Maya Hart-Friar was enjoying the end of a peaceful day. She had a great day in the studio, full of new found inspiration, she came home and had a great dinner with her loving husband and daughter before heading to take a shower and curl up in bed with a good movie. She had just come out of the shower and was climbing into her nice crisp sheets while rubbing the remnants of her hand lotion away. Once her hands were lotion free she picked up the remote and started scrolling. Finally, after a few minutes the movie was locked and loaded, but just as the opening credits began…

"Fine!" Lucas hollered behind him as he came bursting through the door.

"Fine!" Maya heard their thirteen-year-old daughter Roxie scream back from down the hall.

"FINE!" Lucas yelled back once again before slamming the bedroom door in a huff. Maya pressed pause as she rolled her eyes and put down the remote. She knew all too well that her peaceful movie would have to wait until she calmed her husband down.

"What did you do?" She asked.

"Me? Why me?"

"It's always the guys fault. So you gonna tell me or can I go back to my movie?" Maya replied. Lucas said nothing as he marched over to the bed and collapsed into it, leaning his head against the headboard.

"I don't know what that … thing is that lives in Roxie's room is, but it's certainly not my little girl."

"Yes it is, she's just a teenager now. Life is very confusing at her age, we should know."

"I knew when she turned thirteen it was all downhill from there. Didn't I say that?"

"Yes you did … every five minutes. Now can you please tell me what this is all about. What did she do to get you so … Texas?"

"Oh you wanna know what she did? You wanna know what your daughter did?" Lucas said as he stood up getting all worked up again.

"How come now she's my daughter?"

"Because she was breaking the rules. That's all you."

"Yeah." Maya said with a semi-proud grin on her face.

"Your daughter comes up to me in the kitchen and says 'Can I help you put away the dishes Daddy?'. The minute she called me 'Daddy' I knew something was up. Then she tells me 'Oh by the way this came in the mail for you.' hands me a letter. Apparently she 'opened it by mistake'."

"I taught her that."

"Yeah well did you also teach her to get caught kissing a boy in the janitor's closet at school. Because that's what she was doing."

"Wait, how is that breaking the rules?"

"Because she was cutting class to do it."

"What?" Maya asked. She had known about the kissing, just not the cutting. Not that she would ever tell Lucas that. Or of the fact she was proud of her daughter for being braver than she or her husband ever were at that age.

"Yeah. So then I calmly told her-"

"Calmly?"

"Okay maybe not so calmly told her that she could never see that boy again and if she did… I'd lasso her to her bed and have her home schooled."

"Huck, you didn't."

"I did." Lucas said sitting back down on the bed suddenly realizing that he might have overreacted. "Maya what are we gonna do?" Lucas said looking up at her with sad eyes. Maya realized that maybe it wasn't the cutting class that was bothering him as much as the fact that their little girl wasn't so little anymore. That she was growing up.

"Hate to be the one to tell you this Ranger Rick but kids grow up. And we as parents don't have to be okay with it, but we do have to let it happen and just be there to guide our little kidiots."

"Kidiots?"

"Matthews' word, not mine."

"I know but why the plural? I mean we only have one…" But Lucas knew what she meant the second he saw Maya's hand resting on her stomach.

"Maya?"

"You ready for round two 'Daddy'?" She replied with a nervous but excited smile.

Suddenly all of Lucas' anger washed away as he pulled his wife in for a hug and a peck on the lips. A peck turned into more but just as things were getting interesting Lucas jumped up from the bed and headed towards the door.

"Huck where are you going? I was just starting to relax." Maya asked suggestively.

"To the kitchen," he replied.

"For whipped cream and strawberries?"

"No for those potato chips in the cabinet. I remember hearing once that if you eat salty things when you're pregnant it'll be a boy. I am not going through this again." He said pointing at their daughter's room before running off to the kitchen.

As Maya chuckled and rolled her eyes, she looked down at her now flat stomach.

"Kid, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. Your Dad's a dork, but I promise you he already loves you a lot. And I do too."

THE END