No Shame (Book 2 - No Regrets)

Chapter Thirty - Soup for the Soul

DOMINICK'S POV

Mollie lets out another impatient groan before jumping off the couch. "I want to watch movie." she says climbing back up on the couch. I check my phone again, no new notifications. "No movie." I say. "We are about to leave to go to Nona and Papa's house."

"I wait all day." She whines before jumping off the couch again.

"The Amish have waited all their lives." I reply, I chuckle a bit in amusement at my own joke. "Don't jump off the couch, it's not nice to our neighbors." I add.

Mollie whines a little at being denied her newfound source of amusement. She walks over and crawls up next to me at the end of the couch. I help her up on to my lap. "Can I look at photos?" She asks looking at the phone resting on the armrest.

"Okay." I say. "Any requests?"

"Old photos." Mollie says.

"Don't know why I asked." I say amused. I unlock my phone and go to my phone's gallery. I scroll through the last year and a half of saved photos and videos, until I reach the old photos I downloaded from the memory of my previous phone. I hand Mollie the phone for her to scroll through. She has a couple favorites that she always likes to look at and have me retell the story behind the photo. One is a photo from her first Easter Sunday of her napping on my chest and I wearing bunny ears over my eyes.

  Another is a video from when Mollie was relearning how to eat solid foods. In the video, her face and hands are covered in puréed sweet potatoes, smearing the orange mush around her high chair tray."Look at that messy baby." I say in an overly cheery voice from behind the camera. Mollie gives a smile and giggle in response. She speaks in gibberish as she raises her hands and then slams them down on the tray with a squeal of delight. The food flies, I let out a surprised exclamation before the video abruptly ends. Mollie gets a laugh every time she watches the video and always asks to rewatch the video at least two more times.

Mollie taps on my screen opening up a photo from her second birthday. In the photo, Mollie is wearing a white onesie with her name embroidered on the front and a paisley-colored tutu. Her hair is pulled up in two short pigtails with two matching bows a friend of Mom's made. She is sitting on the living room floor surrounded by an ocean of presents. We celebrated more than Mollie turning two years old. We celebrated that she was home. We celebrated that she was healthy. We also took advantage of the chance to make up for lost time.

We missed welcoming her into this world on the day she was born. We did not get to celebrate Mollie's first birthday with her, the Wiltons went out of town the week of her birthday and did not return until two weeks after. We sent presents but days later the presents came back with a big "return to sender" stamp. Her second birthday was our first opportunity to do everything right, do everything we should have done before.

In the middle of me reciting all the presents Mollie received, the front door opens. Tyde bursts in pulling her suitcase behind her. "I'm here."

"Mommy!" Mollie exclaims happily as she leaps off my lap. Tyde only manages to step a foot in the living room before Mollie throws herself toward Tyde, wrapping her little arms around Tyde's leg.

"Hi, sweet baby." Tyde coos letting go of her suitcase. She lifts Mollie up. "I missed you so much!" She tickles Mollie's neck with kisses. "Oh, you smell nice and clean, Daddy must have given you a bath today."

"With lotion." Mollie says.

"With lotion?" Tyde let's out a little laugh of amusement. "Now, let me see how pretty you look." She sets Mollie down. Mollie proudly shows off the floral dress long white-sleeved dress I dressed her in for dinner. "Oh you look so pretty." Tyde says. She looks at me and gives me a smile. She walks over and leans down to give me a kiss.