LUKE'S POV

8:26 am. I couldn't wait to see her. Maia had been better than anything I'd dreamt. I wanted to go pick her up for our big day out. We would play ball and then get lunch and maybe some ice cream. I wanted this to be a day she'd remember forever.

I drove up to Haley's house and ran to the door. It was ten minutes before I was supposed to get Maia, but I just couldn't wait. She ran like a bullet out the door and straight into my arms.

"Daddy!" She screamed as she ran

"Maia!" I called back, equally excited to see her. "You ready to kick my but in basketball?"
"I couldn't beat you daddy, you played on a team. I just play on the street at home with my friends Emma, Kylie and Ian. 'Sides, you're supposed to teach me." She started to giggle. "How can you teach me if I'm better than you?"

"Well we'll see whose better in a little while. Go get your mom real quick though before we leave."
"Okay dad."
I felt like me and Maia had always been, like I had always known about her. She was calling me Daddy like she had been doing it forever, and I felt like it was right. Just then, Brooke came out as Maia ran inside to talk to Haley.

"Hey Lucas. Thanks for taking Maia today. She's really excited."
"Brooke, I'm just as excited as she is. We are going to have a day to remember. Don't worry about her, I'll take good care of her."

"I'm not worried, it's just weird, you know, her spending the day with you."
"It wouldn't be weird if you had told me about her eight years ago." I quickly replied, and almost as quickly regretted. A tear fell from Brooke's eye. She moved her hand to brush it away, but I caught it and gently removed the tear from her face. "Brooke, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I don't forgive you, but I also can't blame you. That was years ago though, we are new people, older, wiser." I said as I let out a small laugh.

"You're being too good, too mature. I can't believe you aren't angrier."
"I was angry Brooke, really angry. But I knew that my anger wasn't going to change anything and that happened. I want to get to know Maia now and forever, and that's all that matters." I kissed her lightly on the lips and called for Maia to come out.

Within minutes Maia and I were in the car on our way to the river court. When we got there I took out a ball and threw it to Maia. She caught it without even a second glance. She was definitely better than I thought.

"Nice catch Maia."
"Thanks dad. You ready to help me shoot a foul maybe?"
"Sure, why don't you stand here." I said pointing to about three feet in front of foul line.

"I want to shoot from the real foul line Dad. I can do it, watch."
And that's when I saw it, she ran to the foul line and stopped. She looked up to the basket, dribbled twice and shot. Swoosh! I couldn't believe that my almost 8 year old daughter could sink a foul shot like it was nothing.

"Hey Maia, what am I supposed to teach you if you can do that?"
"I don't know?" she said giggling.

It went on like that for two hours. I kept challenging her to do something and she would just blow me away with her ability. We played a game of 'horse' and it was pretty close. After basketball was done, we went to go get ice cream. Maia climbed into the backseat of my car and I threw her the ball. We pulled out of the parking lot and drove towards the café.