Chapter Forty Six
Even though she felt like she’d been sleeping for only an hour, when Abbi opened up her tired eyes, the sun had already gone down. The only light to be seen in the living room was coming from the dining room where her family’s soft chatter could be heard.
The offending light hit her eyes, causing her to let out a snort of disgust, alerting her family to her presence. JC turned and offered his daughter a smile. “Well hello there, sleepy head. Did you have a nice nap?” He asked, putting his fork down and pushing his seat back. He patted his lap as an invitation for her to join him.
She stumbled over to her daddy, still half asleep and crawled onto his lap. She missed the smile shared between the two adults in the room and snuggled up against his chest, not caring that she was keeping him
from his meal. She just wanted to be close to him.
“Do you think you wanna have something to eat?” Jen asked, lifting another fork full of spaghetti to her mouth. She watched as the 10 year old grunted and shook her head, nuzzling herself close to her dad’s chest.
He looked down at her, bringing his hand up to stroke her hair gently. “I think someone’s still asleep,” he commented with a smile, leaning down to kiss the top of her head gently. “You wanna go upstairs with daddy and lay down?” He asked her. Although he wasn’t finished his dinner, he was more than willing to put it off until later so that he could give his daughter some much needed attention.
Nodding sleepily, Abbi wrapped her arms around his neck, unwilling to let go. He smiled at Jen and Julie and lifted Abbi with ease, picking her up and carrying her out of the kitchen. Once they got upstairs, he took her to his bed and laid her down on the bed, climbing beside her.
Abbi opened her eyes, blinking tiredly at him. “Shh… just go to sleep baby,” he cooed. “Daddy’s right here and he’s not going anywhere,” he promised, leaning over to kiss her forehead gently. “I’m right here,” he whispered, smiling as she drifted back off to sleep.
~*~
When Abbi opened her eyes the next morning, as promised, her father was still at her side. He was sleeping peaceful, soft snores coming from him. She couldn’t help but giggle. She covered her mouth when the sound came out much louder than anticipated. JC grumbled tiredly and opened his eyes. He smiled when he saw his daughter sitting there, wide awake.
“I take it you slept well last night?” He asked, his voice sounding somewhat gruff from sleeping. She nodded and moved to nuzzle his nose with hers.
“I’m not sleepy no more,” she told him.
“No, I don’t guess you are. You slept an awfully long time,” he told her, smiling. “Are you feeling better?”
She nodded. “Kinda hungry though,” she said, rubbing her grumbling tummy.
He laughed. “That’s not a surprise. Alright… let’s get up and we’ll see if we can whip something up downstairs.” Abbi wrinkled her nose.
“You mean… you’re going to try to cook?” He rolled his eyes heavenward and groaned.
“Ugh! Not you too!”
~*~
After he’d fed his daughter a homemade meal of Cheerios, the two had settled down on the couch, watching her favorite Saturday morning cartoons. She was tickled pink to get to share her favorite ritual with her father and eagerly pointed out her favorite parts in the cartoons she’d seen a million times.
From upstairs, he heard the sound of feet and knew that at least one other member of his family was awake. He knew that soon his time with his daughter was going to be interrupted, but upon seeing the look on her face, he knew that he was going to have to start setting aside plenty of time for her in the future. He was going to learn how to manage three kids at once, multi-task, if you will. It was going to be a challenge, but when the sound of his daughter’s laughter reached his ears, he knew it would be worth it and he made a silent vow to never unintentionally brush her off again.
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