Page 46 of Gabriel & Skye

She waves her hands over her face, laughing. “No! We put pictures with the letters like ‘I’ for ice cream.”

“Oh, so not meow like a cat?”

“Daddy, no cats!” She can’t contain her giggles, and I love the sound of it.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“So just ‘I’ for ice cream?”

“Do we have ice cream, Daddy?”

It’s my turn to chuckle. “Maybe after you eat all your dinner. Does Daddy make the best mac n cheese?”

“Yes!” She bounces on her chair excitedly.

“And that’s all we need to know, angel. You tell me what other sounds you made today at school. Was it bahhhh for the sheep?”

“No sheep!”

“Fine then, there must have been a naaaaay for the horses, at least?”

More laughs ensue. “Yes! There was a horse sound! ‘H’ for horse, and the picture looked like Bandit.”

“Ah, well, there you go then. That’s excellent. What else?”

“D is for Daddy!”

I walk over and give her a kiss on the head. “You really are something special. Do you know that?”

She smiles up at me. Bunnykins sits beside her waiting for his dinner, too.

I fucking hope it’s always like this. I hope I’m still cool when she gets older, and she wants to go out with her friends. I hope she never forgets moments like this.

“Remember how I told you Geraldine is retiring and her and Hank are going to take a big vacation?”

“Yeah.” She looks up at me.

“Well, how would you like it if Skye came to watch you from now on?” I know we’ve chatted before about this, and Geraldine has talked to her too. But kids’ minds can be fickle. I want to make sure she understands and doesn’t get upset.

“Skye, like the blue sky?”

I laugh, turning back to the macaroni. “Yes, like the blue sky. But Skye has green eyes, they’re pretty eyes, too. She said she met you at the Bake’ n’ Shake.”

“Yes! I ate wocky wode with Blake.”

“Rocky road? I didn’t get any.”

She laughs again. “Yes, and Bunnykins ate some too!”

“And did you and Bunnykins like Miss Skye with the pretty eyes?”

“Yes!” She presses her crayon into the paper, happily coloring away.

“Maybe we could make her a picture for Wednesday. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“I can color her a picture, Daddy. Maybe horses?” I swear this kid always has animals on the brain.

---