Chapter 5

"Hi Maddie," Danny says, looking at me. He has eyes just like me. "How old are you?"

"7," I answer, burying my face in Mom's shoulder. Danny doesn't seem too bad. He seems interested in me.

"That's cool," he says, not at all like a dad would say. "You know, the last time I saw Lindsay…I mean, uh, your mom, was seven…" he stops, and I can't tell what he's thinking.

Mom sets me back down on the ground, and right then and there Stella comes by, and takes my hand. I haven't had lunch yet, and I can feel my tummy rumbling. She takes me to the cafeteria, and she buys me a sandwich. I sit with her for lunch, wondering what Mom and Danny are talking about. I try to imagine what's happening between them.

"So Lindsay…" Danny started, not happy at all, "is Maddie..."

"Yes," she answered.

"Why?" he asked, "why didn't you tell me?"

"I'd already left by the time I found out," she said, "besides, you were already with that leggy blonde from Staten Island, who was I to mess up your life?"

"Lindsay, no matter what the circumstances, I would've been there for you." Danny insisted, "You think that after seven years I'd forget that night we shared?"

"No but…"

"But what?" Danny asked. "Lindsay, because of you not tellin' me 'bout Maddie, I don't even know the precious little thing sittin' in the cafeteria with Stella!" he kept the rage swelling in his throat to a minimum. "I want to be there for you guys, I really do."

Lindsay snorted. "Sure you do Messer."

Danny was almost beyond words. He was trying his damnedest to be the good guy, the guy interested in the bombshell dropped on his head not 30 minutes before. Lindsay hadn't left any forwarding address, so he hadn't been able to contact her. And he'd tried… oh how he'd tried.

"I do, I really do," he insisted. "Lindsay, I really want to be there for you and Maddie. She's an absolute doll. What have you two been doing these seven years?" Danny still couldn't believe he had a little girl… she was so beautiful, looked just like her mother, she did.

Lindsay nearly laughed. "I've been working as a waitress."

"A waitress?" Danny was shocked, "with your degree? Fuck me. Lindsay…"

"Been there, done that."

"Why the hell are you waitressing? You have a fucking science degree!"

"I know, I know…" she laughed, "but you should have seen what happened when I took Maddie to work with me one time. She decided she wanted to help me with carrying a big order, so I let her carry a plate of spaghetti to the table..."

Now Danny was listening. He wanted to hear more about what his girl had been up to.

"And… oh my God, it was hilarious! She was almost to the table when she tripped over her feet and the spaghetti landed in the guy's lap!"

Danny burst out laughing. There was the Lindsay Monroe he remembered. He loved the way her eyes closed and her nose clinked when she laughed, and the pitch of her voice at these moments was absolutely perfect.

I walk back to the room where I left Mom and Danny. When I get closer I can hear Mom laughing. I peek in the doorway and she Mom and Danny laughing together. I think they're telling old stories.

"…in the guy's lap," I hear as I'm about to leave. Oh great… she's telling him about the time I dropped a plate of spaghetti into a customer's lap at the restaurant. Now he's laughing, and I peek again.

Now Danny's hugging Mom, and he's kissing her.

Danny's kissing my Mom?