Breaking Hearts

I was picking A-Ro and Dave Dave up from childcare at the Y. Dave Dave did his usual "Daddy Came Back" chant. A-Ro was lounging on the sack chairs...with a boy!

"Daddy, Daddy!" she shouted when she finally looked up from the book she and the boy were "reading."

"That's the boy from the park yesterday. His name's Gabriel!"

Lia had taken the kids to the park yesterday afternoon. I heard about this boy. The first thing A-Ro told me when I got home was about this boy. All through dinner I heard about this boy. And here he was, Gabriel, smiling at me. No, he was smiling at my little girl.

So A-Ro and Dave Dave run out the door and as I go to follow them Gabriel comes up to me. He looks at me with these sweet, puppy eyes and asks, "Can I kiss Anna Rose?"

My eyebrows furrow. My hands go to fists. I say, "Not so fast, buddy." I glare. My lip curls. "Try me again in 16 years."

...five years old and already breaking hearts...why should I be surprised? She stole mine a long time ago.