“Why were you and Daddy kissing?” Molly asked Alex, her face scrunched up as if she’d eaten a sour lemon.
“Well, I… uh….” I could see all the white in Alex’s eyes as she looked at me, hoping I’d answer the question.
Except I was in as much shock as she was. “Um… girls… you see….”
Molly looked at me expectantly, as if I could answer any and everything.
“Molly, that’s what one-true-loves do, ’member?” Eloise replied, as if the answer was plain as day.
Huh?
“Oh! So, Miss Alex is Daddy’s love, and that’s why they were kissing?”
I spared a glance at Alex, but she was completely frozen in place. Her face turned a silky shade of white though.
“Yes.” Eloise nodded.
Molly turned back to me, and I could sense there were more questions to come. Her tiny finger tapped a beat on her chin.
“Do you do it lots?”
“Um… yes? I mean, no? I mean….” Thankfully, she was already moving onto another question.
“Are you gonna get married and live happily ever after? I want a pwincess bed. I would be a pwincess, right? Do you have a castle? How do we get one?”
Molly prattled on with Eloise about the type of castle they thought I should move us all into. In two steps, I stood next to Alex and reached for her arm. She immediately flinched as if I startled her.
“You okay?”
She quickly nodded as she steadied herself on her feet. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”
I shrugged. It had been a fright, but no big deal overall. My twins tended to move onto new topics in rapid-fire.
“Do you think they’ll say anything?”
I was big on never asking my kids to keep secrets, but I had a feeling this was going to be a time where I broke my own rule.
Interrupting their discussion about canopy beds, I asked them to not tell anyone that Daddy and Miss Alex were kissing. When they asked me why, I tried to explain that a lot of people thought kissing was gross. Their bobbing heads seemed to agree.
Appeased, I took the girls back out to the front, and Alex followed. They yanked on her arms, excited to show her what items they liked. Surprisingly, all their choices worked well together.
“Girls, you did a really nice job. I love all of these. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” they chimed together.
“You know what else I was thinking? What if I set up a little art station for any kids who come into the shop? Maybe I could even hang some of their drawings. Do you like that idea?”
“Yes.”
“Uh huh.”
“Great. Eloise, could you grab that bag under the table for me? I thought, since I had you both here, you could be my first artists.”
The girls eagerly picked out the pictures they wanted to color. It was brave of Alex, since the twins struggled to color inside the lines, but the gesture was sweet regardless.
“I actually do want to talk to you about something. I got some of the loan documentation Friday, and I wondered if you could look it over with me.”
“Ah, so your ruse to get me in the kitchen wasn’t solely so you could kiss me?” I joked as I followed her to the smaller kitchen in the front. From here, the twins were in our line of sight.
