A/N Happy NFL Sunday! And Happy November (How is it November already? Lord). I hope you all had wonderful Halloween's full of treats instead of tricks! I got a few treats this weekend, from this awesome fandom, and it inspired me to post this outtake :)

I must thank you for voting this story #1 Completed Fic of September at Twi Fanfiction Recs! I've never been #1 there, so that was exciting! I also got quite a few noms in the Fandom awards, for myself, this story, Sideline, First, Poison, and Taste! Three nominations for Taste of Innocence! That meant a lot to me as I still hold that story close to my heart (right up there with this one) and getting love for the vamp stories is always exciting. So thank you! I'm giving you a chapter to thank you for all that support you still give me years later.

I'm definitely enjoying having some writing downtime, but things are gelling in my head while I relax and do outtakes. I'll be back to writing new stuff soon, but meanwhile I'm writing these guys when inspiration strikes. I've had lots of requests and several will make the cut. I know many of you want to get to know the boys a bit better, and the next outtake will give us a little more of baby Ethan. I'm still learning those two myself, so it'll take a little time. But I have at least 4 or so more to write, that I know.

This outtake is full of the little things that I didn't think I could write a whole chapter on, so I gave five snippets of a thousand or so words. These are some of the significant firsts in Dani's little world, through her daddy's eyes. Rights of passage stuff. I hope you have fun with it. Know that I love you, am grateful for you, and miss you all bunches. I'll be back soon! I hope things are awesome for all of you.

GB Outtake The Firsts

"Okay, Dani's fed and sound asleep." Reed Girl came back into our room, talking quietly even though Dani was in her own bedroom. I totally got it, though. We were all about whispering when the baby was sleeping. Waking her up by accident was not fun.

"Good." I smirked at my wife, patting the bed next to me. I'd bribed Rainbow with some treats to get her out of the room when I heard Reed Girl putting Dani down.

She tilted her head and took me in, in all my now naked glory. "Someone's in a good mood."

"Of course I am. Our baby girl is clearly the smartest, most gorgeous, sweetest child on the planet, content in her bed while her mother, my sexy wife, finally has a few free minutes to let me take care of her."

Reed Girl grinned as she walked around the bed to my side to stand in front of me. "Really? You're going to take care of me? Because it looks an awful lot like you're ready for me to take care of you." She reached out and stroked my very hard, and yes, very ready cock.

I slipped my hands up under her T-shirt, sliding it up and off her body. "I was thinking maybe we'd take care of each other."

"I could get behind that."

That was all the go-ahead I needed. We'd been given the okay to resume sexual activity three weeks ago, and I'd stupidly thought we'd go back to the way we were pre-baby. Yeah, I was a moron. Reed Girl was tired-hell, so was I. Most nights we crashed early as hell because we knew we'd be back up every couple of hours. Our houseful of people had finally diminished to us and the nanny, who didn't do night duty yet. We planned on switching off once Dani was on the bottle. Soon. Thank fuck.

I pulled Reed Girl's underwear off, moving my hands back up her legs and sliding my thumb against her clit. I smiled as she let out a little moan and thrust against my hand.

"Oh yeah, you're ready for me, aren't you, baby?"

"So ready."

She climbed onto my lap and rubbed her pussy against my cock, getting it slick with her wetness. I gripped her hips and slid home, moaning with her when I felt how hot she was around me.

"Oh, God. Yes. It won't take long," Reed Girl murmured just as she started to ride me.

"Not this round, maybe." We had lost time to make up for.

She shuddered at that and sped up her movements. I flicked her clit with my thumb, and she moved faster. Oh yeah, it wouldn't be long before she was screaming my name and-

"Wahhhhhhhhhh." An earsplitting scream filled the room, and it wasn't the sound of Reed Girl coming.

Just like that, Reed Girl stilled her movements and jumped off my aching cock.

"She shouldn't be hungry. Maybe she needs to be changed again? Or maybe I didn't burp her enough? I-" She was in a panic, ready to run from the room.

I stilled her. "Baby, I got this. You just finished feeding her, so I'll check her diaper and get her back to sleep. You relax, and wait for me. We have some unfinished business to attend to."

I pulled on my boxers because it was way weird for my daughter to see me naked, sporting a hard-on. Fuck that noise. That was just not going to happen.

