot of traumatic shit that went down my mind was starting to erase it as it healed and she might be right. I knew there was one thing that I would never be able to let go and that was okay with me.

"Let's go now babe, it's getting too cold out here I think I hear the hot chocolate calling our names."

Promise let me pull her out of the swing and carry her back to my car. I placed her in her car seat and buckled her up planting a kids on the side of her head before getting into the front seat and blasting the heat. I paused with my face directly in the air-flow of the vent, thawing my face. Suddenly there was a knock on the window. I looked over to see Isabela's busy-body aunt Aja peering into the backseat of my car.

Fuck. I had forgotten she was here. I cut my eyes up to the roof of the car and took my time pressing the button that rolled the window down.

"Unlock this door right now pendejo, it's cold!"