All familiar characters belong to Janet. Mistakes are solely mine.
"Good morning, Olivia," I said to my baby, standing in the doorway of her room and watching her get ready to slide out of her bed.
I got a head start on greeting her. Feeling Mado jump up onto our big bed and curl up in the space between my and Steph's pillows, means our cat just lost her nighttime sleeping spot, which is where Gunny and Mo's bodies touch when they both curl up beside Olivia's bed for the night.
Our cat looking for higher ground is a signal that the boys are awake and on the move. Mado also serves as a warning that Olivia will be right behind them. I'd gotten out of bed, put on the pair of sweats I keep beside it, and headed to our daughter's room.
"Daddy isses," she said, skipping her usual bolting out of bed in favor of just raising her arms so I know to come get her.
"I promise to give you all the 'Daddy kisses' you want for as long as you'll accept them. Your sister is too grown up now to fully appreciate them," I informed her, before burying my face in her neck to inhale what 'Love' smells like to me.
I can't resist a warm and pajama-clad Olive. Sleepy and smiling are a deadly combination when it comes to her … and her mother if I'm being completely honest.
"I seep," my baby told me.
"You did. You and Mama seem to enjoy your sleep. Did you have any dreams … what you did while your eyes were sleeping?"
"I go spashed," she said around a yawn and double-arm stretch towards the ceiling.
"In the bathtub or 'big water' like the ocean?"
"Big wawa."
Her arms went from a stretch into a hug. She tried to encircle my shoulders, but when her hands didn't come close to meeting behind me, she settled for just face-planting into my shoulder and allowing me to hug her.
"We'll have to make swimming in the ocean happen next summer. Seeing how we're well into Fall, you should have been dreaming about Snowmen, not sandy beaches."
"Brrrrr," she said without needing Steph to coach her.
"Snow is cold, but I have no doubt you, Mo, and Gunny, will be outside playing in it anyway."
I watched another yawn happen, followed by a fist-to-eye rub that threatened to melt everything inside of me. Stephanie first stilled and then heated my body, while our daughter has twisted every part of it up and around her little finger.
"We goed paid," she repeated, but not at an energy level I was concerned about.
It's clear that I, the boys, and then Steph have a solid twenty minutes before Olivia is fully awake and ready to play as she suggested. But despite the lazy start to the day, I did have to put my Daddy/Daughter time on hold as the cell I stupidly pocketed began buzzing with a call. I sat down in my preferred chair with Olive half-sitting on/half-lounging against me so she can continue to work herself awake. Only then did I answer.
"What?" I said, bypassing a greeting.
"Mornin' to you too," Tank said.
"My daughter and I were in the middle of a conversation and you're interrupting it. You expect me to be happy to hear your voice?"
"Steph asleep?"
"Yes."
"Don't punch me for saying this, but you're going to have to wake her up."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because she'll punch you if you drop Olive off with me without telling her you're needed and can't babysit."
"It's not 'babysitting' if she's my daughter. It's just called being a parent. Keep playing your cards right with Mabyn and you may get to experience the difference someday."
"It's too early in the morning for the shit," he whined.
"I disagree. If you tell me the problem in five words or less, I'll let you say hello to your Goddaughter. You have a lot of groveling ahead of you to restore your can do no wrong status in her eyes. Clearly dinner didn't do it. Maybe you should go with bribery anf spend your lunch break 'Googling' what flowers are bigger than sunflowers."
"Asshole," he said, not handling the truth well and changing the subject. "Manden wants to talk."
"About?"
"Don't know. But he wants you, no substitutes."
"Just what I need. Who's after him now … or who wants a meeting with me and is using him to get it?"
"Don't know that either, but there've been rumblings that Graffer is back in Jersey."
"He's not dead yet?" I said, voicing my thoughts.
"Doesn't sound like it."
"Shame."
"You gonna talk to Manden?" Tank asked.
"I could make him talk from here, but it's been a while since I've threatened or intimidated someone in person. Get word to him that I'll meet him at the warehouse in thirty minutes. Make it clear that if he wastes the time I could be spending with my family by not showing up, or bothering me with something of no interest to me or my company, he will pay for it."
"I'll handle it. Take someone with you. If he was familiar with Manden, I'd suggest One Shot as backup. I'm sick of looking at his stupid grin. Gettin' laid doesn't look good on him."