"Are you sure? I should probably-"

I gave her a quick kiss and headed out the door. "I got it." Dani and I needed to have a little discussion anyway.

I hurried into the bedroom, where my daughter was screaming like a banshee. Rainbow darted in right after me, no doubt wanting to see what all the hoopla was about.

"What's wrong, baby? Do you need a fresh diaper?"

I plucked Dani out of the crib, and she quieted down as I put her on the changing table. I got her pajamas off, after some wrangling with the stupid snaps. They did not make that shit for man's hands, let me tell you. Her diaper was clean, thank fuck, but I put on a fresh one anyway since I was already in there.

"Well, that wasn't it, so what? Do you have gas? I know how that is." I got a cloth and lifted her onto my shoulder, and her tiny face pressed into my neck as I patted and rubbed her back, walking around her room. "Let it out, princess."

But no burp came, so I finally sat down and rocked with her. "You just wanted company, didn't you? Well, while I'm content to spend ninety-five percent of my time with you, you could have given me just a few more minutes with your mother, you know?"

I shifted Dani down into the crook of my arms. She looked at me, wide-eyed, and put her little hand on my chest.

"You think because you look up at me with those pretty blue eyes that I won't punish you? You may be the cutest cockblocker known to man, but you're still a cockblocker. And, baby, Daddy has needs. You'll get it someday." Wait a minute. "No, you won't, because you're never letting a man touch you. But you'll understand, from TV and movies and such."

I'd gotten off track. Go figure. Rainbow hopped on the arm of the rocker and gave me a head-butt. Right. On with it.

"Anyway, as I was saying, Daddy and Mommy need to have alone time at night. It's an important part of being married. One of the best parts. And it's not nice to interrupt those few and far between moments. I don't ask for much, princess. Just an hour or so of uninterrupted adult time. You like being connected to Mommy, right?"

Dani didn't respond, but she did flex her little hand against me. I took that as agreement.

"Well, so does Daddy. We have a different kind of connection, although admittedly I do like connecting to the part of her that you like so much. They were mine first, just so you know."

And that was a dangerous track of thought, because the knowledge that my wife was naked in bed waiting for me would cause my cock to stir again, and it had only just settled down.

"You just had your connection time, and now it's mine. So you need to go to sleep and be a good girl for an hour or two. Preferably longer because, you know, I'd like to sleep a whole night through sometime in this century. You really should be able to tell time by now. It's not that hard."

Dani's eyes began to flutter, and I rocked a little faster. "That's it, baby girl. You go to sleep, and in a few hours you can have your mom back. Daddy's going to make her nice and relaxed, and Daddy's going to be in a much more patient, happier mood when you wake up next time. You have sweet dreams of kittens and rainbows."

I got a head-butt when I said Rainbow's name. I patted her head. "And you're not coming back in the bedroom with me either. You can stay here with Dani or go to your tower."

Rainbow shot me a disapproving look.

"Hey, you know the score. She's just a baby, but she'll learn, too." Hopefully quickly.

Dani was officially out, so I got up carefully and laid her down in her crib. "Sleep tight, princess. Not a peep for a few hours, yeah?" I smoothed her hair down and headed out, Rainbow at my heels.

I picked her up, ready to shut her out of the bedroom behind me, but when I stepped in the doorway, I paused. Reed Girl was sound asleep, curled up around the baby monitor, a smile on her face, likely having listened in on my conversation with Dani.

I sighed and let Rainbow down because clearly playtime was over. She hopped up on the bed, curling into her spot on my pillow. I went over to Reed Girl's side of the bed and smoothed her hair just like I had our daughter's before setting the monitor back on the nightstand.

"I hope your dreams are about sexier things than kittens and rainbows, Reed Girl."

I went over to my side and got into bed, flipping off the lamp as I did. Rainbow curled into me, purring away.

Parenthood. The ultimate cockblock. Oh, well. I was tired now anyway.

xoxoxoxoxox

"Come on, Dani. You can do it. I know you can."

She blurbled and blew a little spit bubble, grinning at me in triumph when it popped.

"Not quite what I was getting at, Princess."

Reed Girl wrapped her arms around me from behind.

"She'll say it when she's ready, Champ. You can't make her talk."

