The Morning After
Not only had uncle Horatio wanted Chloe to come for the night so the two could have some time together, he did it so that her mommy and daddy could have sex and not worry about getting "caught."
"Have fun last night?" Horatio asked Eric grinning, when he bought Chloe home at eleven o'clock.
"Worth waitin' a week for," Eric replied laughing.
After Horatio left Chloe told mommy that after she and Horatio ate breakfast together they "feed the duckies breakfast" at the pond on the back of Horatio's property.
Neither Calleigh or Eric knew uncle Horatio was now planning major remodeling on his home. He was planning to have a piece built onto the house, adding two extra bedrooms, for little guests. Just a week ago they had asked Horatio to be the godfather the of their expected baby. He had accepted. He planning to put a twin bed and a crib in one of the spare rooms for when Chloe and her little brother stayed at his home.
The spare room he already had was small and he used it as it as a home office. He wasn't sure what he would use the second spare room for yet. When his two co-workers found what he was doing a few days later they thought it was a sweet gesture, such an obvious sign he adored his godchildren. Even though the couple's son was yet to be born, Calleigh and Eric could certainly see he and Chloe staying with uncle Horatio for a night, after a few months of course. Chloe started having sleep overs with her uncle when she was just six-months-old. Horatio was using the same crib for Ethan that he had for Chloe. Only when Chloe used the crib because of the lack of a spare room the crib had been set up in the living room and Horatio would stay on the couch. However, by the time Chloe was six months old and she could sit up in her crib she'd stare at Horatio with her big brown eyes when Horatio put her there for the night, he totally caved. Dismantled the crib and started letting Chloe sleep in his bed with him.
Eric had laughed when Horatio had told him that.
As much as it was difficult to do, Chloe's mom and dad had stuck it out and made sure from Chloe's first night home that she slept in her bassinet, then in her crib.
"She got to ya, huh, H? It was the eyes, wasn't it?"
Horatio smiled sheepishly. "I asked her not to do it but she just kept staring at me. I even said 'please.' But She broke me in less than five minutes. She didn't even have to turn on the tears or put her arms up. She's good."
"Hey. Uncles are allowed to cave. Mom and dad have to be the mean ones," Eric said.
"The trick is avoid eye contact."
He remembered when he and Calleigh were starting to teach Chloe to put herself to sleep. It was torture for both of them. They hated to hear her cry. One of them would stay in the room till she fell asleep, assuring her they were there and everything was okay when she cried but they could not pick her up. That was the hardest part, knowing that if they just picked her up Chloe's tears would stop. Because he was a man Eric found hard to admit that when he was in the room with his daughter he couldn't look at her face because he would definitely give in and pick her, Calleigh was the same. Both knew there was no use of Horatio trying this technique; he was a marshmallow when it came to Chloe.
Even at six months old Chloe seemed to realize that "Mommy Calleigh" or daddy would stay in the room but she had to put herself to sleep but when she was with uncle H, she fell asleep in his arms, either on the couch or in the rocking chair.
By the time Eric's baby daughter were six months old Calleigh hadn't moved in to Eric and Chloe's place yet but by now if either one slipped and referred to Calleigh as "mommy" not "mommy Calleigh" to Chloe neither cared because she was mommy to the baby.