Black Coffee (Tara's Dream)|Dearest Diary, - Book 1 (unedited)

XIII

Bri?” I stepped out of my car and rushed into the house carrying a bag of groceries with me. The front door burst opens as my little girl came bouncing down the steps and flew right into my arms.

“Bri...” I groaned as I succumbed to the weight of the toddlers combined with that of the groceries that I was carrying.

“Can we go now? Can we go now?” she asked excitedly as Maggie walked out of the front door laughing.

“She’s been that way the whole day. She’s really excited to see her father again.”

“Tell me about it." I grumbled as I struggled to pick up the fallen bags of groceries.

“Let me help you with that." Maggie told me as she took one of the heavier bags from my hands.

“Can we go now?” Bri asked again, this time whining.

“In a moment dear. Help Maggie get these bags into the house and I will get you your car seat.” She agreed as she attempted to lift a much heavier bag. However, Maggie intervened and gave her a smaller bag which she carried up the steps into the house with me following closely behind them. As they walked into the kitchen, I made a detour and went into my study to drop off my work documents before picking up Briella’s car seat from the hallway closet. I walked back to the car with Bri following hot on my heels and I laughed, tickled by her enthusiasm. I lifted Briella into the car and strapped her into the car seat and for the first time since I had arrived, I noticed what she's wearing. She had on a yellow frilled dress top, white jeggings and a pair of golden flats. She also had on a soft yellow trench coat that was unbuttoned at the front,  I buttoned it up and closed the door, make sure that the child lock was on before moving on to the driver’s side.

“Are you excited to see daddy, grandma and auntie Shea?”

“Yea,” Bri squealed in excitement.

“What do you want to watch as I drive us there?” I asked opening up the glove compartment to take out a collection of cartoon DVDs that I gotten for such occasions.

“Barbie!”

“Of course. How could I have thought otherwise?” I mumbled amusedly to myself. It didn’t matter how many times Briella watched the cartoons, every time she watched them as if it was the first time and she never got tired of them. I made sure that the cartoon was up and showing on the backseat screens, before putting on my safety belt and turning on the ignition to drive out of our residential area. We got stuck in traffic more than once due to the evening rush and by the time we had made it to airport security it was already 6:50 even though we had started out at 6:00pm. I nervously waited out my turn to drive through the security point, knowing fully well that with every passing minute we were getting late and mother was bound to get cranky. Finally we were let through the check-in point and I speeded all the way to the arrivals terminal, happy to find a good parking space within the section. To save time, I reached behind the back seat and unlatched Bri from her cars eat. I then grabbed my purse and we both got off through the driver's side.

"Hold my hand Bri." I told her as I locked the car doors with my remote control key and we began to walk towards the terminal.

“Daddy! Daddy!” An over excited Bri shouted all of a sudden and I was pulled towards the crowd that was gathering outside the terminal. I was not sure if she’s seen him, but I followed her anyway not ready to let go of her hand and lose her. In fact, I was too busy catching up with her that I nearly bump into someone when Bri came to a sudden stop.

“Attara,” I looked up surprised to see Shea smiling back at me. In my daze, Bri shook off my hand and I was reaching out to grab her when she was taken up by a pair of huge tanned and muscular arms.