Bullshit. She was a Cullen. She'd been blessed from birth, and she could damn well say daddy. I swore she'd said it already, but Reed Girl claimed that the "Da" she uttered had just been baby babble. But I knew. She knew who I was, and she'd said Dad first. Just as it should be.

"If you would just admit she said it yesterday, then I wouldn't have to make her say it again today."

Reed Girl laughed and bit the back of my neck. Fucking hot.

"If that was the case, than her Muh's are clearly her saying Mommy."

I turned around and smirked at my wife. "She says Muh when she sees Rainbow, so I'm not sure how that correlates."

Reed Girl cocked an eyebrow at me. "Maybe that's her way of saying meow. Maybe Rainbow is her first actual word."

Huh. As if she agreed, Rainbow hopped into the crib. Dani laughed and grabbed at her. I was always scared when she did that, but Rainbow, being the smartest animal in the world, knew that the baby wasn't trying to hurt her and endured the grabbing and smacking with the patience of a saint.

"No way," I said, just as Dani let out a little, "Muh."

Reed Girl chuckled. "I was just kidding, but maybe I'm not far off."

Rainbow swished her tail and then turned a couple of circles before plopping down next to Dani. Reed Girl, of course, whipped out her phone and took more pictures. I was pretty sure the vast majority of our time as parents consisted of feeding, changing diapers, doing laundry, and taking pictures. Not necessarily in that order.

"Ignore your mother, baby. Just say daddy. Da and dee. The easiest two syllables in the entire world to say. You probably knew how to say it in the womb."

My wife shook her head. "Considering the fact that mama would be the same two syllables, I think I win."

Fuck. She had a point. But no way was I allowing that. "Dada would be the same. Say it, Dani. Dada."

"I'm not sure in what world you think that you can make an eight-month-old do anything, but kudos to your tenacity, Champ." Reed Girl patted me on the shoulder.

Okay, so I knew I was being a tad irrational, but the past couple of weeks, Dani had been imitating us more and more. I swear I saw her watching me and her cute little lips puckering up as if she was trying to say the words as well.

"Da be ca," my daughter said before making a raspberry.

"See? She was looking at me when she said da." I was convinced.

"Clearly. And she not only said dad but her first entire sentence."

Reed Girl's face was perfectly serious. She totally agreed. I won!

"What sentence?"

"Dad be crazy. She knows you already."

I grabbed her and started tickling as she shrieked and wiggled.

"Hey! I was agreeing with you!"

"Uh-huh." I picked her up and tossed her over my shoulder. "Daddy's taking Mommy to the bedroom to punish her for her insolence. That can be your second word, Dani. Insolence. It's a big one that should keep you busy for just long enough. You work on that while we're gone."

I smacked Reed Girl's ass as I carried her from the room. She smacked mine back, since she had a perfect shot at it. When we got in the bedroom, I tossed her on the bed, grinning at her red face and tumbled hair. She looked like she'd just had a bout of fantastic sex. Well, it was only apt, as she was about to.

"So I'm crazy, am I?"

My wife grinned and crooked her finger at me. "Crazy about me."

I couldn't deny it. "Yes, I am. You can have me committed for that one."

She reached up and touched my wedding ring. "Committed for life."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

I crawled on top of her, my hands immediately finding her perfect tits as my lips met hers. I stroked my hands down her body, reaching the bottom of her shirt. I started to lift it, to see that soft, perfect skin of her belly, when her hands stilled mine.

"What? I'm trying to work here while our daughter is content." God only knew when Dani would start yelling. She'd cockblocked us more than once already.

"Listen."

Nothing was more important than what we were about to do. As long as Dani wasn't screaming or choking or-

"Da da da. Da da. Da!" came clear as day through the monitor.

I was up in a flash, leaving my wife snickering behind me as I bolted from the room. I ran into Dani's, and she was sitting up, her little hands gripping the crib slats.

"Baby, did you call me? Did you want your daddy?"

Her little face lit up when she saw me. "Da! Da da!"

"That's right, baby. I'm Dada!" I reached into the crib and plucked her up, pulling her against my chest. "You said it!"

Reed Girl came in, phone in hand, recording the moment for posterity.

"Can you say it again, baby? Who's that? Who's holding you?"

"Da! Da da da!"

