Love Next Door

Chapter Six- I'm not a father

The next day Jay awoke with a huge grin on his face. He jumped up and excitedly dressed like a child on Christmas. The day was muggy, worse than the previous. Thankfully, it happened to be a public holiday. No work!

Coincidentally, just as he walked into the kitchen, his phone –which was sitting on the counter- started to buzz. He picked it up. It was Tahlia.

"Do you mind if we come over for a quick visit today?" she asked, "David has some stuff to do on your side of town."

"Yeah, yeah of course."

"Awesome, we'll probably be there around 11 is that cool?"

"Yep, see you then."

Jay supposed they would bring over Kasey for another bonding session. Kasey was his daughter's name, and surprisingly Tahlia had let him choose it.

Jay made breakfast as normal and spent time on his laptop on the internet for a while. He felt like he was stalling, waiting, for someone. He knew who. He was waiting for Ash to come knocking on his door of course. He wondered if the previous day was all just a huge, stupid fantasy. Or maybe Ash wasn't really Ash, but some guy posing as Ash who was now half-way across the country.

"Stop it," he muttered to himself, as he cleared his table of two used coffee mugs; they were some kind of evidence that proved yesterday had occurred. He thought guiltily of how he couldn't wait to go and see Ash after his friends came and went.

True to their word, Tahlia and her boyfriend David arrived at eleven o'clock. In David's arms was a flaxen haired, chubby little girl. She was quite pretty for a toddler, as pretty as an infant could be; she had big brown eyes and a thin layer of soft, yellow-blonde hair. She looks like me, he thought sombrely. She was only eight or so months old.

Jay smiled at her and laughed as she looked back at him shyly, with her tiny hand covering her mouth. He greeted the adults and invited them in; Tahlia deposited a full bag and sat with a huff onto his scruffy sofa. David offered Kasey to him and Jay held his hands out for her. She reached out to Jay with a little angelic smile, a smile that seemed to melt his heart every time. He accepted her and held her carefully, cooing to her,

"How's my little angel?"

He tickled her and blew raspberries, making a shrill little laugh burst out of her. Tahlia and David watched on silently, he felt like they were observing him, almost scrutinizing him. He never thought he would ever have kids or be any good with them. He was so often wrong. After a few minutes of playing with his daughter, he handed her back to David.

"She's starting to get up now by herself," Tahlia said, "I'm sure soon she'll be walking off to get coffee by herself." They all laughed.

The prospect scared Jay; to watch his own daughter grow up. He was only twenty two, still almost a child himself. He offered them a drink, Tahlia water –she didn't drink anymore after the pregnancy- and Dave a beer. As he walked back into the kitchen, he heard Dave follow him.

"Can I just, talk to you for a moment?" he said.

He sounded serious. Jay nodded.

David was your typical nice guy. He was a part-time professional piano player when he wasn't working his day job in an office. He was pretty talented, Jay had been to one of his shows. He had plain, short, brown hair and a rigid jaw. Jay respected him; Dave treated Tahlia better than he ever had.

Jay started to fill a cup with cooled water, Dave cleared his throat.

"I understand that you don't really want to...to act as Kasey's father." Jay turned abruptly with a frown. He wasn't expecting him to bring up that.