"Maybe he's just happy he got back something good in his life that he thought he already blew."
"Yeah, that's the change. Do I get to speak to my goddaughter now? Or do I have to show up at Steph's door once you're gone?"
"For someone who spent most of his life trying to avoid speaking to anyone unless necessary, you're irritatingly clingy when it comes to my daughter."
"You want me to tell your wife that you Olive-blocked me?"
I shrugged like he was standing in front of us. "I'll tell her myself. She'll assume I had a good reason. Hold on, Olivia is taking the decision out of my hands by trying to take my cell. I'll put you on speaker. Olivia, would you like to say 'good morning' to GodTank?"
"She'll do a much better job of it than her Daddy," he bitched.
"Hida," Olive told him.
"Hey, little girl. Are you misbehavin' for your Daddy? I hope so."
"We're enjoying a morning meeting before waking her Mama up. Sucks to be you missing out on the same."
"How do you know I'm not home receiving a similar treatment?" He asked.
"Because I get texts telling me when my people arrive so I know the fifth floor will be kept in line. Unless you've taken to cuddling Lester … you're going without at the moment. I have no doubt Steph would bolt upright in bed if she sensed a Merry Man girlfriend on the premises. We need to test that out sometime soon. You should show Mabyn around so the men will know who else to look out for."
I can tell he wanted to argue two points, but couldn't. Stephanie's Spidey Sense has become the stuff of legends now. And as much as he wants to protect Mabyn from this side of his life, I know from experience that it will become impossible to keep parts of himself separate if they're in it for the long haul.
"We'd da pay," Olivia said to us.
"We'd like to, but GodTank has to stay downstairs and babysit your Uncles, and Daddy needs to go out for a few minutes. Once Mama's up, she's going to be really happy to play with you. And Gunny and Mo will need to go outside for a walk too."
"Good luck with that," Tank murmured.
"With Olive as a motivator, Steph's less cranky about waking up."
"Campy," she repeated.
"That's right," I told her, kissing the one flat spot in her otherwise wild head of hair. "Mama's campy more than cranky these days."
"Good thing she's still asleep and didn't hear you say that," Tank noted.
"Say goodbye to GodTank, Olive. He needs to go."
"Bye Bye. Goed to seep?"
"No," I corrected. "Not sleep, work … playing with phones and stuff like you do when you help Daddy at the big desk. GodTank is pretending to be 'The Boss' today."
"You should be nicer to someone bailing your as … butt … out again," he told me.
"Why?"
"Because I could call in sick and you'll have to leave seven or trust Santos to run the show."
"I leave the apartment all the time, I just choose not to put my family in additional danger when there are men waiting to prove to me what they can do."
A slow whistle of disbelief filled Olivia's room. "Way to spin the situation in your favor," he told me.
"And that's why I'll always be the Boss. I'll fill you in on what Manden says and wants. I'm going to go get Steph up now."
"As Olivia's Godfather, I'll go ahead and pray for you."
"If she weren't sitting on my lap, listening to everything we say, this call would be ending differently."
"I know. That's why I'm saying whatever I want to like old times. Talk to you in a bit, Olive Pit."
Clearly Mabyn is already influencing him, and not in a way I approve of if this rhyming shit becomes a habit.
"Do you want to blow GodTank a kiss goodbye?" I asked, knowing how much the visual would mean to him. "He missed not getting one last night."
Tank couldn't see her move, but he heard that she did. Olivia smacked a kiss into her palm and sent it towards his voice.
"Thank you," he said. "I'll be up to see you as soon as I get a break down here."
"Unless Steph heads down to five with the mutts and sees you first," I teased.
"Don't tell her I said this, but I don't mind her ambushes."
"It'll stay between the three of us."
"Good. Be careful."
"Like I'd be anything else," I told him before disconnecting.
"Looks like we need to wake Mama up," I told her. "Do you need to potty first?"
"Peedee potty."
"That's right. Do you need to 'peedee'?"
She shook her head, the ends of her upended hair brushing my face. "We wakey."
"Alright. Mado is already in our room, so I guess it's just wrangling Gunny and Mo and the four of us sneaking in there together."
"We do isses."
"We will. I know for a fact that Mama likes being kissed awake."
