When Sully and Michaela returned from their ride, they found Zachary, Matthew, and Colleen asleep on the living room furniture. Sully had a large sectional sofa which all three kids fit on, with room to spare. Next to them, Olive was sitting quietly in a recliner, playing solitaire on her phone.

"Sully," Olive greeted, when they came in, "Ma'am," she greeted Michaela as well.

"This is Dr. Mike," Sully said to Olive, "Dr. Mike, this is Miss Olive."

"Nice meeting you," said Michaela.

"Nice meetin' you too," said Olive, "Are you a vet?"

"No," Sully answered for Michaela, "She's a doctor for people."

Olive looked over Sully and Michaela carefully. She was trying to determine if Sully was on a date or not. It also didn't escape her notice that Michaela was holding folded clothing in her arms. Was she planning to stay the night?

When nobody said anything for the next minute, Michaela broke the silence by saying, "Thank you for looking after my children. I hope they weren't too much trouble."

"No trouble at all, Ma'am," Olive said, and continued to look at both of them suspiciously.

"Didn't you say you needed to use the bathroom?" Sully asked Michaela, "It's right next to Hanna's room."

"Thank you," said Michaela as she quickly made her way to the bathroom.

As soon as Sully heard the bathroom door shut, he asked Olive in a low voice, not wanting Michaela to hear, "What are you lookin' at?"

"You and her," Olive said freely, but also in a low voice, "You told me just a few days ago that you weren't datin' anyone new."

"She's a friend," Sully insisted, "and stop gawkin' at her."

"You ain't foolin' nobody," Olive said with a smirk, "I'll see ya later."

"See ya," Sully said, deciding it wasn't worth it to continue the discussion with Olive, "and thanks for watchin' the kids."

After Olive left, Michaela came out of the bathroom and returned to the living room.

"Brian and Hanna are still asleep. I can't believe that Colleen and Matthew fell asleep too," Michaela whispered.

"That means they feel comfortable here," Sully whispered back, "I'll take that as a compliment."

"You should take that as a very big compliment," said Michaela, "I hate to have to wake them, but we need to get going."

"Why?" Sully asked, he liked having her and the kids as company and didn't want them to leave.

"Truth?" she questioned.

"Truth," he affirmed with a laugh.

"I'm hot and sweaty and I will need to rinse off in the shower if we're going to go out for ice cream tonight," Michaela said, "Do you mind if I wear these clothes home? I'll return them washed and dried."

"If all ya need to do is rinse off, you can use the shower here," Sully offered, "I have soap, water, and clean towels."

"Well," Michaela said and then paused. All she needed to do was rinse off and wash her face. She kept make-up, travel size deodorant and hairspray in her purse. Plus she had a small hair brush and a headband. She could keep her hair tied up like it was when she went out on the horse, shower, brush out her hair, spray back her bangs, put on a headband, reapply her make-up and deodorant, and put on the clothes she was wearing when she came, and still feel comfortable having ice cream in public that evening. However, was it appropriate for her to be showering in his home? Was that too intimate? Nothing risqué was going to happen, certainly not with five children in the house. She really didn't feel like waking the kids and driving back to her home.

"I don't mind at all," Sully said. He wasn't trying to seduce her at that moment, though the thought of her lathering up in the shower was appealing, he just didn't want her to leave or be inconvenienced, "And you'll be doin' me a favor if ya stay. I need a shower too. Someone will need to be with Hanna if she wakes up before Zachary while I'm in the shower."

"As long as you don't mind, and I can look after Hanna and everyone," Michaela said, deciding that it would be okay to shower there. It wasn't like she was sharing the shower with him.

"There are clean towels in the bathroom closet," Sully informed her. "You can put your clothes in my bedroom and change in there when you're done rinsin' off," Sully opened his bedroom door and showed her inside. Then he went to his closet and retrieved his robe and handed it to her, "This house only has one bathroom. I don't wear this robe very much. You can use it, if you don't want to walk from the bathroom to my room in a wet towel."

