Arianna knew that her family was bigger than most. Most of her friends had a mommy and a daddy and maybe a couple of grandparents but she had loads more. She had six Grandmas! Her friend Emma from school hadn't believed her when she'd told her and so she counted them all out for her. There was Grandma Sami who was Daddy's Mom, Grandma Carola, who she didn't see that often but talked to a lot on the phone, Grandma Kate, Grandma Marlena, Grandma Caroline and Grandma Adrianne who she knew wasn't really her Grandma but that's what she called her. Emma's eyes had been big as saucers when she'd finished. "Wow," she breathed, "you're so lucky. My Grandma Tess is my favourite person ever. Who's yours?" Arianna thought it over for a minute and then shrugged. ""Grandma Sami is funny and she always brings me ice cream when she comes to visit even though Daddy gives out to her."
Arianna's most favourite person in the world though was her Daddy. And although Mommy was her second favourite she knew that she shouldn't probably tell her that. Daddy and Mommy didn't live in the same house so from Monday to Wednesday she lived with Mommy and then she went to live with Daddy until Friday and they shared the weekends. Daddy had helped her make a chart for her room so she knew when she was going to be at Mommy's and when she was going to be at Daddy's. Arianna thought it was brilliant; she had two houses and two rooms. Her favourite colours were blue and purple so her room at Mommy's was painted blue and her room at Daddy's was painted purple.
Her next favourite person after Daddy and Mommy was Sonny.
Sonny was Daddy's boyfriend and he lived at Daddy's house. When she was very little they'd sat her down to explain that sometimes boys liked boys, like Daddy and Sonny, and sometimes boys liked girls, like her Mommy and Nick, and that either was fine. She wasn't sure why Daddy and Sonny were wearing their very serious conversation faces when they were just telling her something she already knew but she'd nodded and smiled at them and when they'd gone for ice-cream later Daddy had let her have two scoops, which he normally never did.
Sonny worked in a shop where people sat around and drank lots of coffee. She wasn't allowed drink coffee – her Daddy said she was too young – but sometimes Daddy would let her have a hot chocolate. Sonny made the best hot chocolates ever. He always put in extra marshmallows for her and he would draw a heart on the top of the mug with chocolate sprinkles.
Emma asked Arianna one day why her Mommy and Daddy lived in separate houses. Arianna had never thought about it and when she asked Daddy that evening he had gotten the serious conversation look again on his face. He chewed his lip which she knew meant that he was trying to figure out what he was going to say to her and so she decided to help him out. "Is it because you love Sonny and not Mommy?"
Daddy had smiled at her and pulled her into his lap, tucking her face underneath his chin. "I love your Mom very much," he said, "but it's different to how I love Sonny."
She pulled back to look up at him. "You love Sonny like Mommy loves Nick," she stated and he smiled again.
"That's right baby. But you know who I love most of all?" Daddy's eyes twinkled at her and she knew what he was going to say next but she shook her head because one of her favourite things ever was seeing her Daddy smile.
"You!" he bounced her on his lap tickling her and she squealed with laughter. "Now, upstairs and wash your hands before dinner."
When she came back down five minutes later Daddy was talking to Sonny in the kitchen.
"Will," Sonny called Daddy that all the time, "stop stressing, you handled it fine". Arianna thought they might be talking about her and she stopped just outside the kitchen door. She could see Daddy leaning on the counter rubbing his hands over his eyes.
"I never know if I'm explaining things properly." Daddy said and she saw Sonny come to stand against the other side of the counter. He was smiling at Daddy but Daddy couldn't see because he still had his hands over his face.
"Hey," Sonny said, taking Daddy's hands and joining their fingers together and Daddy started smiling at him. Sonny didn't say anything else and he and Daddy just looked at each other quietly. Arianna had seen them do this enough to know that they could stay like that for a very long time. She didn't know how they didn't get bored of looking at each other sometimes.
"I'm hungry," she announced as she wandered into the kitchen and Sonny turned away from Daddy to pick her up and sit her up on the counter.
"Are you now? And what would Madam like for her dinner?" he said in a funny voice as he did a half bow in front of her.
Arianna giggled at him. "Pizza!" she said and Sonny frowned at her.
"Hmmm. How about pasta instead?"
Arianna scrunched up her nose pretending to think about it before nodding her head at Sonny. "Okay, Madam is happy with pasta."
"Phew," Sonny reached out to tweak her nose, making her giggle again. "And would Madam like to help me set the table?"
Arianna nodded, reaching out her arms so Sonny could lift her back down from the counter. He handed her the knives and forks and she put them out on the table like Daddy had taught her, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she tried to remember what side the fork went on. She looked up at Sonny to check if she was right and he grinned at her.
"Look Daddy, I did it right all by myself. Sonny didn't have to help me once," Daddy came to stand beside her, checking over the table.
"That's my baby girl," he smiled ruffling her hair and she squirmed out from underneath him. "I'm almost six, Daddy," Arianna said sternly, "I'm not a baby anymore".
"You'll always be my baby girl," Daddy said with a grin, "even when you're all grown up."
Arianna frowned at him. "Does that mean you're still Grandma Sami's baby boy?" she asked and Sonny gave a burst of laughter. "He sure is," he said as he spooned the pasta into bowls and Arianna turned to grin at him. When she glanced back at Daddy he was sticking his tongue out at Sonny.
"It's rude to stick out your tongue," she said promptly repeating Daddy's words to her last week back to him and earning another snort of laughter from Sonny.
"You're right, it is," Daddy said, bending down to lift her up onto the seat as Sonny placed a bowl of pasta in front of her and Daddy sat in the chair beside her. "And I shouldn't have done it but Sonny was being a little bit mean, laughing at me."
"So I can do it if someone is being mean to me?" Arianna asked and she saw Daddy bite his lip which meant that he was trying not to smile. "No, it's not a nice thing to do."
"You should say sorry to Sonny then," Arianna suggested. That was what Daddy had told her she had to do when she wouldn't share her colouring book with Laura Tanner at school. Even though Laura Tanner had her own colouring book but she still went crying to Ms. Hughes and then Ms. Hughes had told Daddy when he'd collected her. He had used his quiet voice which meant that he was angry with her and she had to say sorry to Laura.
"Yes Will, you should say sorry to me," Sonny was grinning at Daddy as he sat down.
Daddy looked like he wanted to stick his tongue out at Sonny again but instead he shook his head and smiled, reaching across the table to take Sonny's hand.
"Sonny I am so sorry for sticking my tongue out at you. It was unforgivably rude and I will never do it again."
"Now Sonny you have to say that you accept his pology" Arianna instructed.
"It's 'apology' baby, not 'pology'," Daddy said to her and she mouthed the word to herself.
"Will, I sincerely accept your apology," Sonny said and Arianna rolled her eyes as he lifted Daddy's hand to kiss his fingers.
"Your food will go cold if you start staring at each other," she warned, recognising the signs.
Sonny tweaked her nose again as Daddy laughed and she grinned at them as she lifted some pasta onto her spoon, her first and third most favourite people in the world.