Page 74 of Nothing to This
She made eye contact with Brenna.“I guess we’re going home.”
***
Both she and Kye got ready for bed and were in his room reading when they heard Sky tearing through the apartment.Like a little tornado all of her own.
She’d just put the book aside when Sky ran into Kye’s room and did a twirl in her dress.
She’d been the one to put Sky in the dress because JD had meetings at work that meant he only had time to swing by and pick up his date.Yet Sky twirled like she and Kye were seeing her for the first time.
Witnessing her daughter’s joy filled her with her own.“Did you have fun, sweetpea?”
“I went to a ball!”Sky said and ran to the bed to climb up with them.
She scrambled all the way to the top and tried to stand up.Settling Sky in her lap, she unbuckled her shoes.Kye was still sitting under her arm, now hypnotized by the intricate twinkling beads on Sky’s dress that caught the light from his lamp.
“I know you did, sweetpea.”
“Daddy danced with me,” Sky said, helping her mom take off her shoes.
JD appeared in the doorway.The moment their eyes met, she distanced herself by loosening Sky’s hair.Kye climbed out of bed to run over to his dad, who caught him and picked him up.
“Did he?”
“Uh huh,” Sky said.“I dranked shampoo.”
“Champagne?”she asked.
While their daughter nodded, she looked to a smiling JD.
“Grape juice,” he said.“They put it in a flute for her.She was the belle of the ball, the most beautiful girl in the room.”
With the pins and ribbons put aside, she ran her fingers through Sky’s hair.
“Daddy’s friend was prettiest.She had pretty sparkles on.Dee-mons.”
“Diamonds?”she asked, easing her daughter onto the bed so she could get up.
Kye wouldn’t take long to settle, and Sky was hyper.When the excitement wore off, she’d be out like a light.
“Mm huh,” Sky said, wriggling to the edge of the bed as her mom removed her pantyhose.“Daddy boughted them for her.”That slowed her.Oblivious Sky looked past her mom to her daddy, probably still in the doorway.“I want dee-mons, Daddy.Will you get me dee-moms like Gabby’s dee-mons?”
Shock forced her to her feet, anger burning her insides.Only the vision of her innocent daughter wiggling her perfect little toes like Ariel reminded her to grit her teeth and breathe through it.
Slowly counting to ten, she took a long, deep breath before gathering all of Sky’s things and taking her daughter’s hand.“Come on, sweetpea.Mommy will get you ready for bed.”
“Oh, Momma!”
“No, it’s bedtime, no complaining.”
Sky hopped off the bed and went with her.“Kye is not in bed.”
“He wanted Daddy to tuck him in,” she said just as they reached the door and she landed a glare on JD.“Put your son to bed, JD.”
***
As she’d predicted, Sky dropped like a sack of potatoes when the adrenaline wore off.After changing and brushing her teeth, Sky was dragging her feet.She didn’t get through reading two full pages of a story before she drifted off.
When she turned off the light and pulled the door over, there in the dark hallway was JD, leaning against the wall.
