Finding home

Chapter 6 - Meeting in the park

I called my dad and asked him if he had time to look after Alexis while I was out meeting a friend. I was almost on my way to call Lanie but then I remembered our conversation earlier and figured she would only think I was out on a date if I told her I was meeting a friend. And if she thought I was going on a date there was no way I could possibly escape the questions she would have for me afterwards, so that's why I chose my father. Alexis had asked me where I was going and if I was going to meet her father, but I had told her that I would tell her later on, but that she had to promise not to tell 'Jim' that we had been talking to her father. Once I had left her at my dad's home I drove towards the park we had decided to meet. I couldn't help but to think about that first time I had met him. That first time when I had gotten his book signed. I took a deep breath when I parked my car and turned off the engine. Why was I so nervous? Because that must be what the feeling in my stomach was, right? It felt so weird, I hadn't been this nervous since I was a teenager and had a date with one of the hot guys in school. I looked at the clock and saw it was 6:55pm, I bit my lip as I opened my door and jumped out of my car. I didn't see anyone there yet except for a few kids, about 13-14 year olds, running around climbing on the playground. Since I didn't really want to ruin their game or whatever they were doing I went to the swings seeing there was no one there. I sat down on the left swing, looking around in the falling darkness. I couldn't help but start swinging carefully, in order to try get rid of my nervousness which, to my disappointment, didn't go away. I took up my phone and checked the clock again, it had only gone three minutes since I checked it last.

"Hi?" a man's voice said and I immediately recognized it from the first time we met.

I looked up and saw the famous ruggedly handsome writer in front of me. I quickly stood up and reached out my hand.

"Hi, uhm, nice to meet you" I said and I saw him shake his head a bit before he shook my hand.

It almost looked like he'd needed to collect his thoughts.

"It's nice to meet you too, thank you so much for doing this" he said and I saw how grateful he was in his eyes.

I couldn't help but smile when I looked even deeper into his eyes and found that he was quite nervous himself. I sat back in the swing and he joined me by sitting in the swing to my left.

"You weren't followed here, were you?" I asked suddenly feeling like we could get busted any second.

I didn't want Alexis to be taken away from me just because I took a risk with seeing her father.

"No, I switched cab like three times only to make sure. Don't worry, I won't try to do something that will take my little girl away from the both of us. I can see you care for her on a level that not even my previous wives did" he said and I saw he shut his mouth when he had mentioned his ex-wives.

"Yeah, I've had her a couple of months now I think, and I actually can't imagine my life without her. I know that if you get to have her back I'll be happy for her but I will miss her more than I thought would be possible. She's become a part of my every day" I said honestly.

We were quiet for a couple of minutes, thinking. I didn't know what he was thinking about but I was thinking about the little girl that was at my dad's home, and I was pretty sure that was who he was thinking about too.

"You know, if I do get her back I'll make sure you get to meet her as often as possible. Before you woke up Alexis told me a lot of things about you and I really think you've become quite a role model for her, and I would never be able to take that away from her" he told me and I looked at him for the first time since we sat down on the swings.

He looked directly into my eyes and I couldn't help but get a feeling that he could see how much I appreciated his words. I tried to gather myself and remembered the question he hadn't really been able to answer before.