Chapter 42

Present

As soon as the class ended I sent Kenzie off to help pack up our materials and made a beeline for Grace. It has become our routine, so neither female blinked an eye at the occurrence. It had been several weeks since our first date and we'd gone on a few more in that time ranging everywhere from a half-hour coffee date stolen in the middle of the work day, to hot yoga class, all the way to the more traditional dinner and drinks she'd been expecting that first night. Every second I spent getting to know her was like a drug feeding me good vibes and dreamy fantasies. I was pretty sure I was becoming addicted to her, and if it weren't for the guarantee of a fix every Thursday night at class, I might have gone insane with cravings waiting for our next date.

Safe to say, I had it bad.

"I have Saturday off," she informed me when I was close enough that she could speak to me without raising her voice to be heard over the post-class chatter. "Can you get a babysitter?"

I sent her a smile, leaning casually against the table she was tidying. "Satur-day?" I asked, emphasising the 'day' part so she knew I was asking for clarification.

She nodded, eyeing me curiously. "If daytime doesn't suit, I'm free all evening as well." She knew I usually spent Saturdays with Kenzie, so she was giving me options to suit any plans we might have already made for the weekend. Probably, if I stayed quiet long enough, she'd start detailing her entire work roster for the next week so we could find some time to carve our together. I didn't need her to, though. I already had a plan in mind, and she'd given me the perfect opportunity to implement it.

"Saturday works fine," I assured her, helping to sort the jumble of bobby pins she'd just tipped onto the table between us. "But I was thinking."

Her hands froze with a bundle of pins poised over one of the labelled storage containers, eyes darting to my face with a mix of curiosity and hesitance displayed for all the world to see. "Oh?" she prompted, probably working hard to keep her tone even. Was she expecting me to break up with her or something? Had I not proven how absolutely enamoured I was with her?

"Yeah," I said. "I was wondering if you'd be interested in a family date."

I watched carefully as the hesitance in her expression deepened, curiosity giving way to suspicion as her eyes narrowed. "This isn't some gross kinky stuff that involves your parents, is it?" she asked, finally releasing the bobby pins into the container so she could fold her arms over her chest. "Because I should warn you, the last guy that tried to pull that kind of thing ended up with a face full of pepper spray and a knee to the groin."

A laugh broke forth from my chest even as I cringed at the perceived threat to my jewels. She and Steph would get along like a house on fire. "Nothing like that," I assured her easily. "I meant, instead of just the two of us, how would you feel about hanging out with both me and Kenzie?"

Her suspicion cleared, but the hesitance remained as she held my gaze. I could see the thoughts racing through her mind. It was possible I was moving too fast; it had only been a few weeks, after all. Maybe she wasn't ready for such a big step. Maybe she'd never be ready for such a step. We hadn't really spoken about the future of our relationship or if there even was one, so I didn't know her thoughts on kids beyond the fact that she enjoyed making a difference in their lives.

"No pressure," I added quickly, hoping to ease her mind. "We don't have to even call it a date. I just thought since things are going so well between us, I wouldn't mind seeing what the dynamic is like with the three of us outside of classes and recitals. I think it'd be fun; I know Kenzie is obsessed with you, and you seem to get along here. And," I hesitated the barest of moments before plunging ahead. I'd never know if I didn't bring it up. "If we continue dating we'll have to cross the bridge eventually, so I thought, why not?"

"Does she know that we're-"

I shook my head, and she left her question unfinished, letting out a soft, relieved sigh that I tried not to think too hard about. "I haven't told her," I said. "You just happened to make quite the impression at the recital."

Before either of us had a chance to say anything more on the topic, Kenzie came bounding over, the pigtails I'd at the end of class flying behind her like too gymnast ribbons. "Daddy, Daddy, look!" she exclaimed thrusting a pink envelope in my face so that there was no way I could possibly ignore her. "Emma invited me to her birthday party!"

I accepted the envelope she was waving at me as she executed a little wiggle dance but didn't open or even spare it a glance as I lade a hand on her shoulder to slow her movements. "Kenz," I said firmly. "Miss Grace and I were talking. You interrupted."

Her eyes shot wide as she glanced to Grace and then back to me. "Sorry, Daddy," she said quickly. "Sorry, Miss Grace. I gotted excited."

I smiled, that familiar zing of pride pinging through my chest at the evidence of the polite little lady my daughter was turning into. Surely this was proof that I was doing something right. All my efforts were accumulating into a capable citizen of the world.

