When he found a few moments to himself, JC liked to read a few pages in his current book. Unbeknownst to most people, he had a bit of a love for the fuzzy romance stories. Not the book-of-the-month kind, but the kind that left a warm, fuzzy feeling when you finished it. "Romance-lite" Melody jokingly referred to them.
It was one of those days where the rain just kept on coming, and sitting down with a warm beverage and making some progress on his book sounded like the ideal way to spend the rest of the day.
The quiet thumping of little feet on the stairs announced the end of naptime. He sighed as he saved his progress before shutting the computer off, work done for the day. He had just closed the laptop when Arabella entered the room.
"Have a good nap, Bella?" he asked his oldest daughter.
"Yeah," she replied, climbing onto the couch next to JC. He turned on the TV, finding an episode of ChalkZone. They watched the end of the episode together before Harmony joined them.
"Can we paint today, Daddy?" Bella asked.
"Sure," JC switched the TV off and stretched. "Go on to the table, I'll get the stuff."
With the girls in the kitchen, he quickly retrieved the paper and paint supplies from the office cabinet. He brought them into the kitchen, placing the box on the table.
"Okay, Bella, what are the rules?" The painting rules were made after a few years previously when a then-four-year-old Arabella had gotten into the paint and painted everything with in reach, including her sister and the cat.
She sighed before answering. "Paint goes on paper, not the house, Harmony or Amanda."
"Yep," JC started taking things out of the box and placing them in the middle of the table.
"Daddy paint?" Harmony asked as JC took the plastic cups to the sink and started filling them with water.
"Yep, Daddy's going to paint with you today." He brought the cups over and placed one to the side of each girl and put the last to his right as he sat down. He made sure that Harmony had some paper and could reach the paint easily enough before taking a sheet of paper for himself. JC loaded up a paintbrush with some blue paint and started painting.
The sound of the rain outside was a nice backdrop to the sound of two little girls spending a laid-back afternoon with their father.
"I think it needs glitter," Arabella announced, reaching across the table for the package of glitter. JC helped her get the package open and she picked the gold glitter and sprinkled it over the sun in her picture. It came out too quickly, spilling across the table.
"Oops."
"It's alright, just scoop it up with some paper," JC grabbed a sheet and started cleaning up the mess. He managed to get most of it back into the container after a few minutes. He didn't notice Harmony getting another vial of glitter and getting it open and standing up on her chair until his vision was a field of silver sparkles.
Both girls erupted into giggles as he stood up. He ran his hand through his hair and another glitter cloud emerged. He sighed.
"Harmony, that wasn't very nice." The two girls continued giggling. "Alright, painting time is over. Go get cleaned up," JC started putting the lids on the paints. The girls scattered. He smiled to himself as he moved the paintings to the counter to dry. Arabella’s the standard family portrait of a six-year-old. The people, house, tree, cat and sun included sparkled under the light as he turned his attention to Harmony’s abstract squiggles. He took a moment to scrutinize his own, a landscape featuring a mountain pond, the effect somewhat lost with the vivid colors of the paint.
The sound of the garage door opening shook him from his thoughts and he continued to clean up. As he was washing the brushes out, Melody came in from the garage.
"Have a good day?" she asked, putting her things down on the counter. JC banged the brushes against the sink once before turning to face her. She started laughing as the glitter caught the light as he moved.
"Jesus, Josh, you look like you've got sparkly dandruff!" she started swiping at his shoulder, glitter flying everywhere.
"Yeah, thanks, Mel. Harm got me while I was cleaning up the spill Bella made."
"Ah," Melody stopped wiping and looked at her hand. "At least it'll come off, eventually. You want to go grab a shower? I can finish cleaning up."
"Yeah, thanks hon." He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and started for the nearest shower.
"Josh?" Melody said when he was nearly at the door. He stopped and faced her. She snapped a picture on her phone and started giggling as she started typing on the screen.
JC rolled his eyes, knowing that within the next few minutes, everyone he knew would be having a laugh at his expense. He ignored the giggles that followed him on his way down the hall.
