"Mama, daddy is going to be home soon!" five year old Eva smiled happily, dancing around the living room floor.
"I know! Are you going to show daddy your new ballet steps that you learned in class today?" Amber smiled down at her.
"Uh huh! He's gonna be so proud!"
Eva was a self professed daddy's girl and Amber couldn't blame her. Corny was a great father and their little girls adored him. Every day Eva would wait anxiously for her father to come home to show him the newest steps she had learned in ballet.
"Where's Isabelle?" Amber asked and Eva shrugged her shoulders, not in very good tune with her twin sister.
"Ok, well you wait here for daddy while I go find her, don't get into any mischief," Amber instructed, bending down to kiss her daughter's forehead before heading up the stairs.
She found her other five year old, on the floor, coloring a picture in her bedroom.
"Hi sweetie, daddy is going to be home do you want to wait downstairs with us?" she asked, kneeling down next to her.
"No," Isabelle replied sourly.
"Why not?"
"Daddy doesn't like me."
"Now why do you say that?"
"He says I'm sassy."
Amber smiled to herself. Isabelle was indeed the spunkier of the twins with more spice than sugar and she had inherited a bit of Amber's bratty attitude. It was quite a sight to watch the five year old march around with her hands on her hips when she did not get her way. She would scowl or pout, which usually worked with her daddy. Corny was a big softie when it came to his girls and he would generally give into their every whim. Isabelle had lip too and she would smart off with the best of them. Amber swore she would give Maybelle a run for her money one of these days.
She'd never forget the day when she took the girls to visit the studio to watch the show. Eva sat like a stone, entranced with the dancers who were busy getting ready and practicing their steps. Isabelle was a little more fussy and wandered around the set. She had come across Maybelle, who was talking to Corny.
"Daddy!" she said, marching over to him and throwing her little arms up into the air to be picked up.
Corny complied and scooped her up, sitting her on his hip and returned to his conversation with Maybelle after brushing his lips against her tiny cheek. Isabelle did not like this lack of attention and huffed her little chest out.
"Daddy! Pay 'tention to me!" she demanded with a little scowl on her face, surprising both adults.
"Isabelle, that's not polite. Miss Maybelle and I were having a conversation," Corny told her sternly.
"I don't care," she sulked, turning her head to size this Miss Maybelle up.
"I'm sorry, Maybelle. She's a bit of a sass," Corny told his friend kindly, flashing her a sheepish smile.
"That's alright Corny, Inez was the same way, still is and my little grandbaby is getting a mouth on her too," Maybelle laughed her eyes flashing and Isabelle decided she liked her.
"I'm gonna be like you one day," she told Maybelle seriously, sensing that older woman didn't take nothing from no one and she was going to be the same way.
"Daddy doesn't mean that it a nasty way though. He calls you his Sassy Little Belle, it's a pet name darling," Amber assured her.
"Nu uh, you're wrong, daddy hates me!" the little girl insisted.
Amber sighed and left her daughter to return to her coloring and joined Eva back downstairs to wait for Corny. The moment he set foot inside the door, Eva had her arms wrapped tightly around his legs.
"Daddy!" she squealed happily.
"Hey there my little love," he grinned, scooping her up and covering her face with a million soft kisses.
"You wanna see the new steps I learned daddy?" she asked.
"You bet I do!"
Eva performed her steps with ease and grace with Corny praising her. He glanced over at Amber, noticing a worried look on her face.
"Now what is wrong with my baby doll?" he asked, walking over to his lovely wife of seven years and kissed her softly.
"Isabelle, I think you need to go upstairs and speak with her," Amber told him gently, tugging on his bottom lip before taking Eva's hand so she could be her little helper in the kitchen.
Corny raised an eyebrow but walked up the twins' room, opening the door and saw Isabelle on the floor, sprawled out and coloring a picture.
"Hey my Sassy Little Belle," he smiled, sitting down next to her on the floor.
"Don't call me that," she told him angrily, looking up from her drawing, her blue eyes flashing.
"Why not?" he asked.
"Because it's mean," she replied.
"What shall I call my special little one then?" he asked, picking up one of her drawings which was of Eva in her ballet tutu dancing around the floor.
"Just Isabelle," she grumbled.
"What's wrong my love?" he asked.
"You don't love me," she sighed and he felt his heart jump into his throat.
"Why do you think that?" he asked, lifting her up into his lap.
"Cause I'm not a good dancer like Eva and Mama," she said simply, looking up at him with her round blue eyes.
"And you think that would make me not love you? Never! You, my darling Isabelle, are special and precious to me and nothing in the world could ever make me stop loving you," he said before pressing his lips against her forehead.
"Do you promise, daddy?" she asked, her lower lip trembling.
"I promise with all my heart. You are one of my special girls," Corny said sincerely.
The brightest smile crossed her face and she wrapped her arms around his neck, snuggling her face into his chest, catching a whiff of his cologne. Corny held her tightly, running his fingers through her thick dark tresses.
"Now why don't you go downstairs and help Mama with dinner?" he smiled down at her and she nodded her head.
He gave her a playful swat to her bottom as she took off and he let out a low breath, when he realized how much Isabelle reminded him of Amber. When their relationship began he had to assure her daily that she was his and he was never going to let her go. He didn't mind doing it; he didn't mind tell the woman he loved every day that she was the whole wide world to him. If he had to do it with Isabelle every day, then he would as well because that little girl needed to know she was one of the most precious things in the world to him. After dinner, Amber took the girls upstairs to give them a bath before both parents tucked them into bed with a story.
Amber snuggled up in her husband's arms as they lied in bed together. She ran her fingers through his still dark hair, which he would never admit was getting bits of gray in, before pressing her lips passionately against his. His grip tightened around her waist.
"I love you," he whispered into her ear.
"I love you too."
"I'm glad you're mine."
"Me too, I guess it's a good thing I fell onto my ass eight years ago," she giggled.