In a Perfect World

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

            "Hey," Damien said at school as I shut my locker, appearing out of nowhere and scaring me half to death. 

            A few weeks had passed since Damien’s parents stopped by my house and although Damien and I were still awkward around each other, we began to re-familiarize our relationship together and with Hayley.  Even though Damien’s parents were against Damien being around Hayley until we received the paternity results, I grew more and more anxious for Damien and Hayley to meet for the first time.  I tried to get Damien to go out to the park with Hayley and me or go for walks around the neighborhood, but he refused each time I asked.  With no option left to bring Damien closer to Hayley, I began to inch Damien into parenthood at different way.  Each time we were together, I tried to tell Damien little things about Hayley: her birthday, her favorite toy, cute little things she did, and I showed him pictures of her. 

            Damien seemed to do fine when I mentioned Hayley in passing or brought pictures out, but it wasn’t until the results of the paternity confirmed Damien’s fatherhood that Damien began making a more active attempt to integrate Hayley into his life as well as integrate himself into Hayley’s life.  It was a slow process, but day by day, Damien would begin joining me on walks and trips to the park with Hayley and then he would come over to my place and watch Hayley and me interact.  Damien’s parents, like their son, was hesitant to welcome Hayley into their lives and didn’t bother to see Hayley until a few days ago.  Damien and his family’s acceptance of Hayley into their lives became truly apparent when they invited Hayley and me to their house after school one day when Damien didn’t have swim practice. 

            I watched as Damien’s parents became mesmerized with their granddaughter.  They spent hours playing with her, Damien’s sister Natalie even joined in, and when Hayley went down for her nap, they all watched her sleep, in awe of her beauty.  The only thing that was disappointing was that Damien wasn’t enthralled by his daughter than the rest of his family.  Yes, he played with his daughter, but he still couldn’t hold her.  He stiffened when Hayley crawled over to him and declined every invitation to hold her.  While my relationship with Damien quickly returned to normal, I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy for Damien to take on his role as Hayley’s father, but I could only hope that Damien would find his place in Hayley’s life soon. 

            "Holy, crap,” I breathed, clutching my chest as my heart skipped a beat.  “You scared me."

            "That was the point," he smirked, slinging his arm over my shoulder and leading me down the hall.  "So where are you going?"

            "Home, Callie and Austin flew in today, and I can't wait to see them!"

            “Weren’t they just here?” Damien asked as we passed by a small group of girls.  They eyed us, unlike the way girls usually looked at us, and when their chatter stopped, I knew they found out about Hayley and Damien knew it too.  I could feel Damien tense beside me as we walked away from them, but I decided to ignore it.  Hayley’s existence had yet to be announced officially to the world and I was surprised it took so long for the world to finally catch up to my life when I’d already taken Hayley out in public numerous times.  I knew what was going to happen with I took Hayley out and I no longer cared.

            I leaned my head against Damien’s shoulder and nudged him and told Damien that Callie and Austin were just flying back to California to continue planning their August wedding and that during their trip this time we were going to go shopping for Callie’s dress and Hayley’s flower girl dress.