My daughter bounced in my arms, grinning at me, patting at my face. "Da!"

"That's right, princess. Daddy's here. I'll always come when you call me."

I swear I felt tears forming in my eyes. Once glance at Reed Girl showed me that I wasn't alone, though hers had spilled over. Our daughter just happily carried on, saying "Da" and patting me over and over, delighting in our excitement over her first word.

"It seems you won again, Champ. Daddy's her first word."

As I knew it would be. But the fact was, I'd won a long time ago.

"I won the day you crashed into me with your oboe, Reed Girl." I slipped my free arm around her, pulling her into my arms with our daughter.

"I'd say we both did." She snuggled into me while Dani babbled and patted us both. Yep, we had.

Xoxoxoxoxox

It was entirely too quiet. Reed Girl was out on some Cullen Foundation business, meeting with some potential music teachers. Dani had gone down for her nap a couple of hours ago and was due up any time. Rainbow and I were watching game film.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I've kind of gotten used to the chaos around here," I told Rainbow, stroking her fur as I watched the Skins' defensive schemes. "It's too quiet."

Dani, now that she was mobile, was everywhere and into everything when she was up. We kept eyes on her at all times, and we'd baby-proofed every fucking thing possible. We had those annoying damn gates on the stairs, which were a pain in the ass to open half the time. I usually just stepped over the damn things because they irritated me. All our cabinets and doors had those annoying plastic catches on them so she couldn't open them. Those pissed Rainbow off because she liked to hide in the kitchen cabinets sometimes, for reasons unknown.

Just as I was getting into the Skins' blitz packages, I heard my daughter over the baby monitor. I cocked an ear, listening to her babbling and laughing. Since she wasn't yelling yet, I decided to finish out the tape. I only had about fifteen more minutes left.

After about five minutes, my daughter's giggles were just too irresistible. I paused the DVD and made the climb up the stairs.

"Are you having a good time without Daddy, baby girl?" I asked as I headed into her bedroom. "What has you so-" I broke off as I took in the horror in front of me.

Holy fucking shit. Literally. My daughter was sitting in her crib, diaper off, smearing her shit all over the crib and laughing happily. She had it on her face, in her hair, every fucking where. And now I was a poet. Dr. Seuss never wrote a rhyme about that, had he?

"What did you do?" I asked.

Dani, finally noticing that she had an audience, stood up, right in the dirty fucking diaper, thank you very much, and started bouncing and dancing.

"Dada!" She opened up her little hand to wave at me, which might have been cute if it weren't covered in shit.

"What did you do?" I asked again.

Rainbow streaked in, started to leap into the crib, and did some sort of weird flop in the air, twisting herself away once she noticed the smell. She streaked right out of the room. I would have laughed if not for the fact that Dani's hand was moving toward her face.

"NO!" I yelled, lunging for her, grabbing her before she could get her fist into her mouth. God only knew if she'd done it before I got there, but she certainly wasn't getting any more on my watch.

It hit me that I was clutching my poop-covered daughter to myself, thus getting some on me as well. Fucking hell. I looked at her, then at the mess in her crib. Baby first. We needed to buy a new crib anyway. No way could I put my daughter that thing again, knowing what had been on it.

"Looks like you and I need to get cleaned up, kiddo."

She grinned and smacked me with her poopy hand, making me sigh.

"You're lucky you're so fucking cute."

"Fuck," she said, clearly and succinctly.

Fucking hell. "Don't you ever say that again. Not until you're older. Your mother's going to kill me. My mother's going to kill me. No bad words."

I carried her into my bathroom, where I stripped her out of her clothes and cleaned her hands off with her onesie thing. I threw it in the trash because no way was she wearing that again.

I rinsed her off in the sink while the shower warmed up. I also took off my shirt and tugged my shorts off. I was going to be showering in boxers for the first time ever, because I wasn't going to get naked in the shower with my baby. That was just weird.

"Come on, baby girl. Shower time."

She laughed and shrieked as the water hit her, holding her little hands into the spray, which was good. No poop remnants allowed. I tilted her head back into the water, getting it wet, and then got her baby shampoo and squirted some into my hand.

"Here we go, princess. Time to get clean and pretty again."

