Chapter 15 - EMMA CALLED HIM DAD

It happened accidentally.
No ceremony.
No planned milestone.
Noah was eighteen months old.
Hayes was assembling a wooden toy airplane badly.
Emma watched.
“That wing is backwards.”
“It is not.”
“It absolutely is.”
“I commanded eight hundred people.”
“And none of them were wooden airplanes.”
Hayes glared.
Emma laughed.
Then Noah began crying from the kitchen.
Emma stood quickly.
“Dad, can you—”
Silence.
Both froze.
Hayes’s face changed.
Emma realized what she had said.
She almost corrected herself.
Then didn't.
Hayes looked down.
“Yeah.”
His voice broke.
“I can.”
He picked up Noah.
May you like
No speech.
That was enough.