Everyone familiar belongs to Janet.
"Uncle Kane is going to be tougher to tackle than your Uncle Lester, Olive, but we're up for helping Aunt Harper out by taking him on, aren't we?" Steph said to our daughter.
Olivia had belly-crawled her way up Tank and is now sitting at attention on one of his substantial shoulders. My wife leaned forward and kissed her right between her big brown eyes. That got Olive's arms moving in excitement and if Tank hadn't been holding her securely, she might have achieved liftoff.
"I'm in trouble, aren't I?" Kane asked.
"When isn't your ass in deep shit?" Tank responded.
"Yeah ... well, I've had enough training in my lifetime, I doubt I need more."
"You do and you don't," Steph said to him. "You'll see. Ranger says I'm lucky to have him, too, but the difference is he's usually kidding and it is true coming from him. Harper probably has a travel agency on standby for when she needs a break. You're like Lester on acid."
"She does have a travel agent always on hand ... my uncle. He can also get a brand spanking new identity, passport, and bank card, for you in about an hour. Free of charge if he likes you."
"Maybe he should be helping you instead of us," I said.
"You know he only showed his ugly mug here because he missed us," Tank told me.
"I'm not ugly. Steph just called me pretty ... or weren't you paying attention?"
My daughter was on the move again and is now, with assistance, bouncing herself up and down on her legs on Tank's as he spoke to Kane. "Olive's pretty, you're barely tolerable."
"I know you love me."
"I don't even like you half the time," my second-in-command replied.
"If that's true, why haven't you kicked me out?" He asked.
"One, we always have each other's backs. And two, that would take away some of the time he gets with our daughter," I explained.
"Wherever Olivia goes ... Tank is sure to follow," Steph added.
Kane reached out and hooked her neck in a friendly one-armed hug. "You're pretty cool. Before I leave, I'm gonna give you my uncle's number in case you ever want to get away from these two."
"No," both she and I said together.
We need to be apart about as much as Kane needed another hole in his head.