I couldn't be more grateful that Reed Girl had brought Dani into the shower with her often. She was pretty good about it, not whining when I washed her hair, then rinsed it out. I held her in the lukewarm spray, turning her this way and that, making sure all her cracks and crevices were clean.

"Dada!" Dani smacked her hands on my chest. "Mama!"

"Mama isn't here yet, or she'd be in here with you and I'd be having your room professionally fumigated already, along with having a new crib ordered."

Dani just laughed.

"You think it's funny, do you? Just because your Uncle Emmett calls you monkey doesn't mean you have to act like one. That's who plays with their poop. Monkeys. Not sweet babies."

She gave me a gummy grin. "Poop!"

"No poop! Bad poop. Poop is not paint, baby."

"Pate poop!"

"No pate with poop. That's gross. I'm going to have nightmares about that sight, baby girl."

I got the baby soap that Reed Girl used on her and squirted her all over. "You're going to be the cleanest kid ever once I'm done with you, little one."

The shower stall door swung open, and my wife stood in the doorway, grinning at us, phone at the ready. She snapped pictures as Dani and I finished up our shower.

"I'd ask what happened, but I stopped by Dani's room before I came in here. How?" Reed Girl shook her head.

I groaned and handed Dani over so Reed Girl could dry her off. I soaped my entire upper torso up.

"She was awake for all of five minutes before I went up to get her. She was giggling and in a good mood, so I thought I'd finish my game film, but I got curious."

I rinsed myself off and stepped out of the shower. Dani was dry and running around the room naked.

"We need to condemn her room."

Reed Girl laughed. "I hardly think we need to go that far. The bedding will all need to be changed. We'll clean the crib, it'll be fine."

"It will never be fine again."

"Fine! Daddy fine!"

I smirked and picked up my wiggly daughter. "Yes, Daddy is very fine."

"Fuck!" Dani said, making me wince and glance at my wife.

Reed Girl cocked an eyebrow at me.

"You saw the room! I couldn't help it! It just slipped out."

"Uh-huh. Just for that, you're on crib-cleaning duty."

Dani looked at me, smiling her big toothy grin. "Fuck." She seemed to relish saying her new word. She was definitely a Cullen.

"That's right, baby. Daddy is fucked." There was no denying it.

Reed Girl shook her head and took our daughter from me. "I'll put her in the playpen and then come up to help you." Her voice was pleasant but her eyes were shooting fire.

Dani giggled and let out another "fuck."

We were going to have a problem there, but one thing at a time. The joys of parenthood. Dani blew me a little kiss, one of her newest things, and I laughed. It was still totally worth it, shit and all.

Xoxoxoxoxox

"She's not ready."

My wife laughed. "You're not ready, you mean."

Maybe. "Neither of us is. She's only four."

"And it's only preschool. She'll be there for about four hours. We've talked about this."

Yes, we had. She thought Dani needed to be "socialized." I thought that was a bunch of crap. She had us. That was all she needed.

"It's not like she's going to learn anything major at preschool that we couldn't teach her ourselves." Colors, shapes, counting, reading…I had that shit down.

"Sharing, friendship, how to play with others, how to function without us," Reed Girl said, smirking at me.

"She knows how to share, she has Ethan for friendship and playing with others, and she most certainly doesn't need to know how to function without us."

Reed Girl slipped her arms around my waist. "I know you don't want that, but she's gotta go to school full time soon enough. We need to get her used to it. I'm most certainly not going to class with her, and neither are you."

I started to open my mouth, and she put a finger over my lips. "And we're not homeschooling the kids. I'd go insane."

I knew I was being unfair. But damn it, she was my baby. "I don't like it."

"I know. But just think. School means friends means playtime, which means Mommy and Daddy will have their own playtime."

Well, when she put it that way…damn it. "Okay, but if she hates it, I'm not making her stay."

"Okay, deal." Reed Girl gave me a smacking kiss. "Dani, are you ready?"

And my baby girl came around the corner, a little tiny pink backpack over her blue T-shirt. No! It was too soon.

"Ready, Mommy." She smiled up at me. She looked cute as hell, with her hair in little pigtails. "You coming to school too, Daddy?"

"Of course, baby. I wouldn't miss it." Damn right I wouldn't. My ass was going to be stationed outside the door in case she needed me. Kids were dicks. If any one of them upset her, I was going to take her away.

