“Great, now she will not sleep tonight,” Calliope sighed, lifting her up. Gigi stirred grumpily before burying her head in her mom’s neck. “I’ll take her up, while you…well, you take care of the home front.”
“And here I thought you’d take charge of that,” I said, handing her Gigi’s dolphin.
“Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow…” Calliope began to sing but that only succeeded in waking Gigi.
She rubbed her eyes and glanced around. At seeing me, she smiled and nearly fell out of Calliope’s arms trying to reach for me, so I took her.
“Papa, you’re back. Where’d you go?”
“He went with me,” Calliope said, tickling her stomach, making her wiggle in my arms. “Daddy and I had stuff to talk about it.”
“Me?” she asked, looking at my face.
“Yes, you,” I answered tapping her nose. “Did you like the movies?”
She shook her head. “Saura wanted to play. Then Nana read us stories. Daddy, can we go play?”
“Sure,” I said, brushing her hair out of her face. She tried to grin but yawned. “But are you sleepy?”
“No,” she lied.
I laughed. “Really?”
She nodded. However, the amusement on my face was gone when we stepped out and I saw both of my uncles waiting for me. Of course, they would not even give me this moment.
“Fine, how about you get everything ready and we play tonight. Just you, me, and Mommy.” I nodded, kissing her cheek. I held her for a long time, part of me still shocked she was here, in my arms.
“We have a lot of stuff we have to do, sweetheart. Daddy gave us a whole list of chores,” Calliope said, coming back to take her.
“More chores?” she pouted, and I couldn’t help but snicker.
“They are Mom’s chores. You’re just there to supervise her,” I said.
“Okay…What does soup-er-vise mean?” Gigi looked between us.
“Don’t mind Papa; he’s just picking on me,” Calliope muttered, giving me a look.
“Not nice, Papa.” Gigi wagged her finger at me, and I grabbed her hand, making her squeal, laugh, and try to pull away.
“Oh, isn’t this so cute,” my grandmother said as she walked forward down the hall, O’Phelan on her left and Wyatt on her right. He held onto his cane as he stepped forward because the idiot apparently did not understand what the meaning of bedrest was.
Calliope shot me a quick glance, surely thinking what I was thinking as the hall filled with more and more people… They were no longer going to wait for an explanation.
“Well, aren’t you the ready-made family,” Wyatt joked, though with less vigor and annoyance and more skepticism.
“Then as a family,” Calliope began to say, looking directly to him and smiling sweetly, “I think it is my duty to tell you, Wyatt, you should be in bed, resting, like I’m sure your doctor told you, too.”
He shrugged, making his way over to the couch. “I got a second opinion.”
“From whom, yourself?” Calliope and I asked at the same time. I looked at her, and she looked back at me.
“Wow, I see you two must have worked out your issues…since last night,” he replied, looking between us.
Ignoring him, I focused on our butler. “O’Phelan.”
“Yes, sir.”
“From now on, everything which concerns this house and this family will also be shared with my wife; that includes the finances,” I told him and paused as his eyebrows came together in confusion. Once more, I looked at her. “You’ll treat her as if she were me…from this morning, that does not seem as though it would be a problem, will it?”