"Thank you," she said. The bathroom was between Sully's room and Hanna's room. It was less than a yard from the bathroom door to Sully's door. Michaela still did think it was best to use the robe.

Sully left Michaela alone in his room and went out to the living room. This gave Michaela a chance to look around while she was in there. His bedroom was very masculine looking. It had some Native American influences in the very minimal décor. It was clean, his bed was made and she didn't see any signs of dust. Michaela looked towards his dresser and saw a picture frame that was face down. She knew she shouldn't pry, but she was curious. She walked to the dresser, picked up the frame and looked at the photo. It was a picture of him, looking younger than he was now. He was seated and there was a dark-haired woman standing behind him with her arms around his neck, and her chin resting on his head. Michaela knew exactly who that woman was, it was his ex-wife. Michaela could see both Hanna and Zachary in her face. If the picture was face down, then Sully obviously didn't want to look at it. Something terrible must have happened. Not wanting to be caught, she put the picture face down where she found it, and went to take a shower.

By the time both Michaela and Sully had each finished their showers, the children were awake. To pass the time and keep the kids entertained, Sully put on one of his favorite childhood films, Balto.

"Steele is bad wolf," Hanna said about the villain in the film.

As the kids were watching, Michaela decided to brush and redo Colleen's hair. Michaela had put her daughter's hair in two French braids, which were now a mess because of her nap. She undid the braids and then redid them, securing the ends of both braids together with a large white bow.

Once Colleen was done. Hanna ran to her room. She found two hair ties and a pink bow, and then ran back out to the living room and hopped on Michaela's lap.

"Hanna," Sully gently scolded with a chuckle.

"Do you want me to braid your hair?" Michaela asked.

Hanna nodded at her.

"Say, yes please," Sully told his daughter.

"Yes, peas," Hanna said to Michaela.

"Of course," Michaela said. She did Hanna's hair just like Colleen's, two braids secured together in the back with a bow.

"Say thank you," Sully directed. Sully couldn't help but feel gratified as a little shiver went up his spine when he watched Michaela fix his daughter's hair. She was a natural mother. He enjoyed watching her mother his daughter. Not only did it please him, it was something that Hanna needed and would need more, as she got older.

"Tank you," Hanna said to Michaela.

"You're very welcome," Michaela said to the child with a wide smile.

Hanna ran back to her father and hopped on his lap. Sully smiled and kissed her cheek.

"Sully, what are we going to do for dinner?" Michaela asked. She supposed, since she was going to stay through dinner, that this may be one of the days that she lets the kids have pizza. She would, of course, order for everyone.

"You watch the movie," Sully said to Hanna and kissed her cheek a couple more times. He gently lifted her, and set her on the couch.

Before Sully got up, Michaela offered, "I can order us all a pizza."

"We can do that if ya want, but follow me to the kitchen first," Sully said and got up to go to the kitchen with Michaela following behind, "For the kids, I can bake some chicken nuggets and tater tots. My kids eat grapes, blueberries, cucumbers, and carrot sticks."

"My children will eat all of that," Michaela said.

"Good," Sully said and then continued, "For us, I have a few options. My friend, Grace, owns her own restaurant. I am actually good friends with her and her husband, Robert E. Robert E. brings me dinners from the restaurant at least once a week. Grace insists, and they freeze real well. I have lasagna, meatloaf, fried chicken, barbecue chicken, grilled salmon, and tuna casserole. If you ain't opposed to havin' the same fruits and vegetables as the kids, I can fix that for all of us."

"I'll try the grilled salmon," Michaela said, wondering if someday she will get a chance to eat with Sully at his friend's restaurant.

"I had a feelin' you'd pick that," Sully said. He decided on fried chicken for himself. He put everything in the oven and started to cut up the carrots and cucumbers.

"What can I do to help you?" Michaela asked.

"You can wash the grapes and the blueberries," Sully said, "I usually have Zac set the table, but if you'd like to do that, we can leave them all watchin' the movie."

