8 Years Later:
NICK'S POV
I sat alone in my living room, watching a special of the history of Rock N' Roll. It was about 3:30 and the girls should be home any minute now. As if on cue, the bus stopped in front of the house and Delany and Juliette gracefully jumped off of the bus and ran to the house. They giggled at each other and ran into the living room and dropped their bags by the couch, and then continued to jump onto the couch and kiss me on the cheek.
"Hi daddy," They cheerfully greeted in unison.
"Hello, my princesses! How was your day at school?" I asked, trying to be just as cheerful.
They look at each other and said, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"
"Cool," I said. This is what they said every Friday.
"So what's on the agenda for today?" I asked.
"Homework," They both said, and rushed up to their rooms.
Elvis came in from the backyard and barked.
"You just missed them," I said, looking at him.
He barked again and trotted upstairs.
"And there they go," I sighed, and stood up and went into the kitchen. I proceeded to make dinner. Not having Shelby around entitled Alice to become my housewife dictator. I learned how to clean, cook, and entertain the kids. She prepared me for the hormonal changes and fits that were to come from a teenage girl. It didn't help. The house, since Shelby's death, has remained decorated with pictures from the albums and of her and white roses.
I got out everything I needed and proceeded to prepare dinner.
Around six-o'-clock, the girls were done with their homework and we were sitting down for dinner. We said grace and began eating. Every Friday, we prepared a different meal from one of Shelby's cookbooks that I found in the basement.
After dinner, we sat in the living room with our guitars and played songs.
"Daddy, can you sing 'Hello Beautiful'? Mom said that it was her favorite." Delany pleaded.
I smiled. "Sure."
I strummed my guitar and let the words pour from my mouth naturally, like water from a water fountain. I played the last few cords and held out the last note, and cut it off when I ran out breath.
Juliette applauded enthusiastically and Delany smiled.
"Delany, play the first song that you learned." Juliette said.
"Okay," She smiled, and played the song.
She played it, sang too, and messed up a few things. When she finished, she smiled shyly and looked frustrated.
"My turn," Juliette announced.
"This is my favorite Jonas Brothers song," she said, and began playing the cords for the hardest song, to play acoustic, we ever wrote (A/N- I don't know if this is true.)- Time For Me To Fly.
So she strummed her guitar and began to sing along, sounding just like her mother. I couldn't help but smile- she was her mother inside. She looked like her mother, acted like her mother, spoke like her mother, played guitar like her mother, and even sang like her mother. It was creepy, in a way.
She finished and looked up at me, an expectant smile on her face. Delany looked at her and then looked down at her guitar, running her fingers over the strings. I clapped and Juliette giggled. Delany shot a look at her and looked mad.
"Is something wrong?" I Juliette asked Delany.
"You," She snapped, and stormed up to her room.
"Daddy, is there something wrong with me?" Juliette asked me, looking up at me with her big green eyes, tears filling them.
"No, no not at all," I said, and pulled her into a hug.
Where was Shelby when I needed at her?
"Let me go talk to her- you can watch TV." I said, and she plopped down on the couch.
I placed my guitar on the couch next to hers and walked upstairs. I pushed open Delany's door and saw her sitting her bed with a picture of her and her mother in her hands. The bed had a few wet spots, I'm guessing from her crying, and her eyes were bloodshot, along with red cheeks and a red nose. (A/N- Not like Rudolf!)
I slowly walked over to her bed and sat down next to her.
"Go away," She mumbled.
"I'm your father, and you need me right now, so, no." I sat, and took her into my arms, where she cried into my shirt.
"Now, what's wrong?" I asked, and stroked her hair, trying to calm her down. It's not that easy being a single father with a hormonal thirteen year old daughter.
"I want mom back," She said, and more tears began to stain my shirt. "She didn't even say goodbye! She never said goodbye! The last thing I said to her was 'I love you' and there is so much more to say. I need her. I spent the first years of my life with her. She was my only friend. No one wanted to be friends with the daughter of the girl who got pregnant at fifteen. Every mother in the community that we lived in wouldn't even let their daughters play with me, come over, or me go to their house. I was all alone and my mom was the only person there for me!"
I looked at the picture she was gripping in her hands and began to wonder what it would've been like if Shelby hadn't run away. She probably would've of married Joe, Joe would've adopted Delany as his daughter, and Shelby might just have been alive. I looked back down at the picture and noticed everything they were wearing. It was a picture of her and Shelby from our wedding.
Joe was falling in the background and Kevin was laughing along with Jessie. I smiled and laughed a little.
"You think that's funny?" Delany choked.
"No, not at all; it's just… look at Joe in the background." I chuckled.
"What background?" She asked, and cleared some of the tears from her face.
"In the picture; he's falling, you know, like he usually does." I explained, and pointed it out in the picture.
"Oh," She said, and a smiled appeared on her face, and her eyes brightened. She giggled.
"I'm sorry," She said, and hugged me.
"You should really apologize to your sister, she's the one that's upset, not me." I explained, and she looked up at me.
She sighed.
"Fine," She said, and hugged me again.
She lifted herself up off of the bed and placed the picture frame down on her nightstand, carefully. I smiled and she walked downstairs.
She was right- we did need Shelby.
I felt a pair of eyes on my back, so I turned around and was faced with the angel that had appeared to me eight years ago.
"You did a good job," She smiled.
"Are you going to show up when bad things happen?" I asked.
"I don't know- whenever God lets me. He said that we can only show ourselves every so often." She sighed, and began to back up now.
"You have to go already?" I asked.
"Yes. Nick, you know the baby I lost when I was pregnant with Delany, right?" She asked, and smiled at me.
"Yes," I said.
"I found her in heaven and she needs me right now." She smiled.
"I love you," I said sweetly.
"I love you, too." She said, and disappeared.
Why did she have to go?