Danny sighed loudly as he reached for yet another book. How they hell was anyone supposed to understand sex he wondered to himself. The pictures in all of the books he'd looked at so far were rubbish, they were all too complicated and the descriptions sucked. He looked at his watch, 30 minutes he'd been searching with little success.
It had been a week since Flack had offered to look after Rosie when she had been unwell and Danny had spent the remainder of his shift worrying about his daughter. This was not because he didn't trust Flack to look after her, on the contrary he trusted him more than he did most people. It was just that Rosie always tended to be a bit emotional when she was sick. He remembered smirking to himself as he imagined the tough detective being forced to deal with a hysterical little girl.
When he had finally returned home from work he had been pleasantly surprised at the calm picture he saw before his eyes. Flack was sitting on the couch watching the highlights from the previous nights Giants game, and Rosie was cuddled sleepily into his side. Before leaving Flack filled Danny in that afternoons events, and that was precisely why he was now standing in the anatomy section of a quiet bookstore before he had to collect Rosie.
Eventually the pretty blond sales assistant approached him smiling.
'Sir, is there anything I can help you with?'
'I'm looking for a sex book'. Danny answered bluntly.
'Oh, well sir we have an excellent selection in the Literotica section. It just at the back of the store…'
'No, not that sort of sex book,' he interrupted her. 'It's for my daughter'.
Yeah, that's right, sweet little Rosie had asked Flack about sex. Danny grimaced at the memory. He knew he could have could have blagged it and used the old stork excuse but he decided against this on two points: -
Number one, Rosie was smart and would probably continue to quiz him on this explanation until he eventually slipped up and came clean with the truth anyway. In his experience it was best to not tell a lie as this only led to more lies being made up to cover the previous lie.
Reason number two was that he didn't really want to lie to her anyway. He knew that despite his current relationship with Lindsey, there was always a possibility that he could have to raise Rosie single handed through her teenage years. If this was the case then he wanted his daughter to be comfortable talking to him. If she wasn't then at least he had taken the opportunity to explain things before she found them too embarrassing to talk about.
'Erm, your daughter sir?' She asked, her smile fading slightly.
'Yeah, to…ya know…explain…about sex?'
'Oh,' her smile brightened again. 'Well this is one of the more popular ones,' she said pulling a book Danny had not yet looked at down from the shelf and handing it to him. Danny opened the book with renewed interest and leafed through the pages. Looking up he smiled uncomfortably at the assistant.
'Thanks, I'll take this one'.
Lindsey made her way up the stairs to Danny's apartment. She had had a long day at work and was looking forward to spending the evening with Danny and Rosie. Pulling out the key Danny had given to her, she quietly opened the door to his apartment and took off her boots. The TV was on mute and Rosie was sitting on Danny's knee and looked to be having a story read to her.
'Hi guys, whatcha doing?' Lindsay asked as she planted a soft kiss on Danny's lips and the two lovers whispered hello to one another.
'Hiya Lindsay, Daddy bought me a new book,' Rosie answered with smile.
'Really? Did I miss much?' She enquired as she sat down next to them on the sofa.
'Yeah,' Danny answered. Lindsay pretended to look disappointed.
'Aw, what was it about?'
'Making babies.' Rosie answered innocently as she flicked through the pages.
Lindsay raised an eyebrow at Danny and the pair grinned at each other.
'Well, I'm sure sorry I missed that.' Lindsay said desperately wishing she had been a fly on the wall for that particular discussion.
'Right miss,' Danny said as he stood up with Rosie in his arms then settled her back on the sofa with Lindsay. 'I'll go make you some warm milk, and then bed.'
'Oh, but I'm not tried yet,' Lindsay said with a smirk. Danny smiled and shook his head before making his way to the kitchen.
Rosie cuddled up to Lindsay and began showing her the illustrated pictures in her new book and pointing out facts that Danny had explained to her.
'Lindsay, do you and Daddy love each other?'
Lindsay was dumbstruck. How would she answer this she wondered? She and Danny hadn't actual said those three special words yet, but she felt that Danny deserved to hear them before his daughter did.
'Why do you ask that,' she said. Phew, dodged that bullet.
'Well,' she began, 'Daddy said that when grown ups are in love with each other they have sex and practice making babies'. She was now looking up at Lindsay and clearly still expecting an answer to her previous question.
Lindsay hesitated. Rosie grew impatient.
'Do you and Daddy have sex?' She ventured.
Danny had now returned from the kitchen. He had missed her first question but heard the second loud and clear. With raised eyebrows he cleared his throat and placed the mug of hot milk in the coffee table. Sitting down again he pulled Rosie back into his lap.
'Erm, sweetie…it's not really polite to asked people if they have sex.'
'Why not?'
'Well, it's usually a really private thing that happens between two people.'
'Oh.' Rosie paused and began sipping her milk that had been handed to her. Danny looked over the top of her head and grinned wildly at Lindsay how was sitting quietly.
'Sorry,' he mouthed to her before turning his vision back to his daughter who was deep in thought as she drank.
'Daddy,' she said looking up at him.
'Uhuh?'
'When I'm a grown up will I have sex too?' She asked innocently.
Danny paused, his eyes wide with realisation.
'No.'