"Certainly," Michaela said and got to work. This was fun, Michaela thought to herself. It was nice to work side by side with a man in the kitchen. Sully was a real man, and not just because he understood horses and baseball. He was courteous and family oriented. She felt that if this friendship with Sully ever went further, they would probably have a rich family life, "Sully, how do I fit everyone around the table?"

Sully hadn't thought of that. He had a small table that only fit four people and only one high chair. After thinking about it for a minute, an idea popped into his mind. He went into the back of the house and retrieved a small folding table and folding chairs with a Tinkerbell design on them, "My brother sent this on Hanna's last birthday. He works for Costco. It will work for Hanna and Brian," He set the table up against a wall, and then returned to the back of the house and retrieved another folding chair, but this one was an adult size. He fixed the table, so that Zachary and Matthew were sitting on the same side. Michaela, Colleen, and he each had a spot on the three other sides, "That should work."

He was a problem solver, Michaela thought and continued to set both tables.

She set out paper plates for the kids. She and Sully would eat from the disposable aluminum dinner trays that their meals were being cooked in. The next thing she needed was silverware.

When she opened the silverware drawer, the first thing she noticed was that his forks didn't match. She ignored it and retrieved one fork for herself and one for Sully, and set them at their places on the table. Since the kids were eating finger foods, she didn't set out silverware for them. Then she decided to look inside his cabinets for cups and other things.

When she looked inside the cabinet, she knew for sure that she was in the home of a single man who was also a single father. He didn't have any formal china. All of the cups and glasses were made of plastic, except the coffee mugs, and many of them had cartoon characters on them. She got out two plain cups for herself and Sully and three cups adorned with cartoon characters for Matthew, Colleen and Zachary.

"Do your kids drink milk?" Sully asked.

"Yes," She said, and then started to worry. She hadn't planned to be there all day, and she grabbed a juice for Brian and a bag of goldfish crackers, which he had during Matthew's practice. For lunch that day, all of the kids had Capri Suns. Brian needed a sippy cup. If she gave him a regular cup, he would spill.

"What's the matter?" Sully inquired, noticing her deep in thought.

"Brian needs a sippy cup," Michaela admitted.

"Oh," Sully smiled, she didn't need to worry about that for a minute, "Sippy cups are over here. Hanna's favorite is the Nuk one with the pink lid and Disney Princesses on it," Sully got that cup out and handed it to her, "Brian is welcome to any of the others."

Michaela looked carefully at the cups. They were all pretty girlie and Brian loved to copy Matthew and wanted boy things. If she gave him a pink cup with princesses or unicorns, he would throw a fit. Michaela was in luck, she found another Nuk cup that was shaped identically to Hanna's, but this one had a white lid and silver stars on it. It was neutral enough that Brian wouldn't call it a girl cup.

After dinner was ready and the table was set, Sully was going to pause the movie and call the children to the table, but Michaela stopped him, "Yes, M… Dr. Mike," he was about to say, "Yes, my love," but he stopped himself. He wasn't sure if he truly believed himself to be in love, but calling her that felt very natural.

"Would you mind if we said grace before we eat?" Michaela asked. She knew Sully sent his kids to church, but he didn't attend himself. He might not be the saying grace type, but to Michaela, it was very important.

"Sure," Sully answered, "Would you like to say it tonight?"

"Yes," Michaela answered.

"Do y'all hold hands or bow your heads?" he inquired.

"We typically hold hands," she told him.

"That's convenient," Sully commented, "That's how we say grace."

Michaela smiled and Sully smiled back.

Once dinner was done and everything was put away, Michaela loaded her kids into her car, and Sully loaded his kids into his and the two families met at Ice Cream Social. Michaela decided that it would be best to leave from there and go home. Sully, knowing that he couldn't keep her at his home forever, agreed.

Once Colleen, Brian, and Hanna were playing, each with a balloon tied on their wrist, and Matthew and Zachary were playing video games, Sully and Michaela were able to sit in the same corner booth from last time and chat some more. Both adults really enjoyed getting to know one another.

