You Don't Deserve My Love

YDDML - pt. 2

"C'mon, peanut!  We gotta go or you'll be late!"  Mitch hollered from the front door to his daughter.  The petite brunette girl came running out of her room only seconds later with her long ponytail swishing behind her.  "Have you got your cleats?"

"Yep, in my bag,"  Lily confirmed as she headed out to the car.

"Great, let's go and kick some butt then!"  Mitch cheered and pulled out of their narrow driveway.

The car was silent as the father-daughter duo drove the 20 minutes to the park Lily's soccer game was being held at.  It felt as though it was their home away from home with them being there at least every other week.  Lily had soccer games all the time but Mitch made sure he made it to every single one of them.  He was his daughters biggest cheerleader.

The only other person who could rival that title was Scott. Despite his crazy office hours and the almost hour it took for him to drive over there, he could always be found on the sidelines whenever his daughter was playing.

Ever since Mitch welcomed Scott back into his life they saw each other multiple times a week. At this point, it was almost strange for Mitch to not have Scott around most of the time. They saw each other at every soccer game as well as their usual Friday/Sunday set up when Scott takes Lily to his house. Then there was Lily's dance recitals that happened twice annually and all school related events including school plays and parent teacher conferences. On top of that, as if that wasn't enough, some time ago they had started having weekly Friday night dinners together as a family.

It all started when Mitch had been running late with dinner and they were just sitting down to eat when Scott had arrived to pick up Lily. As per usual, the brunette had made way too much food for just the two of them so he asked Scott to join them, just so it wouldn't go to waste.  Then it just snowballed from there. Scott would arrive after work, enjoy his dinner with his daughter and ex-husband before he and Lily headed back to his for the weekend.

Friday nights were Lily's favourite time of the week and Mitch wouldn't admit it but he often looked forward to it too. The only reason being was it made his daughter immensely happy and he would do anything to watch her face light up. It had absolutely nothing to do with the way Scott looked at him that made his insides all tingly because that definitely didn't happen. But then again, Mitch had always been a terrible liar and he couldn't convince even himself that that was the truth.

"There's dad!"  Lily dashed across the parking lot straight into her dad's open awaiting arms.  Mitch followed behind at a much slower place with Lily's bag slung over his shoulder.

"Hey there, squirt.  You ready to kick butt?"  Scott chuckled as he hoisted the 7 year old up onto his hip.

"That's what papa said earlier,"  Lily laughed looking between her two dads.  "But yes, I'm ready.  Coach told me that I've been getting really fast so I'll probably win."

Mitch admired her confidence, he often wished she could share some of it with him.  Maybe then he wouldn't still be lonely and single.  Well, he wasn't lonely.  He had Lily and she was more than enough for Mitch.  But he was just a guy after all and he had needs.  Very adult needs that he was bored of dealing with himself. 

He had been on multiple dates with various men over the course of the years.  Some even lasted to a 3rd date but nothing ever came of them.  He always ended it when he realised he didn't want to introduce them to Lily.  He wouldn't just bring any old Tom, Dick or Harry into her life just for them to leave so his dating life was secret and uneventful.  He wasn't all that interested in the guys he had seen anyway, none of them really ignited anything within him.  The brunette often found himself wondering if he was broken, if the pain of the infidelity and heartache made him unable to feel anything close to that again.  When he really thought about it though, he knew that wasn't true because whenever blue eyes gazed into his, he could feel something akin to love softly fluttering around, gently encouraging his fractured heart to beat again.