TJ leaned over the picture intently. “These are awesome. Do you get your artistic talent from your dad?”
She shook her head vehemently. “Nope. From my Daddy.”
TJ glanced at me for an explanation. I pointed at myself with a smile, then frowned and gestured at the door. Miraculously, TJ understood this chaotic game of charades.
“Ah, I see,” he said. “So Brady is your daddy, and your alpha father is your dad.”
Kiara nodded without looking up from her drawing. “Uh huh.”
“So your daddy is the artistic one,” TJ said, shooting me a sly grin over his shoulder.
“Yeah! Me and Daddy draw together.” Kiara scribbled rapidly, then thrust it at TJ. “See? That’s us.”
From where I sat, all I saw was a messy green and red pair of blobs. But TJ nodded seriously, as if appraising a fine work of art.
“This is great, Kiara,” TJ mused while looking over the image. “Great job differentiating the heights. I can really tell this is you, and this is your daddy.”
Kiara shuffled excitedly in her seat. “Yeah!”
My heart melted. Kiara’s alpha dad never cared much for her art, saying they were just childish scribbles. He never took the time to nurture her creative endeavors. Sure, her doodles at six years old weren’t amazing, but they werehers.I’d rather have my daughter’s art on the wall than some famous painting.
On the other hand, TJ actually encouraged Kiara and complimented her efforts. As I got overwhelmed with emotion, tears welled in my eyes. I quickly wiped them away. I didn’t want TJ to see me crying over something so silly.
As the stencil on my arm dried, TJ spent a few minutes entertaining Kiara. They chatted and drew pictures together. Kiara was enraptured with this kind, tattooed man. He didn’t seem like a stranger to her, and honestly, he didn’t feel like one to me, either. I felt a strange connection with TJ... or maybe that was my sentimental nature talking. I just met him today, so it wasn’t like there was some innate bond between us, right? I would’ve blamed it on my recent break up, but I didn’t tend to seek out rebound relationships.
So what was going on with me and TJ? Did I just develop the world’s biggest crush in the span of a couple hours? That might’ve been the case. But he was the hottest, kindest, most compassionate man I’d met in a very long time. Could anyone blame me?
“What’s that?” Kiara asked suddenly, pointing to something on the wall.
I turned to look. She gestured to another coat of arms, similar to the sign outside—the one I didn’t read properly. It said ‘Heraldry Ink’ and featured a single unusual creature. It possessed so many different features that I couldn’t figure out what kind of animal it was. It had four legs, a head similar to a wolf but with a distinctive horn, a mane like a horse, a thin wispy tail, and feet like an eagle. The beast stood on two legs, like most heraldic critters, and roared boldly.
“Ah,” TJ said. “That’s a tyger.”
“No, it’s not!” Kiara argued. “Tigers are orange and have stripes.”
TJ chuckled. “It sounds the same, but it’s spelled differently. Like this...” He wrote it down on the paper in front of them. “Tyger is spelled with a ‘y’ instead of an ‘i.’”
Kiara examined the words seriously. Her spelling was quite good for her age, but I wondered if she’d understand the difference. Heck, even I didn’t really get it.
“Oh,” Kiara said. After pondering it for a full five seconds, she tilted her head. “Why?”
TJ smiled warmly at her, like he was pleased at her curiosity. “Back in the old days when there were no books or internet, people couldn’t look up information. A lot of the time, they had to guess what certain animals looked like from descriptions of them. So somebody tried drawing a tiger—the orange cat with stripes—and it ended up looking like this.” He gestured to the unusual creature on the wall.
Kiara cackled. “That’s not a tiger!”
“You’re right. Pretty different, huh?” TJ leaned in and whispered in a conspiratorial voice. “But you know what? I think tygers likethatkind are real.”
“Hmm... I never saw one,” Kiara said thoughtfully.
TJ nodded. “I’ve never seen an elephant in real life, and I know they’re real.”
Kiara considered this. She apparently thought it made sense because she nodded firmly. “Yeah!”
I laughed quietly at their conversation. I didn’t mind that TJ told Kiara a made-up story. Parents always told their kids tales about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. I supposed heraldic tygers were no different.
“I’m gonna draw now,” Kiara announced, grabbing a fistful of markers.
“Good timing. I should go draw on your daddy now,” TJ said, making Kiara giggle.
