If I Ever Fall In Love Again

《chapter 2》

I finally untangle her hair and wrap the elastic band around it and put it into a little bun. "Whatcha doing?" I ask.

"I have to do that every time I put my hair up so the elastic doesn't break. Because curly hair is no joke." She snaps her fingers with sass and I chuckle again.

"You are just like your mother." I tell her.

"I get that a lot." She replies.

"I can tell."

We sit there in silence. I slowly start to dose off but she shakes me awake.

"Can we look through the family album, daddy?"

I rub my eyes and run my hand through my messy hair , exhausted. "Can we do that another day, Kalea? Daddy's tired and you have school tomorrow. "

She frowns and crosses her arms together. "Can I stay go half day then?"

I shake my head no. "I have work tomorrow, Sweetheart. I promise we'll look through the album another day, ok? Get some sleep."

I reach over to turn the lamp off at the bed stand as she snuggles closer to me and closes her eyes.

"I love you, daddy. Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite." She tells me. I smile a little and lean down to kiss her temple.

"I love you too, sweetie. Goodnight."

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The next day so far was not going great. I barely got any sleep, and because of that, I was exhausted. Getting the kids out of bed was even more exhausting, because today was Friday and they thought I'd let them stay home. But as much as I wanted to stay home with them, I had to go to work.

Even though my father-in-law was in charge of the funeral, I still wanted to contribute and I needed money to do that.

I pack Kalea's lunch and put it in her backpack while she's getting ready. I usually pack Kalani's lunch too, but he's 13, almost 14. It's time for him to start doing stuff on his own.

"Y'all better get down here in 5 minutes or else I'm leaving y'all here!" I yell to them as I down the rest of my coffee and put the empty mug in the sink. I walk into the living room as Kalani approaches.

"That doesn't sound like such a bad thing." Kalani mumbles as he runs down stairs. He rolls his eyes when he sees me and walks past me into the kitchen. I sigh and shake my head.

"Aye, where's my lunch?" He yells from the kitchen.

"You wanna act grown, then make your own lunch." I tell him. My mouth twists into a small smirk when I hear him exhale slowly.

"Where's your sister?" I asked as I walked back into the kitchen.

"Struggling with remembering which foot her right sock is supposed to go on." He tells me nonchalantly with a shrug as he raids the refrigerator and finds the pizza box from last night. He  takes it out and throws it on the counter.

"And you couldn't help her out?" I ask him. He shrugs again and begins taking out 2 slices, placing them in a Ziploc bag
and throwing it into his backpack. I raise an eyebrow at him.