"Let's go!"

Reed Girl took one of Dani's hands, and I took the other. We got her to the car and strapped her in. Ethan was staying home with Dottie. The drive was far too short for my liking. I toyed with driving past the school and continuing until I hit the highway, but since Reed Girl was watching me knowingly, I stuck to the plan.

We pulled up outside the school. There were all manner of little kids running around in the playground area, yelling and having a fine time.

"See? She'll do great here."

What I saw was that one little boy pushed down a little girl and took the swing. I'd punt his ass right off the swings if he thought about doing that to my daughter.

"It's too loud and busy. She needs a quieter learning environment."

"You just said she wasn't here to learn anything," my wife reminded me, using my words against me as usual. She was far too damn crafty at that shit.

"Well, she certainly won't now."

Reed Girl laughed as she helped Dani out of her car seat. "Come on. Let's go meet your teacher. Are you excited?"

"Yeah!"

I sighed, knowing that arguing was pointless. My daughter didn't have a shy bone in her body and marched right into the classroom without holding our hands or anything. It had begun. My baby was growing away from me.

"Hello. My name is Ms. Flowers."

The teacher was around our age, which bothered me for some reason. She was too young.

"I'm Dani Cullen! I'm four!" my daughter announced proudly.

Even though I didn't like that we were here, I couldn't help but smile at Dani's confidence.

"How nice to meet you, Dani. We're excited to have you in class."

I just bet she was. My kid was miles smarter than the little boy who was currently driving a fire truck into the wall over and over.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cullen. Thanks for bringing her in. Dani, would you like to go meet some of your classmates?"

"Yes," my daughter said definitively.

"You have fun, Dani. Mommy and Daddy will be back to get you soon."

I braced myself for Dani to realize that we weren't staying with her and start crying. Her tears killed me like nothing else.

"Okay. Bye, Mommy. Bye, Daddy." And she walked off without a second glance, holding hands with her teacher and saying hello to everyone the teacher introduced her to.

"Let's go," Reed Girl murmured, pulling me from the room.

"But…she didn't even notice we were leaving."

"That's because she's excited to go to school and meet some new friends."

Those should be good things, but I didn't like them at all. I pulled free of Reed Girl's grasp and headed toward the window.

"Edward! What are you doing?"

"You didn't really think I was going to leave her without making sure she's really okay, did you?" I demanded, not looking away from the glass.

"You look like some perverted creep right now," my wife muttered.

I ignored her. This was our daughter I was checking on. There was nothing creepy or perverted about it. Dani was seated in a little circle with the other kids. The teacher was holding up colored cards, and the kids were telling her what colors they were, I assumed. Damn my inability to read lips.

Dani answered and clapped her hands when the teacher no doubt told her that she was right. Of course she was. She knew her damn colors. She didn't need preschool.

"See? She's fine. Let's go."

"But what if-"

"If anything happens, they'll call us. But she'll be fine, Edward. She's having fun."

From the smile on Dani's face, that was true. I reluctantly pulled myself away from the window and headed toward the car. When we got inside, Reed Girl put a hand on my arm.

"Just because she's going to school doesn't mean she doesn't need us anymore."

I snorted. "Ha! She walked away without a backwards glance. She's already ready to leave us. She'll be going to college in no time."

Reed Girl laughed at my ass. "She's not quite ready for dorm life yet, but we'll make sure that she is when the time comes."

Dorm life, my ass. "She'll be living in a secure building that I selected, by herself." With video streaming cameras that assured that she remained alone in said building.

"Oh, that would be a fantastic college experience for her. How would you have reacted if your parents tried to pull that on you?"

Not favorably, but this was my daughter, not me. I could be a hypocrite when it came to my kid. That was allowed. My parents had gotten it wrong. I was going to get it right.

"We'll see," I told her as I started the car.

She shook her head. "Baby steps," she muttered under her breath.

Somehow I knew she wasn't referring to Dani when she said it. She was talking about me. I didn't care.

"How is it not killing you to leave her right now?" I demanded, unable to drive away.

Reed Girl gave a little choking laugh. "You think it's not? The only reason I'm not crying like a baby right now is because someone needs to keep you in line. We're doing this for her, not for us. If it were up to me, she'd be home with Ethan. But she needs this. She needs kids her own age, people teaching her other than us, and her world needs to expand beyond her family."