"What do you like to do when you're not doctorin' or mommin'?" Sully asked.

"Momming?" Michaela inquired.

"Yeah, Mommin'," Sully said, "You're real good at takin' care of your kids. You're calm and sweet. You were real good with Hanna when she hopped up on your lap so you could do her hair."

"Thank you for saying that," Michaela said, "It was no trouble doing Hanna's hair."

"You're a natural," Sully said, "For me, it's easier with boys."

"In a sense, it is easier with boys," Michaela said, "With Brian and Matthew, I can put them in a pair of blue jeans and a polo or even a T-shirt and I'm done. When I'm doing their hair in the morning, I don't do Matthew's hair anymore, but if I did, I'd mostly just run a brush through it and sometimes add a little bit of hair gel. Everything is much more meticulous with Colleen. Colleen is picky about her hair sometimes. If I put her hair into a high ponytail, I have to make sure I brush it so there are no bumps, and I mean no bumps. If she feels even the start of a bump, she will take all of her hair out and want me to do it again. I do a lot of braids to avoid that."

Sully started to chuckle. He wasn't quite to that phase with Hanna yet, but he could imagine her acting the same way, "I think about bath time. I don't help Zac in the bath anymore. He doesn't even take a bath anymore; he takes showers now. But when I used to help him, all I had to really do was throw him in, hose him down, and throw a bar of soap at him," He and Michaela both laughed at that, "With Hanna, there is no doin' that. I hafta wash and condition her hair, then I hafta blow dry it."

"Do you do her hair in the morning?" Michaela asked, she was curious.

"No," Sully admitted, and they both laughed, "I brush it. I bring the hair stuff with me to school and Miss Lindsay does it."

"I like Miss Lindsay a lot," Michaela commented.

"Yeah," Sully agreed, "She's real nice. I'm glad I put Hanna there."

"Did Hanna not always go there?" Michaela inquired.

"She has," Sully said, "But Zac hasn't. He used to go to a daycare after school. I was gonna put Hanna in the same place, but they had a lice infestation there and Zac got lice. It was easy to take care of. I didn't even bring him home. I got a friend that owns a barber shop to shave his head. If that happened to Hanna, I can't shave her head."

"No you can't," Michaela agreed.

"I know there can be a lice breakout anywhere," Sully said, "But I didn't feel right about bringin' him there anymore. The church preschool was the only other place I knew for Hanna. Zachary went to an after-school program for a while, but now he's old enough that he takes the bus home from school in the afternoon. He can stay in the bungalow by himself until I'm done workin'. Sometimes he even works with me."

"How do you like Miss Chambers as a teacher?" Michaela asked next. Miss Chambers was a hot button topic in her home and she wondered if it was the same for him.

"Oh boy," Sully said, shaking his head, "I don't know much about it, but she supposedly gets good test scores. Zachary has gotten some pretty good report cards this year, which I'm glad about. She has taught him a few things."

"But?" Michaela interjected.

Sully sighed, "The thing is, I've known Louise since high school, and she doesn't like me. Sometimes I think she takes it out on Zachary, but I also know my son. If he gets in trouble, most of the time, he's not just askin' for a punishment, he's beggin' for it."

"Why doesn't she like you?" Michaela asked. She was very interested in hearing about that for sure.

"'Cause, she asked me to a dance," Sully confided, "It was one of those dances where the girls ask the boys, and I said no because I already had a date. She took it the wrong way and has hated me ever since."

"Oh please," Michaela scoffed, "She takes that out on your son? She should be ashamed."

"I don't know for sure, I just get that feelin'. Zachary can be a handful too," Sully said, "Last year, he had his first male teacher, Mr. O'Connor. Mr. O'Connor used to be in the army, so he was naturally tough. He asked Zac to do somethin' he didn't want to do, and Zac was already tired of him. He told Mr. O'Connor that he can suck his left nut."

