loml

three

"What?" I looked up at my ex-husband with a frown.

"You'll come live with me. Both of you." He said without a moment of hesitation. "Until you can find a new place that works for you."

"Travis I can't ask you to do that."

"You're not. I'm offering."

"Travis." I swallowed. "That's really generous of you, thank you. And maybe Poppy can go and live with you permanently. But I can't. I'm your ex-wife, and you have Liv, even if she's not your girlfriend yet. It would be inappropriate."

"I'll talk to Liv." Travis insisted. "I'm sure she'll be okay with it. She's really understanding about our whole situation. If you really don't want to, then I can't force you, but do you really want to spend months without Poppy? Because that's at least how long finding a place for you guys will take. You know it'll take a while."

"I..." I paused with a sigh. Travis did have a point. "I'll think about it." I eventually decided. "Let's not worry about this today. It's her birthday." Travis nodded, giving my arm a comforting squeeze before dropping the subject.

I put the whole thing out of my mind for the rest of the day. Travis and I took Poppy out to lunch after the princess sing-along was over, and Travis paid even though I tried to split it. He just gave me a look, and I didn't bother to argue. Not on Poppy's birthday. She didn't like it when we argued, even if it was just over stuff like a small bill. I just left it.

"Can we go to the wishing well?" Poppy asked as she held both of our hands, walking between us as we left the cafe. Travis and I exchanged a look.

"What wishing well munchkin?" I asked her, my heart speeding up. Because I knew which one she meant, but I had no idea how she knew about it. 

"The one by the lake that you and Daddy used to visit." Poppy told me as we stopped next to Travis' car. I crouched down in front of her.

"How do you know about that?" I said quietly. I knew Travis wouldn't have told her about the wishing well, and I hadn't ever mentioned it. 

"Nana told me."

I looked up at Travis. My Mom wouldn't have meant anything by telling Poppy about the wishing well. She'd probably just meant it as a bedtime story or something one of the night Poppy stayed with her. But that was something so close to my heart that it hurt to think about. I knew Travis felt the same about it by the look on his face.

"It's up to Mommy." Travis told Poppy, giving me a small nod. "She can choose if we go there or not."

"We can go." I whispered. 

Poppy smiled and climbed into the car, none the wiser. I sank into my thoughts as Travis drove us out of town, taking the twenty minute drive.

The wishing well was next to a kids playground by a lake, and it was the spot Travis and I had met for the first time when we were seventeen. We'd been at a huge new years party down by the lake, and at midnight, we'd run into each other at the old wishing well. Both of us were making a wish for the new year, and we'd bonded over that and stayed friends ever since. The wishing well had been where everything had happened since. Travis had told me he loved me there, kissed me for the first time there, proposed to me there. I'd told him I was pregnant there. It was the first place we'd gone after getting married. We always kissed a coin and threw it in every time we'd been there. It had been our spot.

I'd been there once since I'd walked out on him, and it had been that very night. As soon as I'd left, I'd driven out to the wishing well and cried for hours. I'd screamed at the well, asking why everything was so wrong. And I hadn't been back since. I wasn't sure I could do it, but I'd let Travis show Poppy.