“You being a good girl?” I sat her down and gave her a serious look.
“Yes.” She nodded and grinned up at me. “I’m always a good girl.”
“You know that Santa Claus only comes for good girls.” I continued on talking. “In fact, if you’re a bad girl, the Grinch will come and he’ll take away—”
“Zane,” Lucky grabbed my arm and squeezed. “I think that’s enough.”
“Huh?” I looked back at her and then realized that perhaps I was going a bit too far with my story. “Well, just be a good girl, Skylar, and listen to what Noah says.” She looked up at me with a confused expression.
“Is Santa coming?” Her lower lip started trembling, and I felt my stomach churning. Uh, oh I’ve gone and screwed this up. “I’ve been good. I promise.”
“I think Santa is going to have a conversation with Noah in a few months and then will decide if he’s going to come.” I smiled at her gently and then saw Noah trying not to laugh at me. “So you better go and get ready for bed now.”
“Okay, Uncle Zane.” She nodded and gave me a small hug. “Night night, Aunty Lucky.”
“Night, my precious.” She gave Skylar a kiss on the cheek, and then Skylar went running over to Noah.
“I’m ready to go to bed now, Noah.”
“Okay, run upstairs and brush your teeth and I’ll come and tuck you in when you’re done.”
“Okay.” She grinned and ran up the stairs. “I want a goodnight story as well.”
“We’ll see.”
“Please, Noah.” She paused on the stairs and looked back down with pleading eyes. “I really want to read tonight.”
“Go and brush your teeth, and we’ll see.” He grinned up at her and then walked over to us, once she had gone back up the stairs.
“Long night?” I laughed as I looked at his tired expression.
“You do not even know.” He yawned. “She didn’t want to eat fish sticks, she didn’t want to drink apple juice. She wanted ice cream for dessert and then when she got ice cream, she wanted cake. And then when she got cake, she wanted chocolate. And then when she got chocolate she spat it out and wanted the ice cream again.” He took a deep breath. “So yeah, it was a long night.”
“You’re doing a good job, Noah.” Lucky squeezed his arm.
“Yeah, he’s doing a good job at letting her have whatever she wants for dessert.” I laughed. “Can we say that she’s totally pulling all the strings?”
“Whatever.” Noah walked over to the couch and flopped down. “Just wait until you have kids.”
“I know I’ll be loving but firm.” I sat on the couch next to him.
“Zane, you don’t even have the patience for a pregnancy class.” Lucky laughed at me. “I don’t know that you’re going to be Super Dad right off the bat.”
“That class sucked.” I gave her a grin. “Trust me, once the babies arrive I’ll be fine.”
“What temperature do their bottles need to be?” she questioned me, raising an eyebrow.
“What bottle?” I asked in confusion.
“The bottle with their formula.” She smiled at me gently.
“Aren’t you going to breastfeed them?” I couldn’t stop myself from staring at her growing bosoms. “Why will they need formula?”
“I may not create enough milk for both of them, Zane. It’s something we have to prepare for.”
“Oh.” I shrugged. “I guess you’ll figure it out.”
“No, Zane. I won’t be figuring anything out. We will be figuring it out.” She plopped down on my lap and grinned at me before giving me a quick kiss. “Remember what Nancy said, we’re in this together and we have to make decisions together.”
“Who’s Nancy and when did she say this?” I was totally confused as to what Lucky was talking about.
“Oh my God, Zane.” She jumped off of my lap and gave me a disapproving look. “Nancy was the instructor in our class tonight, and that was the first thing she said after we all introduced ourselves.”
“Oh, yeah.” I smiled up at her weakly. I had totally spaced out during that conversation and had been thinking about trying to find a way to ask Lucky if she wanted to talk about possibly getting married in Vegas.
“Oh, yeah, my foot.” Lucky shook her head. “You have no idea what she said, do you?” She glared at me. “I’m going upstairs to have a shower, and no, before you ask, I do not want to share it with you.”
I watched as she walked up the stairs and sat back and sighed. “Guess that didn’t go very well.” I looked over at Noah who was trying very hard to keep a straight face.
“Yeah, I recommend you get your act together, bro, or you may find that you’re on Santa’s naughty list this Christmas.” He raised an eyebrow at me, and we both burst out laughing.
Chapter 2
Noah
“Which book would you like us to read tonight, Skylar?” I pulled the bed sheets and duvet over her before sitting down in the new armchair Lucky had bought for the room.
“Not Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” she yawned, “or Cinderella. Something new.”
“Okay,” I laughed. “We can read something new.” I stared at her face as she looked at me with wide eager eyes. A swell of love filled my heart as she looked up at me with an open and loving face. She had only been living here as my adopted daughter for a month, but I could already see a huge difference in her appearance and her demeanor. She was happy almost all of the time now. There were still times when I would see her thinking hard, and she looked downcast. Whenever, I saw her looking too sad, I would go up to her and tickle her until she couldn’t stop laughing, and then we would have a quick cuddle. “What about The Jolly Postman?”
“Yes, yes.” She sat up eagerly. “I want to read it to you, please.”
“I’d be happy for you to read it to me.”
“Noah,” she said my name slowly. “Do you ever think about Palm Bonita?”
“Sometimes.” I smiled at her slowly, and my stomach lurched. So far, we hadn’t really had any conversations about Monica, and I was worried that she was going to have a bad delayed reaction. Lucky had suggested that we go to a child therapist together to make sure that no issues developed, but I hadn’t thought that was necessary. “Why?”