My grin widened further when Grace accepted Kenzie's apology sincerely and used the opportunity to bring our conversation full circle when she leaned over the table closer to my little girl and asked, "How would you feel if I came to hang out with you and your Dad this weekend?"

I had to take that as an agreement to my suggestion. She worked with kids enough to know that you don't bring it up if your don't want it to happen. This was her showing me a leap of faith, and it only served to strengthen my feelings for her. If she kept this up, the damage would be irreparable.

"Really?!" Kenzie squealed, recommencing her bouncing. "Daddy, can she?"

I nodded.

"What are we gonna do?" she insisted, climbing up onto a stool so she was right in the thick of the conversation. She looked to Grace for the answer to her question, since Grace had been the one to suggest it to her, but when the woman just shrugged and pointed at me, both their heads swung toward me and I was struck by the picture they made. Kenzie's bright green eyes and hopeful expression, hair already frizzing from her activities since I'd managed to tame it just a few minutes earlier, Grace's grey gaze peering at me from under her perfectly manicured eyebrows, set in that curious half-raised position, their heads mere inches apart as though they'd been the ones caught conspiring, not me and Grace. It was an image I could definitely get used to.

"I was thinking Grace could come over for lunch," I explained. "Maybe a backyard picnic. Maybe some games?"

Kenzie clapped her hands together approvingly. "Can it be a teddy bear's picnic?" she requested. "We can ask Miss Ella to make the little teddy bear race cars for dessert. Please?"

I looked to Grace for the answer to that question. I was comfortable with just about any theme my daughter could throw at me, but I needed to not dump Grace in the deep end on this. Themed activities were a big deal for a five-year-old; they could get intense. "Do you have a teddy bear you could bring?" I asked, knowing it would be the most important factor in Kenzie's eyes.

"Not a bear," she hedged, a twinkle lighting her eye as she looked from me to Kenzie. "But I could bring Boris, my sloth teddy."

"It's settled then," I said. "so long as I can borrow one of Kenzie's teddies, we'll see you for a teddy bear's picnic at eleven on Saturday. I'll text you the address."

*o*

Saturday morning, I was woken by the bed jostling as McKenzie climbed in beside me, tucking herself under the covers and edging her ice cold feet under my hip to absorb my body heat. "It's too early, Muffin-head," I murmured, not opening my eyes as she settled her head on the pillow next to mine. If I opened my eyes it would be an admission of defeat. She would use it as a sign of weakness and convince me that I was awake, so we could get up. "My alarm hasn't gone off yet."

"I couldn't sleep any longer," she told me earnestly. "Miss Grace is coming over today, Daddy."

A warm excitement spready through me, and suddenly I could absolutely sympathise with my daughter's state of sleeplessness. There was a lot riding on today. If Kenzie and Grace didn't get along in a non-structured environment it would make our relationship difficult if we continued to date to a point where she became a regular fixture in our day to day lives rather than just a woman I spend time with in private.

Not only that, it would be devastating for Kenzie if Grace didn't live up to the person she'd decided she was in her head from their in-class interactions.

"She is," I confirmed, pushing down my own nerves as I nodded, even though I couldn't tell if Kenzie was looking at me with my eyes closed. "But not for hours. Go back to sleep."

She shuffled closer, her cold fingers wrapping around my bicep as she turned to rest her head on my shoulder. "Can I stay here?" she asked quietly as her knees curled up to press into my side. "I don't wanna miss the alarm."

"Fine," I sighed, still not daring to open my eyes as I used the hand not trapped in my daughter's hug to move her knees just enough that they weren't stabbing me. "But your bony knees need to keep to their own side."

"Oops," she said, wiggling just her lower body away so that she was lying practically diagonally across the bed, toes pointing at the far corner. "Sorry, Daddy."

"S'okay, Chicken-Pop," I murmured, craning my head to blindly press a kiss to the top of her head.

We must have both managed to get back to sleep, because when my alarm did eventually go off, I opened my eyes to find that I was sharing my pillow not with my daughter's beautiful face and unruly mess of hair, but with a foot. When I followed the attached leg to the lump under the covers on the other side of the bed, I found the top of Kenzie's head peaking out from the side of the covers. How she'd managed to do a 180-degree spin in her sleep and remain under the covers, I had no idea. It was just one of life's great mysteries.

