Here, Here, and Here

“There are some rules though okay Keevie?” I ask getting serious as she returns to her sundae.

She nods her head and I decide that she’s listening, “You are not allowed to call him daddy when anyone other than Bill, Georg, Reaghan, or Gustav are around.”

“Why?” she asks curious.

I look up at Tom and he answers her question, “Well, Daddy” he paused, weighing his new name, “ has a lot of people that know his name and some of those people would try to hurt you or me and Mommy doesn’t want you to get hurt. So if no one else knows they can’t hurt you.”

“Okay” she says contently.

I lean across the table and say to Tom, “She either hasn’t gotten the whole situation yet or she’s dealing with it better than I thought.”

“I think she kind of knew all along” Tom says back to me with his own idea.

“Or she thought you were in her own mind” I say sitting back in my chair. Tom’s cell phone goes off and he looks at the text message.

“We got to go” he said looking up, “Bill just texted me and told me that we are late.”

“But my ice cream isn’t gone yet” Caoimhe whines. I look at Tom telling him with my eyes that now he has to live up to his new responsibility.

He looked at a loss for words so I decided to give him a bit of time to learn some more, “Caoimhe Simone” I say, my voice laced with warning. She puts the spoon down and Tom pays the bill that the waiter had left on the table when he brought Keevie’s ice cream. She obediently puts on her light jacket.

As we head for the door Tom leans close to me and asks, “How did you do that and can you teach me?”

“It’s all in the middle name. Any kid knows that when your mom whips out the middle name you’re gonna be in trouble, well except you and Bill” I say picking on him about his middle name like I always use to.

“Wait Da-” Keevie starts but with a look from me she catches herself, “Tom doesn’t have a middle name, why not?”

“His mommy didn’t give him one” I say buckling her into the car.

“Mama?”

“Hmm” I respond.

“Is Daddy’s” she giggled a bit at the word daddy, “mom my gramy?”

“Yeah, her name is Simone; you get your middle name after her.”

“When I can I see her?”

“I don’t know sweetie” I say thinking, when am I, I mean when are we going to tell Simone?

We drive in silence the rest of the way to the venue and there are already who knows how many people outside waiting. “I didn’t think about this part” Tom said.

I smiled, “I have and idea” he gave me a look. I guess he remembered some of my past ideas. I rolled my eyes and went on, “Circle round back”

He cut me off, “They’re gonna be back there too”

“Will you let me finish?” he shuts up, “Thank you. Circle round back and drop me and Caoimhe off. Then drive around the block once or twice, come back and then go on in. Your windows are tinted enough that the fans won’t be able to tell it’s you.”

He stays silent but I know he thinks it’s a good plan because he goes around towards the back. It’s a slow process because of the fans blocking the way. I turn around in my seat and unbuckle Keev and she crawls up front. Tom stops the car and a security guard comes up and I hand Keevie to him and hop out of Tom’s Escalade as fast as I could so no one could get a look at him. The guard goes to get the driver door but I tell him to let it go and he listens.

I walk very fast with Keev, trying to get inside so Tom can leave and come back. The guard leads us to the room where all the guys and Rea are.

We walk in and Keevie runs to Reaghan. Bill turns to me, “Where’s Tom?”

“We ran into some fans so he dropped us off and drove around the block. He should be here soon.”

“Well he better get here fast we want to give Keevie her presents” Bill said gesturing toward a small pile of presents.

“Presents!!” Caoimhe’s head snaps in Bill’s direction. Tom walks in the door and her head snaps in a completely new direction. She glanced around real fast and then shouted, “Daddy!!!” with even more enthusiasm.

“Daddy?” Georg asks severely confused as Tom picks her up.

“Yes!” Bill punched his fist in the air, “You told her!”

“Told her what?” Gustav asked but we all still ignored him and Georg.

“Will someone please tell us what is going on!” Georg shouts and Rea gives him a look.