I stood, taking her cuddly little body with me. In the hall, I gestured 'the boys' to move behind us. If our dogs had their way, they'd wake Stephanie up with their dog breath and then sit half on top of her and hit her with double 'puppy eyes', hoping they can take possession of the bed the second she needs to be out of it.
I could let her sleep and allow Tank and Ella to watch Olivia, but I don't have a death wish despite what most people think. I held my index finger up to my lips when we stepped over the threshold into the bedroom, and Olivia mirrored my movement.
I walked us over to Steph's side of the bed and had to pause … taking in how beautiful and peaceful she looks. Her nightmares are few and far between these days. I thought having me at her disposal day and night was what had allowed her to rest, but I believe Olivia is the real one behind it. Steph loves and supports me, but Olivia has given her a purpose that I couldn't. If our daughter is safe and happy, my wife can relax and not dwell so much on the evil she herself had been exposed to.
Which is what keeps me up at night. If something happened to Olive, not only would I not have my baby, the heart of our home, I would lose my wife. Given how much I love my three girls, that thought alone has caused more than a few nightmares for me. But having the family I do is worth the fear I struggle with over the thought of losing them.
I adjusted my hold on my daughter and I leaned us both towards the bed, each zeroing in on a section of Steph's face to kiss. I went straight for her lips and Olivia planted an open-mouth kiss on her cheek.
"Hmmm, good morning to me. I get a double wake-up again," My wife murmured, smiling with her eyes still closed.
I let Olive go as Mo and Gunny jumped up on the side of the big bed that I'd vacated earlier, careful not to disturb our cat. Mado is pretty mellow, but she's big on personal space and isn't afraid to enforce hers with swipe of her paw. I know it's just for show since she keeps her claws retracted whenever she does it.
Our daughter crawled over Stephanie's body to reach the middle of the bed, currently the only unoccupied spot, only to climb back onto her Mama again. Steph's arms wrapped around her as I sat on the edge of our bed to tell her something she's not going to like. We were partners in the professional sense before I'd managed to get her to admit that there's a lot more between us. And although she understands that we need to work separately for Olivia's sake … she doesn't like not being able to personally watch my back in the field.
"Tank called," I began. "One of Rangeman's most reliable snitches wants a word with me."
That was the kill shot to her happy morning.
"Why?"
"We don't know," I told her, reaching over our baby to cup my wife's face in my hand amd rub the worried frown off her lips.
Being the woman she is, she purposely relaxed her body so Olivia wouldn't sense her nerves. "I don't like this."
"I know, Babe, but Manden has never been, and will never be, a threat to me."
"You're still taking someone with you though, right?"
"Yes. Tank is voting for Atlas just so he can get a break from the reunion glow, but I'm going with Brown."
She relaxed a little more. She loves all of our men, but my core team being involved will always have her breathing slightly easier. Tank, Brown, Santos, and I have gotten each other through things that would have killed anyone else.
"Atlas is noticeably-happier now that he and Amari have reunited," she said, likely to distract herself from what could happen to me. "Tank's going to have to get used to it now that she's choosing to move to Jersey to be closer to Atlas. Though Tank's one to talk about goofy grins. Whenever I say Mabyn's name, his expression and thoughts immediately head somewhere else."
"Don't tell him that. Tank believes his feelings are being kept undercover. I would have given him or Ella time with Olivia so you could sleep, but I didn't want to risk your reaction."
"Smart man. I trust Tank and Ella, but if you had left for a questionable meeting without telling me …"
"I know, Steph. That's why our daughter and I are here. I'm going to go get dressed …"
"And I'll get up and put the coffee on. Olive, I, and the boys can have breakfast after. Please be careful, do not get hurt, and get back here as soon as you freakin' can."
"That was my plan."
"You know I'll always worry about the people who mean the most to me," she whispered. "You haven't lost your spot at the top of that list, so promise me you won't take any chances?"
"I promise I'll do my job and nothing more."
I leaned forward and kissed her again, and then the three of us started moving. Steph and Olivia got out of bed while I grabbed a clean uniform to put on. We met in the kitchen five minutes later. Steph looked too-sexy in my T-shirt, Olivia was on her hip still holding the now-empty coffee scoop, and I was reminded of how dramatically my mission has changed since they knocked my life out of its default setting.
I built my company from the ground up, knowing we were needed in the communities we chose. But my duty is now dedicated to these two women and the one growing up too fast and too far away in Miami.