“I’m just bring two then, Noah. So they have company.” She looked at me with wide eyes and showed me the two bears: one was the one I had given her in Palm Bonita at a fair and the other one was given to her by Zane when she had first come to live with us.
“That’s fine, two teddy bears should be able to get along well enough.”
“Okay.” She nodded and gave me a wide beautiful smile. My heart melted and I reached down and picked her up and swung her around. How I loved this little girl.
“Can we go downstairs and finish packing for the picnic?”
“Okay. Can I have some teddy bear cookies?”
“Teddy bear cookies? Oh do you mean teddy grahams?”
“Yes, please.”
“Not right now.” I shook my head. “But I’ll bring some on the picnic.”
“Okay.” She ran down the stairs and into the living room. “I’m going to watch cartoons now.”
“Okay, sweet pea.” I nodded and walked back into the kitchen. Part of me still felt that while I had won the battle, I was losing the war. I was starting to feel uncomfortable with the amount of TV Skylar was watching. It seemed to be her go-to activity and I knew that I shouldn’t be allowing her to watch so many shows. I wasn’t even monitoring what she watched. I was pretty sure that Sesame Street didn’t come on 24 hours a day. I went back to packing the picnic basket feeling guilty. Maybe this wasn’t the best time to be worrying about getting into a relationship. Maybe I was doing a disservice to Skylar. While I knew I wasn’t as bad a parent as Monica, I certainly wasn’t feeling like I was going to win any parent of the year awards. I didn’t really have a clue and I didn’t think that love was going to be a great help in developing my parenting skills. I definitely needed to take the parenting class with Zane and Lucky. And now I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a good idea to see if Robin wanted to take the class with me.
I walked over to the fridge and pulled out the sandwiches Skylar and I had made earlier and the Rotisserie chicken that I had picked up at Ralphs.
“Shall we bring strawberries or grapes?” I called out to Skylar.
“Both.”
“Okay.” I laughed and added a few apples to the basket as well. Then I grabbed the Strawberry Kiwi Capri Sun packs and some Oreo cookies. “Okay, you ready, Skylar?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go then.”
“Shall I tell Uncle Zane and Aunty Lucky that we’re leaving?” Skylar turned off the TV and looked at me expectedly.
“Nah, I got it. Zane, we’re leaving now.” I shouted up the stairs and grinned at Skylar.
“What?” I heard Zane’s bedroom door open and his loud footsteps thumping to the top of the stairs.
“I said we’re leaving now.” I gave him a small wave and grabbed Skylar’s hand. “We’ll see you later.”
“Have fun.” He rolled his eyes and walked back to the bedroom. I noticed that his shirt was off and I realized that I had likely interrupted something between him and Lucky. Oops. I laughed to myself and buckled Skylar into the backseat and we drove off to go and pick Robin up.
***
“I spy with my little eye something beginning with b.” Skylar squealed as she ran around on the grass.
“Hmm, what can that be?” Robin bit her lower lip and looked around in an exaggerated fashion. “Butterfly?”
“No.” Skylar laughed.
“Bacon.”
“There’s no bacon here, silly.” Skylar fell down next to Robin and giggled.
“Hmm, blue sky?”
“No.” Skylar shook her head and leaned against Robin. I stared at my two girls playing and my heart expanded with emotion for both of them. So far the picnic had been wonderful; it had gone better than I had even hoped for. They both got on so well, it was as if Robin was made to be a mother, she had a natural way with Skylar and Skylar was enamored with her.
“I give up.” Robin grinned at me.
“Are you sure?” Skylar jumped up and down. “I win if you give up.”
“I’m sure.”
“I want to guess.” I winked at Robin. “I have an idea.”
“No, no, you can’t play. It’s not your turn.” Skylar shook her head. “It’s a bird. A bird.”
“No fair, I was going to guess that.”
“But I already said it so you lose.”
“But I didn’t even get to play.”
“Oh well.” Skylar plopped down and reached for an Oreo. “I’m the Eye spy winner.”
“Congratulations, Skylar.” Robin picked a bunch of daisies and started tying them together. “I’m making a crown.” Robin smiled as she answered my unspoken question. “A daisy crown for the eye spy Queen.”
“I’m a Queen. I’m a Queen.” Skylar danced around singing.
“Does that make me a King then?” I moved closer to Robin and grabbed her hand.
“Depends on what you want, Sire.” She winked at me and my blood boiled over as I stared at the curl of her red lips. She looked sexy as hell and all I could think about was how much I wanted to take her, right here on the blanket. I groaned inwardly as I realized that I couldn’t even touch her really, not if I didn’t want to scar Skylar even more than she had already been scarred.
“You know what I want.” I whispered in her ear, as I kissed her cheek. I was unable to stop myself from touching her.
“I think so, Sire. But I’m just a poor beggar woman. I have nothing else to offer you.”
“Your body is enough, m’ lady.”
“Then take me.” She flicked her hair back and kissed me softly.
“Do you know how badly I want to take you right now?” I groaned and traced the lines of her lips with my fingers while watching Skylar surreptitiously from the corner of my eyes. “Next time we have a picnic, it will just be you and me.”
“I like the family style picnic though.” Her eyes looked nostalgic. “This is the sort of picnic I always imagined going on when I was a kid.”
“Really?” I was surprised. “Seems a bit boring. Soggy cheese sandwiches and ant covered chicken don’t seem to be worthy of a dream.”
“It wasn’t the food I was dreaming of.” She lay back at looked at the sky. “It was the moment, the picture perfect moment of the sun shining on the green grass from a bright blue sky. With two parents laughing and loving each other and doting on their children and playing games without a care in the world.”