Page 48 of Broken Chorus

“I’m just drawing some notes so I won’t forget them,” Aaron offered, cheeks pinking up a little, which just told Hawk that he knew it was a lame attempt at an excuse.

“Ohh is that new song?” She asked, pointing at his plate.

Bless her for trying to give Aaron an out. Hawk couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he watched her intently stare down at Aaron’s plate trying to read what he’d written there.

“I think that’s exactly what it’ll be when I’m done,” Aaron said, ruffling her hair.

“Alls I see is squiggles.”

Cade snorted as she leaned over as far as the booster seat would allow her, forcing Aaron to tuck one of her crooked ponytails behind her ear, while Hawk just chuckled at their antics, because it really was awesome to see the dynamic between them.

“Do you have a name for it yet?” Kelly asked, shooting Aaron a pointed look.

Panic, betrayal and squinty-eyed fury, that’s the look Aaron shot Kelly’s way, along with a double bird which he punctuatedby sticking his tongue out at him, but only after he’d checked to make certain none of the kids were paying any attention to him.

“Look Unky Aaron, I draw notes too!” Dani declared.

She sure was trying, even if they looked like streaks of sauce across her plate. The fact that she’d already eaten far more of her meal than Aaron wasn’t lost on Hawk either. His new obsession with his weight and how he looked with his shirt off was concerning, and something Hawk intended to keep an eye on in the future.

“Go ahead and explain to her why she shouldn’t be doing that,” Cade urged in a tone that made it sound like a challenge.

“Oh, this I’ve gotta hear,” Micah remarked, propping his head on his hand to watch everything unfold.

His declaration drew the attention of everyone else at the table, all eyes turning towards Aaron as they waited for him to try and weasel out of this.

Aaron raised an eyebrow at Cade before turning his attention back to Dani. “Well, there’s a couple reasons playing with your food is a bad idea, especially when it’s messy. You wouldn’t wanna get sauce all over your wings, would you? It might gunk them up and then how would you flap them?”

“These don’t flap, silly, they flutter,” Dani replied, smiling brightly at him.

“But if they get gunky, they might get stuck together, then you wouldn’t be able to move them at all,” Aaron reasoned. “Not only that, but the sauce might cover up all your sparkly glitter. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

She huffed at that, eyes narrowing. “No.”

“And what happens if you’re playing with your food and you accidently get it on the floor?” Aaron said. “You’ll make more work for the kitchen gnomes. Then they’ll be too tired to bake cookies, and we’ll have to let Uncle Kelly try again and this time, he might burn the whole batch instead of just half of them.”

Her eyes narrowed more, and she got that gleam in them right before she pouted at him again. “You’re making that up! Unky Kelly said he not burn cookies, he said a mean fiendy ate them all. He helped me make fiendy traps, but we didn’t catch nuthin’.”

The look on her face was priceless, disgruntled, and adorable all rolled into one. Everyone at the table was snickering while Aaron covered his eyes and groaned.

“I might be fibbing just a little bit,” Aaron admitted.

“But fibs are lies and lyin’ is bad, right Unky Hawk?” Dani asked, turning in her seat to face him.

“That’s right, Dani,” Hawk said, smirking at Aaron, who turned away to stare back down at his place.

“I’m just gonna shut up and eat now,” Aaron muttered.

“We’re not ‘posed ta say shut up,” Dani pointed out. “Unky Hawk said it not nice.”

“He’s right,” Aaron said softly, and slowly picked at his food until her plate was empty and she shoved it away with a triumphant grin.

“Can I have my sprinkles now, pweese?” Dani asked.

“Don’t you wanna let your food settle a little,” Hawk asked.

She patted her belly and shook her head. “It’s settled. Nothin’s movin’ in there.”

“Guess that means I gotta go downstairs,” Aaron said.

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