The Way Back | ✓

5.6

note: good news is that I've begun to stock up on chapters. All thanks to nano. Are any of you doing nano this July? Drop your stories in the comments and I'll be sure to check them out. 

If you enjoy scenes centred on Andrew and his daughter, you're going to love this chapter. Happy reading! 

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Aurora was the most beautiful, most perfect thing in this world and though Andrew's opinion was obviously biased, in this moment, in this picture-perfect memory, that was what she truly was. Beautiful, perfect. His little girl.

"How are you so old and still the messiest ice-cream eater," laughed Aurora, taking a nip at her strawberry flavoured ice-cream.

Andrew had butterscotch and half of his was not even on his cone. It was on his face. He smiled as Aurora giggled, taking a tissue from the table and attempted to wipe it from her father's face. She only made it worse. Andrew took the tissue from her and wiped his mouth, and his nose — how ice-cream got there, he had no clue, but he suspected it had more to do with him giving his undivided attention to his daughter.

"Right, forget about your father's handsome face—"

"Ba!"

"I have a handsome face, do I not?"

She stuck out her tongue before taking a lick of her ice-cream. "You're ugly."

"If I'm ugly, and I'm your father, and you're beautiful, you have some of my genes so..."

"Yes, some," Aurora nodded seriously, "I got my good looks from Mummy."

Andrew gasped. "You're a mean little girl."

She laughed. There was nothing better than making his little girl happy. Her laugh was not soft and quiet. It was loud and big, a laugh that made you feel included even if you were not. It was a warm laugh, the ones that made you laugh along even if it wasn't funny — the ones that made you feel fuzzy inside. Her laugh brought him so much joy that there were not enough words in the dictionary to encompass the description of it.

"Speaking of Mummy," Andrew said, getting back down to business, "Let's go back to what we were talking about before my handsome face interrupted the conversation."

His daughter rolled her eyes at the mention of his handsome face. The sass of this kid, Andrew thought amusedly.

"You heard her and Simon talking?" Andrew prodded, eating his ice-cream.

"They talk in hushed whispers all the time and Mum said something about him including me in the picture if he was serious about her. I don't know what that means but that's the only thing I've heard in all their secret conversations."

"Huh," he breathed, puzzled by this new information. "And then?"

"And then, yesterday night, when we were having some of the pie that Simon made after dinner, he got down on one knee. You know like how they do in all those movies. It was nice, really. He said a lot of nice things and it made Mummy happy. She couldn't stop smiling. And then he said, marry me, Tallie. Tallie is a weird nickname Simon gave Mum but she likes it so whatever." Aurora was smiling as she recounted the previous night to her father, licking away at the remains of her ice-cream gleefully.

"That sounds wonderful," Andrew lied. How long had Simon and Talia been going out for? How long had they been sneaking around behind his back?

"It really was," she sighed dreamily. "I hope one day that a man proposes to me like that with sweet words."