As I watched, the covers shifted and her hands appeared, scrubbing over her face, her body tensing in a very cat-like stretch that inched her toes closer to my face. When she relaxed, her arms emerged, dragging down the duvet enough that she could peer over at me. "Now is it time to get up?" she asked, nudging my cheek with her big toe.

I grabbed her foot, giving it a light nibble which resulted in peals of early morning giggles and me almost receiving a kick to the nose as she jerked the foot out of my grasp. Why didn't parents get hazard pay for everything we were put through? I mean, the first few years are literally just cleaning up biohazards and submitting to sleep deprivation, and the amount of times I'd hurt myself while either preventing Kenzie from getting hurt, or getting involved in one of her imagination fuelled games was almost as high as my on-the-job injury count from the last five years. Sure, this time it was my own stupid fault, but that's not to say that receiving a foot to the face wasn't a risk I flirted with every time I let Kenzie crawl into bed with me.

"Now it's time to get up," I confirmed, tossing back the covers so that they landed on top of her, effectively burying her. "Bathroom break, make your bed and we'll look at our to do list over breakfast."

Swinging my legs off the bed, I stood and stretched, waiting until Kenzie had dug herself out of the duvet before starting toward the ensuite bathroom. When I reached the door and she still hadn't raced off to complete the morning routine, I paused, turning slowly back to face her.

She was grinning.

"Whaaaaat?" I was almost afraid to ask given just how gleeful her expression was, but I'd learned from experience that not asking could lead to some nasty surprises later on.

"I already made my bed earlier," she announced. She was so proud of herself for thinking ahead to what she knew would be her first job of the day. And I had to admit I was proud of her, too. I loved watching Kenzie come into her own. But her expression was far too smug for my liking. Now I knew how my parents must have felt every time I managed to exploit the loopholes I'd found in the rules they'd set for me growing up.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "You can help with my bed, then," I proclaimed, gesturing to what was looking very much like a nest she was sat in the middle of. "You helped make the mess, you can help me fix it. Now go on. Pitstop, and meet me back here."

Sending me a salute, Kenzie rolled backwards off the bed, landing deftly on her feel and skipping out of the room, leaving me shaking my head at the child I was raising.

We had a busy morning tidying the mess we'd let build up during the week and preparing for Grace's visit by ducking out to the grocery store and dropping by the Rangeman building to pick up the teddy bear race cars Kenzie had requested so sweetly. By the time eleven o'clock rolled around, the house was spick and span, the laundry was done and we'd short listed some things we might like to do with Grace when she got here to combat the inevitable overwhelming moment when faced with too many possibilities. I was at the kitchen bench assembling sandwiches while Kenzie tucked her favourite picnic plates and cups into the basket we'd borrowed from Ella when the doorbell rang.

Kenzie eagerly hit the button on the doorbell cam viewing panel beside the kitchen door, gesturing excitedly when Grace was revealed on the screen. "It's Miss Grace!" she informed me so loudly that Grace could probably here from outside. "Can I let her in?"

I nodded, slicing the final sandwich into quarters and tucking it into the container with the rest. Kenzie had disappeared from view before I'd even set the knife down, and I cringed as she unlocked the front door and threw it wide, letting it bang against the wall in that careless way she had when she was overexcited.

"Miss Grace! You're here!" she exclaimed, voice rising to the kind of pitch that could shatter glass if she ever learned to hone it just right.

Wiping my hands on a tea towel, I said a quick prayer that a) Kenzie would settle and return to a more ear-friendly tone, and b) today would work out the way I hoped it would, before making my way into the hall. Kenzie was babbling away with Grace still trapped on the porch. Grace, thankfully, had a bemused expression as she tried to keep up with the sheer volume of words spilling from my daughter's lips. "Kenz, why don't you let Miss Grace inside?" I suggested. "You have plenty of time to talk her ear off; you don't have to fit it all in the first minute."

"Oops," she uttered quietly, grinning from ear to ear as she opened the screen door and stood to the side so that Grace could finally enter. "Did you bring Boris?" she asked.

Grace smiled a greeting at me over Kenzie's head as she toed off her shoes to leave by the door and delved a hand into the tote slung over her shoulder. "Right here," she assured Kenzie, arranging the soft toy so that it's long, floppy arms hung over the side of the back and it looked like it had gotten tired trying to climb out. "And," she added, reaching in again and pulling out something else. "Your dad told me how much you like reading, so I brought a book to share, too."

