You Make It Easy

Rendezvous.

Maya ~

"Daddy!" Amalia yells at Christian through the sliding glass door.

"Dad's on the phone. He'll be back in a few minutes."

I continue to color with her and glance up at Christian every once in a while. She shows me her picture, "That's beautiful. Go hang it on the fridge."

She gets off of the bench and takes a magnet off of the fridge to hang up her colored picture. I watch her admire her artwork. She's so proud of herself and it's beautiful.

Christian sighs as he walks into the house. He shoves his phone in his pocket, "What was that?"

"Counsell is out. He's not coming back. He signed with a different team."

"What?"

"He's not going to be the manager anymore."

"Who's taking over?"

"I don't know. I'd assume Murph but I don't know. We don't know yet."

"Where's he going?"

He takes a bit to answer. "Cubs," he says quietly.

I laugh, "That's funny. Seriously, where's he going?"

"The Cubs. He's getting paid $40 million. He'd be stupid not to take it."

"This isn't going to go over well for the fans."

"It won't. It's his choice."

He might not say it but I will. I feel betrayed. "That was him calling me to tell me."

He sits on the bench. I get up and hug him, "You guys will come back and be better than you were last season."

He squeezes my arms, "He'll regret it when you guys are better than his team."

"That's just the Brewer fan in you saying that."

"Maybe. But I also believe it."

I sit next to him, "If you go out there next season with a clean slate, playing with grit and passion, something that was hard to come by when he was managing, I think you have a good chance at being better than he will ever be."

He looks away from me, "We're always going to be your number one fan. We love you."

She climbs on the bench with us on the other side of Christian. "Love you, Daddy," she tells him, hugging him.

He puts his arms around us, "I love my girls."

He kisses me, "You'll figure it out, I promise."

Thanksgiving came and went. Our birthdays are next. Bringing my cardigan together, I watch Amalia climb around her small play set.

Christian joins me outside, "Dinner's ready," he tells me.

He hugs me from behind. I held his arms as they rested on my stomach. "Mali, come eat dinner."

"Why?"

"Because you have to eat dinner. You've been playing all day. I know you're hungry."

She comes down the slide and walks up the few steps to our deck. Her sigh is what almost gets me to laugh but in reality, it's the way she's walking into the house. Her walk is full of sass and attitude.

I turned in his hold after she walked inside. We can't help but laugh, "We're so screwed."

"She's literally me and that's scary. I feel bad for you."

Who knew kids would be so funny? He kisses me.

"Yucky!" she says, standing at the door looking at us.