Everything familiar belongs to Janet. The mistakes are mine.
Bobby was given two punishment options for trying to screw with Stephanie, withstand a two-hour gym 'meeting' with me, or cook lunch for my wife and the Coles with Kane giving him pointers from the sidelines. Which we both knew translated to Kane standing three inches from Brown's body the entire time he was in the kitchen of our suite, telling him everything he's doing wrong and why, while continuously trying to shoulder him out of the way.
It's surprising how long it took Brown to decide, but I remain scarier than Kane is obnoxious. In the end ... he chose to prepare food and risk a last nerve-death via unwanted kitchen helper. Steph thought she was letting her Rangeguy off easy by choosing pizza so we could eat and amuse Olivia at the same time, but when Kane walked through our door, all thoughts of 'easy' flew right out of it. In Bobby's mind, anyway.
"You're not really going to use store-bought dough, are you?" He asked Brown. "Why use that shit when you can make and bake your own in about an hour? Homemade sauce is even quicker. I know that jar is for decoration only. You wouldn't purposely feed my, or the boss', lady that tomato-colored, sodium slop."
Harper had one eye on her husband, but the majority of her attention stayed on Olive. "Play nice, Honey. We're here as guests ... and it's not polite for guests to try to take over the meal someone's nice enough to make for us."
Her words were said in reflex. Our daughter remained her focus, as if she was trying to memorize every sound and movement so she'll know what to expect with her own baby.
"We're not 'guests'," Kane clarified, "we're all friends here. And friends don't let friends make bad pizza. That's why I've got some non-perishables out in the car in case he needed my help."
"Bobby will definitely think twice about teasing me again. I've never seen an eye twitch on a Range Man before ... well, there was that time I stunned Hal, but I don't think an electrical current counts here," Steph whispered to Harper. "Anyway, I can't seem to stop staring at it."
Meanwhile, I couldn't seem to look away from my daughter. As a 'thank you' of sorts for our date night, Steph got Olivia dressed this morning. After a shower, I walked into the living room to see that our daughter's purple t-shirt read "I Really, Really, REALLY, Love My Daddy". The tiny dark-washed jeans with an embroidered butterfly on the leg, and her bare little toes, were no less devastating, but the shirt had me free-falling internally. I hadn't seen it before, and I know I'll never forget it.
"It's true," Steph had pointed out, as I'd gone quiet staring at our beautiful baby girl. "You got Olive to release Uncle Bobby last night and immediately had her settled in her crib for the rest of the night. As we've learned, she won't do that for just anybody."
"She'd do it for you," I'd replied.
"Yeah, because I'm her Mama and she knows I love her as much, if not more, than you do, but she's her Daddy's girl through and through."
Harper also took note of Olivia's outfit. "I'm going to get a shirt like this for our baby. Boy or girl, I know they're going to idolize their daddy. Who wouldn't? He's like a walking/talking action figure and amusement park in human form."
"God help the kid," Bobby said under his breath, as Kane physically moved him away from the counter he'd been trying to accomplish something at.
Harper hadn't let go of Olive since our baby scooted over to her when she and Kane first arrived, my daughter being intrigued by the cartoon panda faces covering Harp's sneakers.
Mrs. Cole smiled into Olive's hand, which had been helping her blow kisses to everyone in the room.
"Would you like me to intervene so we'll be able to eat sometime today?" She asked us. "He wasn't kidding about there being groceries in our car in case of a pizza emergency."
"No," my wife and I said simultaneously.
Cal and Olive laughed simultaneously at all of us. This vacation hasn't been painless, but we'll all be leaving the island with attitudes far better than the angry/tense ones we arrived with. As a bonus, we'll be creating even more pleasant memories as Steph learns we're visiting Miami for some big/little sister fun.
