Wildflowers |h.s|

thirteen

Harry

"Annika, can you come here please?" I ask, keeping my tone light. She left a mess in the living room with her toys and we're still working on cleaning up. I'll admit though, I do let her off the hook with it most of the time which is why she's four and leaves messes everywhere.

I smile at her when her little legs run into the room, "Yes daddy?" My smile widens when I see her all dressed up in one of her fairy dress up costumes. She even has a little floral crown sitting atop her wild curls.

"Petal, we can't forget to clean up our messes when we want to play with something else. Now, I'll help you this time, but next time you have to try and remember." I explain gently, and she nods her little head.

"Okay daddy! Then can we play fairies?" Naturally, she gives me her famous puppy eyes, even though she never has to.

"I'd love to play fairies with you. Oakley would too, I'm sure. Let's clean up and then she should be up from her nap."

Together, Annika and I start to clean up the toys one by one and put them in the basket they're usually kept in. The entire time, my sweet petal tells me all about what color wings I'm going to have this time and all the powers I have. She has the wildest imagination and is always coming up with something new for us to do.

I'm glad I have the girls through this time. They've kept me busy enough where I can kind of forget about everything that happened with Devon for the day. Sometimes I just pretend it's just another day where we're both just busy, but at night I'm always confronted by the fact that I screwed everything up. She was so amazing and I blew it.

Mitch had a big 'I told you so' moment when he found out that Devon dumped me. I can't even be mad at him for trying to get Dev to leave me. Yeah, she made me so happy, but I wasn't honest. I deserved everything that came after she found out.

I smile softly, watching my daughter play with some of the toys she should be putting away. I lean back on my palm, tilting my head to the side slightly. I wish I told Devon about them from the beginning. I wish things worked with her because she would just be the most amazing role model for the girls. All I want is for them to be strong, beautiful, confident women. Just like Devon is.

My smile grows as Annika looks at me and giggles. She runs the little distance separating us, wrapping her little arms around my neck in a hug. I wrap my free arm around her little body, holding her close as she gives me a little kiss. "You're the sweetest, petal. Do you know just how much I love you?"

She giggles more, shaking her head and her curls go flying. "No daddy, how much?" Of course, this is a game we always play together multiple times a day. I do this with Oakley too, but she's too little to understand still.

"I love you bigger than the dinosaurs!" I grin at her, pushing some hair out of her face. She squeals at that answer, hugging me all over again.

"I love you bigger than giraffes!" She replies, and I just fall in love with her all over again. My sweet little girl who thinks the giraffe is the biggest thing in the world.

I pretend to think for a minute, just wanting to draw more giggles out of her since it's my favorite thing in the world. "I love you bigger than... the sky!" I lay back, chuckling and holding her above me to make her fly. She laughs, a look of pure joy on her face.

"I love you bigger than that!" She manages to get out between her giggles, and I pull her into my chest to kiss her cheek a bunch of times.

"That's so much love, Petal! I can't believe it." The end of my words comes out distorted since she squishes my cheeks together so she could give me another kiss. When she lets go of my cheeks, I smile, "Ready to go wake up Oakie and go play fairies?"