Christ. I knew she was right. "You really want to cry?" I asked.

"Of course. She's our baby."

I sighed and pulled her into my arms. "Let it out, baby." Give me something else to focus on.

Reed Girl laughed through her tears. "Don't think I don't know that you're encouraging me to cry now so we can stay here longer."

Well, sort of. "Yes and no."

"More yes than no." She sniffled and wiped her eyes. "Come on. Let's go smother Ethan with attention until we can get our girl back."

That was a good plan. "And maybe we could work in some of that playtime you mentioned earlier."

Reed Girl chuckled. "Maybe. If you take me home now and stop acting like a stalker."

"I learned it from you."

That got me another laugh and a smack to my shoulder. "Ass."

"But I'm your ass."

"Damn right you are. Because I'm the best stalker. Now let's go home."

As hard as it was, I let her get back to her seat and buckle in, then pulled out of the driveway. It was only for a few hours. I'd have her back soon.

Xoxoxoxoxox

What was taking so long? I was on preschool pickup duty while Reed Girl taught music at one of the local elementary schools. Dani was taking her sweet time getting out today. While she loved school, she was always happy to come home to us and share stories about her day. Thank God she still wanted to be with us. My relief over that hadn't gone away even months later.

The teacher came out holding Dani's hand. I took a step forward to retrieve her when I noticed that her face was streaked with tears. My heart stopped as I ran over to them.

"What's the matter? Is she okay? Are you hurt, baby?" I demanded, reaching for her gently, looking everywhere for signs of injury.

"She's fine," Ms. Flowers assured me.

Fuck that noise. My kid was crying. That was not fine.

"What's wrong, baby?"

Dani looked up at me, her face completely heartbreakingly sad.

"Cindy said she didn't want to be my friend anymore."

Fucking hell. Where was my wife when I needed her? Girl drama was not my forte. I'd avoided that shit all my damn life and even married a woman who was damn near drama free. As it should be.

I took her into my arms and let her cry on my shoulder. "Why would anyone not want to be your friend, princess? You're the best." This Cindy girl was obviously a moron.

"Because I got the gold star today and she wanted it." She sobbed into my shoulder, and it took me a few moments to understand what she'd said.

Of course she got the gold star. She deserved it.

"Cindy had some listening issues today and only got a green star. I guess she blamed Dani," the teacher explained, rubbing Dani's back.

I pulled back and took her little face in my hands. "Baby girl, it's not your fault Cindy didn't get her gold star. She's just jealous and taking it out on you. Sometimes friends do that."

"But she said she's not my friend." My daughter sniffled, her eyes welling with more tears before spilling over.

I wiped at them frantically. I fucking hated when she cried. "Baby, she probably didn't mean it. Sometimes when I'm mad, I say things I don't mean to my friends, and the next day everything is fine again, after I say sorry." And that Cindy chick better apologize for making my baby cry.

"And if she still won't be your friend for something silly like that, then she doesn't deserve to be your friend at all. Because you're a fantastic friend."

"I am?" she asked, her little lip poking out in a cute little pout, trembling a little as she fought not to cry.

"You're the best friend a person could ever have! You're kind and you're smart, and you're sweet, and you share all your toys and things. Anyone who doesn't want you for a friend is missing out."

"She's missing out?" Dani asked.

"Yes, baby. It would be her loss. I bet you have lots of friends in class."

"I do. There's Taylor and Missy and Stephanie and Jonathan-"

I grimaced when she threw a boy's name in there. "Exactly. You just remember you have plenty of friends, and if Cindy doesn't say sorry, you play with them."

"Okay, Daddy. Can we go get a hot chocolate?"

I smiled. The storm had passed. "We can, baby. That sounds good to me."

I loaded her into the car and slid into the driver's seat. "I'm proud of you for your gold star, baby. Never feel bad for doing something right." No bratty little kid was going to take away her achievements. I needed to ask Reed Girl who this Cindy kid was. She wasn't worthy of my Dani's friendship.

"Okay." And she smiled at me in the rearview mirror. There was the smile I loved.

"Here we go! One hot chocolate on the way for my gold-star girl."

Girl crisis number one averted. God knew how many to go.