“Hey,” I murmured. “You want to meet my friend Will?”
I looked up to see Will watching me intently. He’d moved closer without me realizing it, and was only a foot away when our eyes met.
I was embarrassed, but I hid it as I gave him a sheepish smile.
“Rebel,” I said as my daughter’s face came away from my neck. “This is my friend Will. Will, this is Rebel.”
As Reb turned to face Will fully, his face didn’t change expression at all. He didn’t show even the smallest hint of surprise, so I knew that he was guarding his reaction.
#p#分页标题#e#
Rebel’s hand went toward her forehead then slowly moved away, as she shyly signed hello.
“That’s hello,” I told Will proudly, swallowing the lump in my throat.
“Hello, Rebel,” he said sweetly, bending a little at the waist so he could meet her eyes. He glanced up at me. “Can she hear?”
“Yeah. Yes,” I said, clearing my throat. “She hears fine—she’s just not verbal yet.”
Rebel’s hand reached up to scratch at the side of her head above her ear, knocking her little purple glasses askew.
“No, baby,” I reminded her. “You have to keep those on so you can see.”
She huffed and glared at me, making Will smile. Then she kicked her legs in the universal sign for let me down right this second.
I set her on her feet and watched as she toddled toward her room.
“You didn’t say anything,” Will said, pulling my attention back to him. “With you all night and you didn’t say a goddamn word.”
“Why would I?” I asked seriously, looking at him in confusion.
“Are you shitting me?”
“You knew I had a daughter.”
“I didn’t know you had a—”
“Be very careful what you say right now,” I warned, my voice vibrating with anger.
Will’s head jerked back in surprise before he scowled at me, taking a step forward. “I was gonna say a special needs child,” he said, shaking his head. “Jesus Christ.”
“Why is that your business?”
“Oh, I don’t know!” Will’s voice rose before his words cut off and he clenched his jaw. “So you didn’t fuckin’ blindside me. Was this a motherfuckin’ test?”
“Oh, my God,” I blurted, throwing up my hands. “You’ve got a very high opinion of yourself.”
I crossed my arms over my chest as he silently stared at me.
“No, it wasn’t a test. You came home with me from a bar. I didn’t even think you’d ever meet her!”
“Oh, yeah? You take a lot of men home from the bar? Make ’em watch TV and sleep on your couch then kick them out before your kid gets home?”
“This is ridiculous,” I mumbled as Rebel came rushing back down the hallway, carrying a stuffed giraffe my dad bought her at the San Diego Zoo the year before. “I didn’t talk about Rebel at all last night. It’s not like I was freaking hiding her.”
I bent down to fix Rebel’s glasses as she reached my side. She must have run into the bedroom and took them off to scratch at where they rubbed against the sides of her head. My little sneak. Too bad for her, she’d put them back on upside down. “Don’t take off your glasses, Reb,” I told her for the eighteen millionth time. “You need them to see.”
She held up her giraffe and smiled sunnily. “Yeah, I see your giraffe, kiddo. Don’t take off your glasses.”
I turned back to Will. “My daughter has Down syndrome. That’s her truth. It’s not something I hide. It’s not something I use to test people. It’s just her life. Our life.”
Will gave me a terse nod, then crouched down. “It was nice to meet you, Rebel.”
Reb smiled brightly and held out her giraffe, pulling it quickly back to her chest when Will looked like he was going to take it. Her expression morphed into the non-verbal equivalent of I’m just showing you, dude. Hands to yourself.
“Cool giraffe,” Will said softly, dropping his hands. “Is that your favorite?”#p#分页标题#e#
Rebel gave a short nod, watching him with shy eyes.
“I like alligators. Do you like alligators?”
She tilted her head to the side. I wasn’t sure if we’d ever talked about alligators.
They watched each other for a long moment before Rebel turned away without warning, running back down the hall in her weird, little person gait.
“I’ll see you around,” Will said tonelessly as he stood back up.
I was frozen as he stepped into his boots and left the house without tying the laces.