She handed the book to Kenzie who's smile got even wider (if that was even possible at this point), her eyes alight as she took in the cover art and ran a finger over the title, lips moving as she sounded it out. Finally, she turned it so that I could see. "Look, Daddy," she said. "There's a sloth on the front that looks just like Boris!" and then she pointed to the words she'd just practiced to herself. "Slow-ly, slow-ly said the-" She glanced up when her finger reached the last word. "Does that say sloth?"

"Yes it does," I confirmed, a new rush of pride filling my chest. "Great deductive reasoning."

"I can't wait to read about Boris!" Kenzie told Grace, handing the book back. "Does Boris like sandwiches? Teddy only eats sweet things, like chocolate and cake, but Tootsie only eats vegetables. Tootsie is my bunny, but I'm letting Daddy borrow her for the picnic because he doesn't have any Teddies of his own. Miss Ella makes clothes for my toys so that we can match, so Teddy is wearing the same as me. I don't have any teddy clothes that match Daddy's clothes, though, so Tootsie is wearing a-"

"Take a breath, Muffin-head," I instructed, dropping a hand onto her shoulder and using it to steer her a little further down the hall as I became acutely aware of the fact that we'd only made about three feet of progress since the last time I'd interrupted her steady stream of words. "We have all day," I reminded her.

I sent Grace a brief, apologetic glance, but she didn't seem put off. She already knew that Kenzie could be a chatterbox from class, but this was more than even I was used to from my little girl. It was like she'd saved up every little thing she'd ever wanted to tell Grace but never got the chance and now that she had the opportunity her mouth was stuck in overdrive trying to get it all out. I hoped my theory was correct, and that it would die down once she'd gotten through the bulk of her conversation reserves, because if it wasn't, I might just have unleashed a monster on my own life and would never again know peace and quiet.

Grace, for what it was worth, seemed to be taking it all in her stride. When Kenzie stopped just a few feet away and looked back to her to make sure she was following, Grace pulled Boris the Sloth out of her bag and held it out toward Kenzie. "Can you take Boris and introduce him to Teddy and Tootsie?" she requested. "You'll need to make sure you speak slowly, though, he get's nervous and confused when things are too fast."

Kenzie let out a squeal of excitement and instantly hugged the sloth to her chest. "Come on, Boris," she said at a more sedate pace. "I think you'll like your new friends." And she skipped off down the hall to her bedroom where Teddy and Tootsie were waiting for their big debut.

I let out a sigh, rubbing a hand over the back of my neck and meeting Grace's steady, but amused gaze. "In case you haven't guessed," I said solemnly. "Kenzie's really excited that you're here."

"Is that what that was?" she asked in mock surprise as she took a step toward me. "I had no idea." She paused only when we were standing toe to toe, glancing over my shoulder in the direction that Kenzie had gone. "How much time did I buy us?"

Tugging on one of the short braids she'd styled into her hair, I lowered my head to press a quick taster kiss to her lips before releasing her just as quickly. "About five minutes," I approximated. "But we should probably get out of the hallway if you want any more of this." I gestured to my face, being sure to arrange it into my patented smoulder. "That way we can utilise nature's warning system."

"Nature's warning system?" she questioned, following along behind me as I took her hand and lead her into the kitchen, closing the door and removing the tote bag from her shoulder before dragging her closer to me by the waist.

"Running footsteps," I explained, a hair's breadth from her lips. "Every parent learns to listen out for running footsteps as a clear indicator that they're about to be ambushed by their offspring."

And with that fact established, I wasted no more time, allowing myself to descend into a much more passionate greeting than I'd afforded out in the hall, but ready to break it off the second I heard Kenzie's approach. When several minutes had passed and we weren't interrupted, I decided it was probably best to give it a rest anyway before we got carried away. Having never brought a woman home before, and especially not with Kenzie in the house, I was unused to tempering my actions in case she made a sudden appearance. The skills I'd learned in the army leant themselves well to all sorts of situations, but I wasn't sure how useful they'd be in hiding the fact that Grace and I were lip-locked if we were sprung right that second.

I took a moment to get my breathing under control, tucking one of her sexy little tendrils of hair behind her ear, drinking in her appearance greedily. "Hi," I said.

She let out a breathy chuckle, smoothing out the wrinkles in her shirt where I'd gripped her waist in my desperation to keep her close. "Hi," she replied, grinning adorably beneath a flushed cheeks and shining eyes. I could get used to that expression.

"Welcome to my humble abode."