The only easy day was yesterday.

“I did the same thing, pretty much. Joined the Marines at eighteen, you know, did a few tours, saw some bad shit. Ended up down in Georgia for a bit, got married, had a kid. Ended up back here last year, after my father’s death.” Abraham said, not mentioning losing his wife, not wanting to get into it. But he knew, there was a good chance the other man might already know about her, since word got around town pretty quick about what had happened to his wife. “Brodie…I feel like an asshole. I’m drawing a blank, man.” He said, rubbing the back of his head, honestly feeling bad. “Billie fuckin’ loves turtles, whales and sharks. So, I think they’ll get along well.”

Derick’s normal blank expression cracked in to a soft smile, “Kind of the same.” He started to tick off events on fingers, “Left at 17, Navy by 18, some tours, SEAL training, more tours. Met a girl, moved to Nevada for girl, married girl, had kid. Came back here when my mom died for her funeral and decided Lanford is better than Vegas for a kid.” Derick shrugged. “Thank god,” he sighed, he hated that name, “Don’t worry. I wanted to blend in back then, mostly because of my father.” Damn crusty old military men. “Good, good. She’s currently obsessed with the creepy deep sea fish so we’ll see how that goes.”

Maybe you need to slap on a peer of glasses and your all set. 

I have perfect eyesight and I look better without glasses.

“She’ll learn. Oh, you? You I love. The orders are a different thing entirely.”

“Man, your daughter sounds awesome.” Abraham said, with a laugh. “You’re from here? I thought so, man. I swore I knew your face, I just couldn’t place it.” He said, nodding. “I’m Abraham Everett, but everyone calls me AJ. My family runs the Bridge Cafe, the worst cafe in town.” He said, holding out a hand to the other man. “Man, we should set up a playedate or something for our kids.”

“She’s a peach,” he said with a faint smile on his lips. Derick nodded though, the longer he stayed in Lanford the more people connected the dots. “Grew up here, left at 17 though. 13 years later here I am again. I remember you, I have the unfortunate good memory of faces and names. Derick Jenner. But I guess back then, “he groaned, not wanting to remember, “Everyone called me Brodie.” Derick clasped his hang and shook tightly. Growing up his dad make him practice over and over again, and now it was just habit. “I’m down. She needs more friends. Most 4 year olds don’t share her intense love of the ocean though.”

That sounds pretty awesome, though. I want nerfguns at my reception. 

It was the first time I was shot at and it actually connected. They hurt, I almost wish it would have been a bullet.

Are you secretly The Flash? I can’t imagine that you move like the speed of light. 

Not nearly nerdy enough.

God, tell me about it. Maybe once I want to not eat out. I can’t remember the last time I cooked something that wasn’t just for the dogs. I could be saving so much money. Yes! that’s little freaking twat. She needs to get out. 

I’m pretty sure if I was cut open, I’d be full of pizza. Hell, I had better eating MREs for 3 years and that shit tastes like cardboard half the time. Shh, act cool, she’s watching. I’m wondering if I can plot against her and ruin her stuff.

“It’s not my fault Ariella walked in to a chair, now is it? I’m sneaky, but my kid gives me away. Nope, I did not miss you ordering me around, not one bit.”

“I don’t doubt it — I just don’t want her to feel as unwanted as I did. She has no blood family other than me and Libby, though. My mother and my step-father died when I was 13. I didn’t even get to meet them myself and most memories I have from them was when I was at the bakery. I know that she will ask questions, but it will take a while for her to understand that her father never came back.”

“Blood isn’t everything. I’ve got an entire team of men I call my brothers who I am not related to at all. I didn’t have plans to come back here. But my mom died and my sister almost did and those are the only two people I care about in the world, next to my kid. And maybe someday I’ll be send out again and someone will have to explain to her that daddy isn’t coming back. But you know her dad might come back, or he might not and you’ll have found some other man who deserves to be in you life. As long as she has someone to look up to, and I can tell she will see that in you. I barely know you but I know you’re amazing already.”

Hate to say it, but if that happens. I’m gonna miss you.Just don’t get caught by any of the rebels. Don’t want to turn on channel 7 news and hear you’ve been captured.

I’d never get caught, I’m too good. I’d destroy a whole rebel camp before they found me.

But why does it all have to be pretty? I didn’t sign up for a food beauty contest. I don’t get it. Did you see the girl across the room? I don’t think she needed to be there. She was already too good. 

Because people are vapid and shallow and only pretty things matter. I just wanna make food that isn’t pizza or mac and cheese all the time or I might start protesting against myself. The blonde girl with short hair? I think she was planted there to make us look bad.

Well that’s informative. Let’s just hope you don’t get called out. 

“I could. And no one would really know except my sister would wake up to Ari in her bed, snuggled up to get, and I’d be half-way to Korea or something.”

Right? She looked at my eggs like they were the worst thing she’d ever seen. What if I like them like that? Why doesn’t she think of that? 

Because they’re not aesthetically pleasing. They’re eggs. Food doesn’t have to be pretty, it has to be edible. I’ll still eat jacked up eggs. Same nutrients.

“I know, I know Derick. I’m not saying that I don’t have amazing friends, because I do, and I’m incredibly aware of that and I appreciate you and all of the other people in my life, I’m just scared. My biological father, he walked out on me when I was five, my step father passed away when I was 13, I just didn’t want her to grow up feeling as unwanted as I did, her dad is not dead — or so I hope — he’s just gone. How do I explain this to her, you know?”

“My father is a dick of a man who cares only about money and power over his kids. My mother died a year or so ago. My babygirl will never meet her grandfather, or her grandmother, and all I can do is hope that I’m enough, that my sister is enough, that whomever I chose is good to be in my life, is good enough to be in her life. She’ll ask questions when she’s older, no doubt. But kids are smart. “

“Dude, my daughter does that too.” Abraham said, with a laugh. “I play fight with her, you know. And the other day, we’re at the grocery store and she goes up to this complete stranger and karate chops him just as hard as she can. I grab her and I’m trying to apologize to the guy, but I’m laughing, because it’s fuckin’ funny…” He trailed off, with a laugh. “Yeah, kids can be a trip, man.”

“She uh,” Derick chuckles and shakes his head, “The other day we were outside and she yelled out that New York isn’t dirty enough. I’m from here, but she grew up in Nevada and it was just sand for days there. A women thought what she said was inappropriate. So then she started talking about creepy fish from the bottom of the ocean and the women doesn’t want her son to play with my kid anymore. What a pity.”

Cooking classes are no joke. I thought it was going to be fun and easy. Turns out, not all that fun, definitely not easy. 

Curse these real life skills we have to know.  No one likes it when someone tells you that your omelette is wrong. I like my eggs like that.