1.6 #1 Dad?

When Derrick woke up, he heard a baby crying in the background. What did I miss? he thought. Then when he went in the next room he saw it. His daughter had been more. Derrick couldn’t help but break down and cry and the fact that he missed the birth of his second daughter. So, to make up for it, he bought Danielle the guitar she had always wanted and built on to Dakota’s room in order to make room for both of their daughter’s. He knew it wasn’t much, but it was the least he could do.

Derrick also decided to stay home with the baby and let Danielle and Dakota go fishing. Danielle happily accepted this offer and left Derrick without thinking twice.

Danielle took her oldest daughter to a local park to go fishing. Even though they only caught a minnow, Dakota told her mom she had a lot of fun hanging out with mom and she was glad that they remembered her existence with the new baby around.

Although Danielle remembered to spend time with Dakota, her daughter felt that she needed some time alone and away from everyone in her family. So, she spent a lot of her extra time swimming at the local swimming pool.

And 365 trips to the swimming pool later, it was finally time to celebrate Desiree’s transition into a toddler. The whole family couldn’t help but be excited considering that having an infant in the house was getting on everyone’s nerves.

With age, Desiree, too, looked like her mother. She had her eyes and hair, but Derrick’s mouth. Derrick’s dark skin showed a little more in Desiree than Dakota, as well.

Derrick seemed more happy when Desiree’s features started showing than when Dakota’s. Dakota could tell that he was more happy  with her, too and threw her self more and more into her paintings.

When Danielle realized she hadn’t seen her eldest daughter much in weeks, she went into her room.

“Dakota?”

“Yes, mom?” Dakota replied, hopping down from her stool.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, why?”

“Well, I haven’t seen you lately, it seems like something is wrong.”

“It’s just that, Dad doesn’t seem to care for me anymore.”

“What?” Danielle replied, looking shocked. “Oh course, your Dad cares for you. He loves you, Dakota.”

“Well, he’s always spending time with Desiree. He never spends time with me. It’s always, ‘Desiree, this’ and ‘Desiree, that’ and then he gardens. That’s all he does. Gardens.” Dakota looked disgusted. Danielle looked down at her daughter sadly. She felt awful that she had felt this way.

“I’ll talk to your dad about it tonight, okay?”

“Really?”

“Yes. Now get to bed. It’s almost nine.”

“Can I finish my painting first?”

“Yes, Dakota, you can finish it.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Dakota and Danielle hugged and Danielle headed to bed.

“Derrick,” she said, sitting down next to Derrick on their bed. He looked at her, interested in what she had to say.

“I don’t think your spending enough time with Dakota. I was talking to her and she said that you don’t care about her.”

“What!? That’s crazy! Of course I care about her!”

“Well, she doesn’t seem to think that. Can you please try to spend time with her tomorrow? For me.”

“Of course. I promise”

“Thank you Derrick. It means a lot to this whole family.”

The next morning, Danielle made Derrick make the whole family breakfast, with Danielle’s watchful eye, though.

When Dakota woke up, she ate her breakfast quickly. This is delicious, she thought.

“Where’d you get those waffles,” Derrick asked when he sat down across from her, Desiree in his arms.

“I don’t know.”

“I made them for you.”

“Thanks.”

When Dakota finished her waffles, she walked to the sink, staring her father down. Why had he made her breakfast? Mom usually made her breakfast.

Soon after, Dakota and Derrick left for school and work. Danielle sat down and couldn’t help, but notice that her husband had not eaten his breakfast. She sighed. He was probably too caught up in Dakota’s linking of his breakfast to notice.

She also noticed how disgusting her how was. Ever since Desiree was born, she had no time to clean, it was just all Desiree all the time, no time for anything else. Desiree didn’t seem to care for the mess, though, she was too caught up in playing.

After cleaning, Danielle spent sometime with her youngest daughter. She would be going back to work soon and she knew that her time would be limited.

Soon, though, Derrick came home. But he spent all the time in his garden, Danielle didn’t seem to notice that he was even home, she figured he was out with Dakota.

But when Dakota returned by her self late at night, she knew that wasn’t the case.

“Dakota Nicole Barringer, why are you home so late? Your father wants to spend time with you.”

“Doesn’t seem like it. He’s too busy in his garden,” Dakota said, rolling her eyes.

“I’ll have a talk with him later, but you should’ve called.”

“Sorry, I was at the grocery store doing research for a report.”

“Okay, sweetie, but I was worried. Please call next time.

“Yes mother.”

But, Danielle’s talk was delayed, when Derrick went inside, he ignored everyone and went straight to bed. Danielle  couldn’t help but be mad. Derrick had broken a promise and forgotten about their daughter.