A smile tugged at Charlie’s lips despite the growing an anxiety at thee conversation topic. He looked forward to those days, when Dani could more easily communicate with both of them. It was scary, knowing she’d soon be growing into her own person, but it was equally as exciting. Which was why he didn’t want to miss any moment of it, and why he was nervous to broach the subject of them moving in together. Even the slim possibility that Daphne might not be on board was enough to make him feel sick.
The seconds between when he stopped speaking, his hands curling against each other nervously, and when Daphne responded, were nerve-wracking. Good idea. When he read the words on her lips, when he saw her smile, it felt like his entire body relaxed. “I was worried you’d think I was overstepping,” he admitted, hands shaking a little as he signed. His smile widened at her comment, and he shook his head. “Unfortunately, I can promise that I’m a little more of a logistical nightmare to live with than forgetting laundry,” he joked, though there was a edge of unease in his expression. “Visual alert doorbells are something I assume most hearing people don’t even consider when potentially living with a deaf person.” He didn’t want to point out that various landlords had offered units to other applicants over him, and he was certain it was usually for that reason—the cost and hassle of installing that kind of technology wasn’t something most landlords would choose to deal with if they can avoid it. He’d gotten lucky that Devon had introduced him to Della. She hadn’t cared about any kind of changes he needed to make to ensure the attached studio he rented was accessible.
“But I’ll be around more for Dani when you work late—no more needing to text me to ask if I;’m free to watch her, I’ll just. Be around,” he added, as if he still needed to convince her. His eyes dropped back down to Dani. “I’ll be really glad to be around more. To help out with her.”
Daphne shook her head at his words. “Not at all” she said quickly. “Dani is your daughter too.” Daphne thought back to when she’d first learned Charlie was Danielle’s father. She’d been so scared he’d tried to take the little girl away from her. And she knew that if he’d wanted to, he probably would have been able to do so. Which meant she was always willing to make the extra effort to ensure their co-parenting went smoothly. Besides, she liked Charlie as a person and thought this would make raising Dani together easier. Certainly it was more practical.
She nodded now. “I’ll be honest, that’s not something I thought about.” But she gave him another smile. “But I’m doing my best to learn” she added. She was still working on mastering sign language. Apparently learning to speak French as a child didn’t guarantee picking up another language as an adult would be as easy. Curse her fully developed adult brain for not wanting to learn new things. She knew living with Charlie would be an adjustment in a lot of ways, but she was more than willing to attempt it. Maybe it would be nice, having another adult around. She could come home from work and talk to someone about her day who would actually pay attention to what she was saying, instead of ignoring her to play with toys.
Nodding again, she said “When you put it that way, I think that’s a really good idea.” She looked forward to having more time for herself, and also for Dani to have more time with Charlie. “I promise that as long as you don’t mind a little bit of mess when it comes to the laundry, I will do my best to be a good roommate.” Or whatever it was they would be now. Was there even a word for late-wife’s-baby-daddy-slash-best-friend-turned-cohabitating-coparent? She doubted it.
