Page 11 of The Light to My Darkness (The Light to My Darkness 1)

"No, I'm not. But I am going to casually walk away and go wake Scarlett." I smiled at him and turned to leave the kitchen.

"And Penny?"

I glanced at him over my shoulder.

"I'm sorry I told my friends about your heart murmur. I just needed to vent because I was going crazy. It won't happen again. I'll talk to you next time instead of being compelled to talk about you. I'm really sorry." He looked so sincere. It made any other resentment I was holding on to completely evaporate.

"It's okay. I understand. Let's just not start telling everyone else we know, okay?"

"My lips are sealed."

I smiled, remembering once when Rob had promised that exact same thing. He had pretended to lock his mouth closed and throw away the key. But he had immediately started talking again.

"What?" James said. Apparently my smile was contagious because he was smiling now too.

"Nothing. I was just thinking about how similar you and your brother are."

James made a face. "Rob and I are nothing alike."

"Oh really? How about the fact that you both care so much but are awful at expressing it? Or the fact that you're both still kids at heart? Or that neither of you can stop getting your wives pregnant?"

James shook his head and laughed. "Go wake up Scarlett and tell her we get to eat breakfast in bed." He opened up the fridge and started rummaging through the options for what would probably end up being Eggo waffles. Ellen really did spoil us during the week. But I never minded Eggo waffles in bed. Actually, it sounded kind of perfect. I can't believe I was upset with him last night. He was the absolute sweetest. I wandered into the family room and knelt down in front of Scarlett.

"Hey, Scar." I ran my hands down her arm. "Guess what we get to do today?"

She yawned, but didn't open her eyes. "Zoo?" She immediately sat up, perfectly alert now, and started clapping her hands. "Zoo!"

I laughed. "We get to eat breakfast in bed!" Saying no was never the best plan of action around Scarlett. She'd do that thing where her lower lip trembled and tears welled in her eyes. Then we'd have to say yes to whatever ridiculous thing she came up with. James was an even worse pushover than me. If he had been in here, he probably would have just said okay and we'd be spending the day walking around in the God f

orsaken heat.

She blinked as she stared up at me. "In bed? But I want to eat with you and Daddy. Mommy, please. Why do I have to eat alone?"

"Not alone. You get to eat with us in our bed. And we can spend the day drawing zoo animals. Lots and lots of panda bears."

Her eyes seemed to grow with each thing I added to our list of activities. "I'll get the paper and crayons."

I smiled as she ran off. One day she'd stop pronouncing crayons as "crowns." I thought my heart might break into a million pieces when that happened. Scarlett might not realize it, but she'd always be my baby girl.

This time as I walked up the stairs, I was happy knowing that my family was coming up right behind me. I needed to count my lucky stars more often. I settled onto our bed.

Scarlett ran into the room a minute later. She came to the edge of the bed and tossed her box of crayons and the biggest stack of paper up onto it. Then she reached out her little hands and made the grabbing motion that meant she needed help getting up. I leaned down and lifted her onto the bed.

She crawled into the middle and plopped down right next to me. "Mommy, we have to draw four pandas. A mommy, a daddy, a little girl, and then a baby girl." She shoved a stack of paper on my lap.

"You know, this could be a little boy." I pointed to my stomach.

"Nuh-uh, Daddy said I'm going to get a baby sister." She grabbed a green crayon from the box and started drawing something that sort of resembled a bear. The green color really made me need to use my imagination.

James laughed from the door.

I looked up so that I could shake my head at him. He was starting to make Scarlett believe it was a girl too, which was ridiculous. But before I could say anything, I saw the tray of waffles in his hands. They were topped with chocolate ice cream and slices of banana.

"That looks so good," I said instead of scolding him for spreading lies to our daughter.

"I thought you'd approved." He joined us on the bed and handed me one of the plates.

"Don't tell Bee I was eating this. I already had to get my dress resized."

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