"Oh my," Michaela said, a little stunned.

Sully started laughing hysterically when he saw the look of horror on her face, "I don't condone that," he promised, starting to calm down.

When Sully regained his composure Michaela said, "My children have always gone to private schools, and so did I. My father was a huge believer in a classical education. My mother wanted a religious education for us. I've always handled my children's education the same way. But we just moved here and I bought a house, took over a practice, and I have been trying to get my bearings. I put Matthew and Colleen into the public school near my home, because they need to be in school, but I am seriously thinking of moving them to a private school."

"Why haven't you so far?" Sully asked.

"My daughter really likes her teacher and has made a good friend," Michaela explained, "Matthew doesn't like his teacher, but he really does like going to class with your son, plus he is starting to make more friends. That is important to me."

"If it makes you feel any better at all, I have been considerin' moving Zachary to a private school too," Sully disclosed, "I've grew up goin' to public schools. In fact, I went to Colorado Springs Elementary, Middle and High School. I wanna move my kids partly because I don't like how Louise handles Zachary, but also, I don't like the constant testin' that they do in school these days either. We took one state test when I was a kid, one. Now they are testin' them every few months. All these kids do in school is get ready to take the next test. What are they really learnin? One is A? Two is B?"

"I know what you mean," Michaela agreed and then became passionate, "I want something more character building for my children than that. They spend their entire childhood in school, and I for one would hate to think that they spent that entire time learning how to answer test questions. "

"Yeah," Sully said, touched by her passion.

The two sat face to face, looking into each other's eyes. If Sully didn't know any better, he would think that Michaela wanted him to kiss her at that moment. Michaela felt the same about him. They both wanted to kiss, and they both could sense that the opposite person wanted to kiss. Then… A scream!

Michaela and Sully both looked in the direction of the scream and saw Hanna sitting on the ground crying and holding her hand.

"Hanna!" Sully yelled in a panic. He was out of the booth in a second, with Michaela two seconds behind him, and he scooped Hanna up into his arms, "What's wrong, Baby?"

Hanna was crying so hard that Sully and Michaela couldn't make out what she was saying.

"I saw it," said another parent, "One of the children over there stepped on her finger."

"Oh, my baby. Shh. Shh. Baby. Daddy's right here," He held the little girl tightly to his body.

"Sully, let me see," Michaela said.

Sully kissed Hanna's forehead and then adjusted her so he was holding her with her back pressed against his chest, and Michaela examined both of her hands.

"Is it this one?" Michaela found the finger that looked scraped by a sneaker.

"Yes," Hanna cried.

"Sully, go get some ice from the soda fountain, while I examine her finger," Michaela ordered.

"Alright," he said, and reluctantly set his daughter down, so she was sitting on their table.

Michaela sat in the booth and turned Hanna so she was facing her. Since Hanna was still sobbing, partly because of the hurt finger, and partly because Sully wasn't holding her any longer, Michaela had to think of something to calm the child down. Then she softly started to sing a nursery school song that Brian often sang and that she knew Miss Lindsay sang in her class.

"Five little ducks went out to play, over the hills and far away, the mother duck said quack quack quack quack, and four little ducks came waddling back," Michaela sang and began doing the hand movements that went along with the song. Once Michaela started singing, it got Hanna's attention, and she started singing the song and doing the same hand movements. Soon Michaela stopped singing and Hanna was singing by herself. The song did exactly what Michaela needed it to do, it got Hanna to calm down and stop crying, but it also allowed Michaela to see the range of motion in her hands and fingers.

Sully came rushing back with a cup of ice. When he got to Hanna and Michaela, Michaela held up her hand, signaling to him that Hanna was fine. Sully took a deep breath of relief and set the cup down on the table behind Hanna. Then he smiled lovingly as he heard her finishing the duck song for Michaela.

As they were at the table, Brian came toddling toward them. He liked Hanna a lot, but being only two himself, he got a little jealous when he saw his mother engaging so lovingly with a toddler that wasn't him.

