Daddy Lessons. Carolyne Aarsen

out her papers and books. The glass-fronted armoire in the dining room still held the same plates, teacups and serving bowls. Why had Mrs. Morrow left so much behind?

      Then Hailey’s eyes fell on the row of school photographs marching along the facing wall.

      Pictures of Dan ranged from a pudgy, freckle-faced kindergartner with a gap-toothed grin to the serious senior. Already in grade twelve he showed a hint of the man he had now become, with his deep-set eyes and strong chin.

      Hailey was surprised at the little lift his pictures gave her. At the memories they evoked.

      She turned her attention to the row of pictures below Dan’s. Austin’s narrow features grinned back at her from the school photos, his blue eyes sparkling with the mischief that typified his outlook on life, the complete opposite of his older, more serious brother.

      But Austin’s series ended with a photograph from grade eleven. The year he died. Regret for might-have-beens twisted her stomach, then she turned, putting the pictures behind her.

      “Miss Deacon, you came.” The bright voice of Natasha banished the memory. As the little girl bounded into the room, her brown hair bounced behind her.

      Today Natasha wore a lime-green T-shirt tucked into torn blue jeans. A pair of sparkly yellow angel wings completed the look.

      Obviously the little girl had chosen some of her own clothes today.

      “Wow. Don’t you look spiffy,” Hailey said, trying not to smile too hard at her ensemble.

      “These are my favorite wings,” Natasha announced as she lifted the wand in her hand and performed an awkward twirl, almost knocking over a plant stand in the process.

      “Natasha, please, no dancing in the house,” Dan said, catching the rocking houseplant and setting it out of reach of her wings. “I’d like you to go take off your fairy wings.”

      Quick as a flash Natasha’s good mood morphed into a sullen glare. “I like my wings and you said I couldn’t wear them to school. But this isn’t school.”

      “This is like school,” Dan said, kneeling down in front of her. “And I want you to behave for Miss Deacon.”

      Natasha caught the end of her hair and twirled it around her finger, her attention on the books on the table and not on what her father was saying. “Are those mine?” she asked.

      “Yes. They are.” Hailey glanced at her watch. “And it’s almost time for us to start.”

      “But first the fairy wings come off,” Dan insisted.

      “I want to keep them on,” she protested, wiggling away from him.

      Dan cradled her face in his hands and turned her to face him. “Sorry, honey, but now it’s time for school, not time for pretending. Now I have to go to work and you have to stay up here, but I’ll be back at lunchtime, okay?”

      Natasha pouted but then it seemed the fight went out of her. “Okay, Daddy. But you’ll be right downstairs, won’t you?”

      Dan nodded, tucking a tangle of hair behind her ear. Then he brushed a gentle kiss over her forehead. “Love you, munchkin,” he said as he slipped the wings off her shoulders.

      “Love you, punchkin,” she repeated with a giggle.

      Dan set the wings aside and smoothed her hair again, smiling at her, the love for his daughter softening his features.

      Hailey swallowed as she watched the scene between them. She always knew Dan would make a good father.

      Her heart twisted a moment with old sorrow and old regrets and a flurry of other questions. Why had Dan married Lydia? Why had he moved on so quickly from her to another woman?

      She pressed her eyes shut a moment, as if to close her mind to the past.

      It was none of her business, she reminded herself.

      And it was a bleak reminder that what she and Dan had was dead and gone.