Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“Morning,” I said with a yawn. “Who wants breakfast?”
“Me!” Ada screeched, launching herself off the couch and wrapping her little arms around my legs.
“I want some of whatever gives her that energy at six-thirty in the morning,” Nico said, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
I grinned. “You’ll get used to it,” I said. “You know how cats get all wound up in the evening and run around like crazy? They call it the ‘evening crazies’.”
Nico shrugged.
“My dad used to call Ada the ‘morning crazies’,” I joked.
“Ha!”
“I know,” I said. “You want coffee? Or toast, or anything else?”
“Just coffee,” Nico said. He got to his feet and rubbed his stomach. “I think I’m still full from dinner last night.”
I went into the kitchen and made coffee for Nico and myself as well as a piece of toast (with just butter – I didn’t have all the time in the world to wipe her face this morning) for Ada.
“Breakfast!” I called. Nico and Ada came obediently into the kitchen and sat down at the table. I brought over the coffee, toast, and a grapefruit for myself and then sat down.
“Mommy, Steffy says we’re going to sing today,” Ada said, clearly enunciating each word.
“That sounds fun,” I replied as I sliced my grapefruit in half and used my spoon to separate the fruit from the skin. “What song?”
“A new song,” Ada said. She looked expectantly at Nico. “Can Daddy come?”
“Daddy has to work, just like Mommy,” I said, reaching over and ruffling her hair. “But I bet maybe in the future, he can pick you up sometime.”
“When?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
Ada pouted. “I want Daddy there!” Her voice was dangerously close to a whine and I hoped today wouldn’t set the stage for one of her huge tantrums. Despite being normally well-behaved, I couldn’t ignore the fact that my little girl was at that age – the age that I’d been warned about in parenting books.
“Daddy will come,” Nico said. He reached over and patted Ada’s hand. “I promise.”
“Today?” Ada asked hopefully. The hysteria had thankfully left her voice and she blinked at Nico with wide blue eyes.
“Soon,” Nico said. He grinned, then leaned down to Ada’s height and winked. “I want to surprise you.”
That seemed to mollify Ada, and she went back to nibbling her toast, leaving the crust on the plate, while I finished my grapefruit and coffee. The three of us sat in contented silence, punctuated only by the sound of Ada chewing with her mouth open, and when we were done I cleared the dishes.
“We should get a move on,” I said, glancing down at my phone and frowning at the time. “I don’t want to be late – I have a ton of stuff to do today.”
“Same,” Nico said. He mock-groaned. “At least it’s Friday, right?”
I smirked. “I remember when you used to work through the weekends,” I said. “I always thought you were such a workaholic – I came into the building so often on Saturdays that the weekend doorman was practically my best friend.”
Nico smirked. “Well, I try not to do that anymore,” he said.
I caught his eye. “What changed?” I asked, thankful that Ada was sitting on the ground and singing to herself instead of paying attention.
Nico leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I found something a lot more important than work,” he said quietly.
I couldn’t stop myself from blushing.
The three of us left the building together, Ada running ahead while Nico and I held hands and brought up the rear. I caught our reflection in the glass wall of a building and it was nearly enough to make me stop in my tracks.
“What?” Nico asked. He kept one watchful eye on Ada as he turned to face me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I said. It was the truth – there was absolutely nothing wrong.
It was just the domesticity of the whole thing was almost like a punch in the gut. There we were, strolling along, like a happy little family.
Nico and I hadn’t talked the night before like I’d expected and wanted. We still hadn’t had a serious discussion since he’d come over to meet Ada.
We needed to talk – about the important stuff, not just stuffed bunnies and Frozen and whether white grape juice was as good as purple grape juice. I knew that Nico wanted to: I could practically see it in his eyes.
He wasn’t going to push me, though, which I did appreciate. God knew I had enough to deal with, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t have to deal with this, too.
“I’m having fun, you know,” Nico said, yanking me off of my train of thought.
All I could do was smile gratefully at him. Of course, I was having fun, too.
But this was so much more than just fun, and it wasn’t like we could go on playing house forever. One of these days, we were going to have to sit down, sans Ada, and have a very serious chat.