“Uh, for a while now. We ate breakfast and we watched television and we were thinking maybe we could play board games later or maybe now or maybe–”
“Hang on, Eli. One thing at a time. What on earth did you eat for breakfast?”
Her eyes darted to mine.Uh-oh. I wasn’t entirely sure how badly sugar affected her, but I knew in a few minutes my own wheels would be spinning and I’d be babbling just as fast.
“You tell better stories than me.” I encouraged her to explain.
Eloise stomped her right foot. “Nuh-uh. You should tell him.”
Kingston pulled her to his side and kissed her temple. “I won’t be mad, princess.”
“I’m not tattling!”
“It’s not tattling when I asked you a question.” He slapped his palm against her upper thighs twice on either side.
“Owie! Ask Reed, Daddy.”
“All right. Please make me a cup of coffee.”
“Yes, Daddy.” She saw that our mugs were also empty and set to refilling them. Once they were fixed, she joined us at the table.
“Thank you, princess. Now, tell me. What did you eat for breakfast?”
His gaze fell on me. I glanced at Eli and back to him.
“Food. I mean of course it was food. Lots of food. Well sorta more like different foods piled on top of each other. There may have been whipped cream.”
“The two of you are conspiring, hm? Don’t you know this doesn’t end well for you, little prince?”
“You’re in trouble, Sir,” Eli whispered.
“No one is in trouble, but someone had better tell Daddy why you think you are.” King cleared his throat then took a long sip from his mug.
“Uh, well we didn’t break any rules but we did load up on some food choices that had a high ratio of sugar to carbs.” Eloise sipped water in between the words.
Kingston observed her movements with interest. “What exactly did you eat for breakfast? I need to know so that the rest of our day is balanced.”
“Cinnamon roll sundaes,” I said nonchalantly as if Eli and I would have eaten that monstrosity on any given Tuesday.
“Well, that’s different,” he deadpanned.
The way his eyes shined made me think he would address our less than stellar choice and ensure better ones for the remainder of our time in Denver.
“Vanilla ice cream has protein in it, Daddy,” I said, tossing out the earlier ‘statistic’ from Eloise.
“Twelve whole grams,” she added smartly.
“Uh-huh.” Kingston shook his head. “No more ice cream for breakfast. Not even on vacation.”
Spying the remote to the small television in the kitchen, I picked it up, pointing at Kingston. After pushing several buttons in a row and having nothing happen I brought it closer to his mouth.
He cocked an eyebrow. “What on earth are you doing, little prince?”
“Changing the channel.”
“You’re doing what now?”
“Maybe it’s a setting instead? Let’s see if this is the button forNice Daddy who lets us eat whatever we want.”
