Page 24 of Summer with the Single Dad

“Second: you and Emme both deserve privacy in the bathroom. We all do. I know you two pee with the door open, but if Emme wants to start peeing with the door closed, then you need to respect that. There are three people in this house and three bathrooms. Nobody should ever have to wait. And third, Emme, get in here too, please.” He waited until Emerson entered his room too, a look of mild irritation on her face. He ignored it. “Maybe if you got your bathroom business done before you woke up Aya, you wouldn’t have to fight her for it. You already get up at your alarm. So just go and wake her up once you’re done in the bathroom. Does that sound like a reasonable solution?”

Emme shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, I can probably do that.”

Aya’s little chest stuttered as she pulled in deeper and deeper breaths. She turned to her sister. “Sorry I called you a dumb-head.”

Bennett’s brows rose. “You didn’t tell me that part.”

Aya bit her lip. “’Cause it would have made me look bad.”

“It sure would have.” He tried to keep his amusement from showing, but the girls knew him too well and before long, they were all giggling. “All right. Emme, go do what you need to do in the bathroom. Aya, if you have to pee, you can use my bathroom.”

The girls nodded and went to do what they needed to do. Bennett took the thirty seconds of privacy and quiet while Aya was in his bathroom with the door closed, to get dressed for the day.

Oh, if only all the fires he needed to put out were as simple as a silly spat between the children. Normally, the girls got along quite well, but as all siblings did from time to time, they pushed each other’s buttons until somebody snapped.

Aya emerged from the bathroom a moment later. “How many more days are left of school?”

“Well, it’s Monday, and the funfair and last day of school is Friday. So, that’s five days, Little Bug. Then you’re free for the summer.”

She nodded. “I need a break. I’m exhausted from all the learning. It just never ends.” Then she wandered across the hall to her bedroom, leaving Bennett snickering as he quickly finger-combed gel into his hair.

Both his girls were smart, cheeky, and hilarious. Not to mention kind, affectionate, and all-around wonderful. But Aya put him in stitches so much with the things that came out of her mouth. She was his critical thinker. The one who really kept him on his toes. The cogs in her brain never stopped spinning, and even though he wasn’t entirely sure reincarnation was a thing, she definitely had an old soul. She was like a wise, and slightly cranky, old lady trapped in the body of a seven-year-old.

Then there was Emerson. She was mature and thoughtful. Gentle and patient. She stepped up to help with her cousins and sister almost immediately after Carla and the other women passed away. She took care of all of them with a kind of grace that reminded him so much of her mother. She could be indecisive at times, overly cautious and sometimes even timid—though everyone came across as timid next to Aya who would jump into a pool without checking the depth or water temperature first—but he figured that was just her being the oldest child who wanted to make sure that everything was copasetic for the rest.

He’d truly hit the jackpot when it came to his offspring. And although he was doing his best not to traumatize them; he attributed the majority of their wonderfulness to Carla and her steadfast, patient, and affectionate parenting.

He fixed the girls their breakfast like he did every morning—cereal for Aya, and peanut butter toast for Emerson—always. Then he double-checked that their lunches were packed with all the nutritional essentials. That they had their water bottles, sunscreen, and sunhats. Then along with his brothers, niece, and nephews, they all walked to the bus stop on the main road at the end of the long laneway that served as the driveway to their property.

“How many years of this do I have to deal with, Dad?” Aya asked, her little hand in his and getting kind of sweaty as they walked to the bus stop with everyone else.

“How many years of what?”

“School. How many years of school do I have to deal with before I can get a job like you and just do what I want? Until I don’t have to learn anymore. I get it, ‘A’ says ‘ah.’ One plus one is two. Do I really need to know more than that? Isn’t that why we have calculators?” She made an exasperated sound that caused Bennett and his three brothers to all snicker.

“Well, mandatory school is thirteen years. You’re just finishing up first grade. So you have eleven more to go. Then if you decide to go to college, you’ll have more schooling.”

“Oh, I am not going to college. I’ll get a job where you don’t need college first. Like a doctor or a pilot or …” She glanced at Bennett’s brother Wyatt. “Like a chef, like Uncle Wyatt. Anybody can cook. I don’t need to go to school to cook. I’ll just watch YouTube videos.”

Wyatt rolled his eyes. “I’m glad my profession and education have been reduced to nothing more than a YouTube video. I’ll call my instructors at Le Cordon Bleu and ask for my money back.”

Aya looked at him like he was speaking another language.

“And I’m pretty sure you need to go to school for a long time to be a doctor,” Bennett added. “Actually, Justine is a doctor. You can ask her.”

Aya perked up and Emme turned to look at him. “How do you know that? Have you been spending time with Justine?”

“I want to spend time with Justine,” Aya said. “Not fair.”

“Yes, Bennett. Have you been spending time with Justine?” Dom asked teasingly. “I met her the other night when she came to the pub to order dinner.” He mouthed the word hot and nodded in approval.

“Turns out she’s a runner too, and we both like to run in the morning. I bumped into her this morning. That’s all. No big deal.”

But the looks he was getting from his brothers said it was absolutely a big deal.

His kids, however, seemed more put out that he got to spend time with Justine and they didn’t.

They reached the bus stop.

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