All familiar characters belong to Janet.

"Ouch, Olive-Girl. Give a guy some time to prepare for an air assault, would ya?" Stephanie and I heard Bobby say.

"Guess they aren't as good as we are at catching a ball she launches at us," my wife pointed out, watching my cell's screen where feed from one of our suite's security camera is live streaming.

The hotel may not think additional safety precautions are needed, but I take no chances with my family.

Cal's voice came in next. "Can you laugh a little louder, Olive? You know as well as we do that your Daddy's wired for sound. He wouldn't stick with just a visual on the place."

"I hire intelligent men," I admitted to my wife.

"And loving ones," she added, as we saw Bobby pick Olivia up and let her imitate a starfish above him, before bringing her even with his face so he could kiss her cheek. "I know that look. Olive's up to something."

"She's a baby, Babe. And she isn't even crawling ..."

"Don't knock the butt-shuffle. She can move faster than me in heels when she wants to do or get something. I may not be an expert on everything, but I do know my baby. Look."

Brown had put our daughter down, and she hauled diaper to get to her ball again.

"Incoming ..." Cal warned, as the beach ball filled the screen, blocking them completely out of it.

We heard our daughter laugh with a purpose and I could picture her giving us a thumbs up.

"That's what your Mama told you to do before she left, isn't it?" Bobby asked.

"You expecting her to answer?" Cal asked him.

"Hell, given her parents, I'm expecting her to be barking out orders any day now."

"Baw ... baw," our daughter added to the conversation.

"See, she's telling you to get her ball for her. Hold up, she decided to get it herself since you're too slow."

There were a few beats of silence as we all saw her scoot towards her ball ... and then past it.

"Shit," Cal let slip. "She's making a break for it."

"God help us," Brown said to the suite.

"They're saying prayers only ten minutes into their Olive-date, so they're obviously in good hands," Steph said to me. "Our baby is taking the best care of them. I think I can relax now."

"As a parent, relaxing isn't ever an option."

"I'm going to try though. I don't want Olive to think I'm anal like my mother ... telling her to 'behave' when really my mom meant don't make any noise or mess anything up. I'm never going to tell our daughter that she can't do something she's interested in because of what people might say about it, or say she can't love someone that's the opposite of her but perfect for her."

"With a building full of Uncles like those two," I said, nodding towards the cell she's still holding, "whoever she hangs around will have to get an all-clear from them ... "

"You say that like we won't have already run background checks on everyone five generations back."

"You can never be too careful."

"Not with Julie and our baby."

"Or you. What I was getting at is ... you and your mother could not be any more different. You wouldn't have me or Olivia if you thought anything at all like her."

Though I was driving, she reached across the console to cover my mouth. "I get your point, but I can't imagine ever being without you or Olivia. And I would never use you or her even to thumb my nose at the Burg or my mother."

She released me, but not before I pressed a kiss to her skin. Although I knew she was terrified when she realized she was pregnant, I never once doubted that she wanted me, Olive, or the life we have now, but I still love hearing her defend and appreciate us with an unmistakable pride surrounding her voice.