Sully saw Brian first, and had a sense of what was going on, "You wanna sit up high, Buddy?" Then he scooped up Brian and threw him on top of his shoulders, "Now you're sittin' higher than everyone!"

"Me too!" Hanna complained.

"I'm not as tall as your daddy, but I can help you sit higher than usual," Michaela said, and stood up and put Hanna on her shoulders."

"We tall!" Brian cheered and clapped his hands. Hanna clapped her hands too.

Michaela and Sully looked at each other, just smiling and having a good time. As they were laughing at the kids who had started to high five each other, someone had put a quarter in the jukebox that was in the corner of the place. Whoever it was, selected Amy Winehouse's version of Cupid.

"Let's dance Bwian," Hanna said.

"Okay Hanna!" Brian said back.

The two toddlers started dancing while they were still on the adults' shoulders.

Sully and Michaela continued to smile at one another and all either of them could here were the song lyrics, "Cupid, draw back your bow, And let your arrow flow, Straight to my lover's heart for me, Nobody but me, Cupid, please hear my cry, And let your arrow fly, Straight to my lover's heart for me..."

"What is this?" an angry male voice yelled suddenly, "What the hell is this?"

Sully turned and was stunned to see his father-in-law standing on the other side of the corner booth.

"Michaela?" said Dorothy, also in shock. She didn't know that Michaela and Sully knew each other.

"You know this tramp?" Loren turned and yelled at Dorothy.

"I told you, I got a nanny job. I'm her nanny and I didn't know that they knew each other," Dorothy said to Loren.

"It hasn't even been a year yet and you already replaced my daughter with this tramp?" Loren scolded Sully.

"She ain't a tramp," Sully said defensively, "She's a friend of mine."

"She's a tramp!" Loren shouted.

"Loren! Please shut up, you're gonna make me lose my job!" Dorothy begged.

"Sir," Michaela said sternly and very seriously, as Dorothy was telling him to be quiet, "Do not call me a tramp AGAIN."

Loren looked at her and put his hands up. He knew he'd better keep his mouth shut about Michaela.

"Grandpa," Zachary greeted, having missed the exchange that just happened. He just saw his grandfather from afar and wanted to say hi.

"Hello, Zachary," Loren said softly. He put an arm around him and drew him in for a hug, "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too, Grandpa," Zachary said as he hugged his grandfather.

"At least he still knows who I am," Loren said to Sully with a not so subtle dig. He pointed to Hanna, who was still on Michaela's shoulders and said, "She doesn't know who I am. She knows who this tr…woman is, but not me, her grandfather."

"Who's fault is that?" Sully inquired, trying to keep his cool. He didn't want to go off on Loren in public, in front of Michaela, and certainly not in front of his children.

"Are you sayin' it's mine?" Loren snapped.

"No!" Zachary begged, "No fighting, please."

"I'm going to leave," Michaela said, not wanting to be in the middle of a fight.

Sully sighed, "You don't have to," then he thought, if she agrees to see him after this, he will never come to Ice Cream Social with her again. This place was bad luck!

"I think it's best. I don't want to be in the middle of this," Michaela lifted Hanna off her shoulders and sat her on the table, then she reached for Brian. When Sully handed him over, she collected her purse and her other two children and left as quickly as possible.

Sully let out a huge, frustrated sigh.

"Sorry, I ruined your date," Loren said smugly.

"I'm sorry, Sully. I will talk to Michaela on Monday," Dorothy vowed and then gave her brother-in-law a dirty look, "If I still have a job."

"Don't worry about it, Miss Dorothy," Sully said. He picked up Hanna and looked at Zachary, "It's time to go home."

"Oh now you're just takin' them away!" Loren yelled.

"Loren, stop!" Dorothy demanded, "You're makin' it worse!"

As they left the booths around the play place, Zachary met up with Sully and Sully put an arm around him.

To be continued.

Glad you're enjoying the story. Again, thank you for the support.

As always, Please leave me a review so I know what you think!