Free Sweet Gone South by Alicia Hunter Pace Page B

girl sat on a plastic mat playing with Play-Doh. Emma was wearing a pink crown and had blue Play-Doh in her hair.
    He was about to call to her when she looked up, caught sight of him, and laughed like the best part of the day was happening for her. That was saying a lot. Clearly, there had been cake and, even now, Denise Eubanks was handing a check to a clown.
    “Daddy, Daddy!” Emma ran to him and he picked her up, inhaling all her usual little girl smells mixed with the scent of cake and grape juice. She hugged him, then turned in his arms and called to Missy Bragg, “Beau’s mommy! My daddy came to get me!”
    Missy stepped up and patted her back. “Your daddy would never forget you.”
    Luke frowned. “Does she call you ‘Beau’s mommy’? Like that’s your name?”
    “She does. In her world, that’s who I am.”
    “Emma,” Luke said. “Emma, this is Miss Missy — ” he trailed off and looked at Missy. “That doesn’t really work, does it?”
    “Afraid not. My name does not lend itself to the time honored southern tradition of being called Miss, insert first name, regardless of marital status. Let’s just leave it at Beau’s mommy.”
    Emma pointed to the pink party favor crown she wore. “I got this! And this!” She held up her wrist to show Luke her plastic bracelet. “You gotta see what else!” She squirmed out his arms and ran off.
    “This was quite the party,” he said.
    Missy handed him Emma’s backpack. “Purr Kitty is inside. Yes. Denise likes to do things up. I tried to get her to have a puppet show, but no! It had to be a clown. I hate clowns. I’m not afraid of them; they just annoy me with their big red noses and huge shoes. The only thing worse than a clown is a clown who does magic tricks, which this one did.”
    Luke almost smiled. “I promise no clowns for Emma’s next party. I guess we’ll be expected to do something like this when she turns four. We’ve only ever had family parties. Well, except for the first one before — ” He stopped himself before referring to the life when he’d had a wife and Emma’d had a mother.
    “You’ve got a while to come up with a bigger, better dog and pony show. Though I suggest only dogs at first. Save the ponies till later.”
    “Maybe. After this extravaganza, she might decide she’s been cheated and want those ponies now — today.”
    “Look, Daddy!” Emma had returned and waved the metallic beribboned bag with her name spelled out in glitter. Luke squatted down and dutifully exclaimed over everything in the bag — stickers, bubbles, glitter markers, magic wand, feather boa, sunglasses. There had to be twenty dollars’ worth of stuff here.
    “Such good presents and you’re not even the birthday girl.”
    “Party favor bags,” Missy said with a smile and raised eyebrow. “A requirement for all the best birthday parties.”
    As Emma ran back to her Play-Doh, Luke took a closer look at the other children. The boys wore fancy little one-piece outfits with fire trucks and animals appliquéd on them and the girls, all except Emma, wore smocked dresses and church shoes. Emma wore the overalls and tennis shoes he’d dressed her in that morning.
    “I didn’t dress her appropriately.” The words were out of his mouth before he had time to stop them.
    “She looks adorable,” Missy said.
    “She has clothes like these,” he said defensively. His mother bought them. Had he ever bought her a garment? Where did you buy this stuff?
    “Don’t worry about it,” Missy said. “She doesn’t care and it’s ridiculous to dress these children like they’re going to meet the Queen of England when all they are going do is eat cake on a Tuesday afternoon.”
    Missy was right. It wasn’t a tragedy that Emma wasn’t dressed like the other kids, but it felt like one more thing on a long list of his shortcomings. Luke looked pointedly at Beau’s green plaid overalls with the airplane on the bib. “Yet your child is dressed like the