“What time do you usually pick her up?I get off at four every day and can pick her up for you.She can hang out with me until you get off.”She shook her head and told him that she usually gets her at four.“Good.I can manage that.I’ll just show up to work half an hour earlier and get off that much sooner.It’ll be easy for me because the stationhouse is right around the corner from the school.”
“What about me being around more?I know that I told you that I’d not be a bother to you, and now you’re saying that you’ll pick up Harri from school.That sounds the opposite of not bothering you.”He laughed and said that he could handle a four-year-old.“I can’t handle her on some days, and I’m used to her.You’ve never spent any time with her on your own.”
“We’ll have fun.Like I said, it would be easy for me to pick her up and take her to my place.I’m looking for a house for us anyway.”She stared at him with an open mouth.“I have the money for it.Just don’t worry about it.I’d love your input on the house, but I know we’re going through a trial period right now.Aren’t we getting along better?”
“Yes, but that’s not the point.We’ll be around all the time.”He told her he was good with that; he wanted to spend more time with her anyway.“We’ll have to talk about rules with her.She knows them, too, but might try and take advantage of you at some point.She’s really a good little girl, but she can be a handful at times, too.”
“I want to do this.It’ll be fun for the two of us to get to know one another.And I think we’re moving right along with us getting to know each other enough where she trusts me.”She said she’d never have talked to him if she didn’t.“I understand that, too.I messed up when I first was around her, and now it’s like we’re becoming friends.I’d like to get to know you both more, too, if you’re all right with that.”
“I think we’re doing well, too.”She looked so frustrated.“I just heard from them about ten minutes ago, so I haven’t had time to digest this all.There are certain things that I have to take care of with my old route that I had to.This guy, David, wants my route instead of taking the Dresden one.I don’t see how that’s fair, but I’m not the one in charge.”
They talked about it during the time she was finishing up dinner.Harri was in her room cleaning it up, but he would see her when she’d bring another handful of laundry out to her mom.He’d never been in that part of the house before and was looking forward to what a kid would do about cleaning their room.He’d always had help when cleaning his room, so didn’t have to do it nowadays.
Dinner was on the table about an hour after he showed up.He wasn’t worried about it, but helped where he could.There were salads already in the bowls for them, and he teased Harri about him taking her much smaller one for his own.As soon as they sat down at the table, he had to get up to get the wine he’d brought.Harri was having a glass of milk.
They had Million Dollar Chicken.He’d never heard of it before but loved it.She had even cooked him a second helping of the dinner in the event that he liked it.As he was downing his second helping, she told him what kind of things she had to do for her route to be given to this guy named David.
“He just signed onto the post office, so I have to spend a day with him on the route.I hate to do that.No one showed me around on the route that I had.Had I known anything, it would have made dealing with Ms.Reynolds much easier.Now we get along great, but it would have been nice to have had a heads up when I came across her.”He told her that Alaric had told him about their first meeting.“Yes, she was trying to get me into trouble with him, but since he was used to her, he told me that she gets lonely at times.She greets me at her mailbox, and we chat for a few minutes before I finish up my route.She’s odd but really nice.”
“I’ve had to deal with her a few times.She is odd.But like you said, she can be nice too.I did wonder why we’ve not had any calls from her about her mail.I just assumed that she was picking it up at the post office now.She has caused a bit of trouble.”She told him that she liked her and wanted her to like her.“She does, or we’d have several phone calls about you stealing her mail.I think she does that on purpose so that someone has to deal with her.”
After dinner, the three of them cleaned up.Anna loaded the dishwasher, and he and Harri put the things away that were left on the table.It was just like they were a family, the way they worked together.He was looking forward to doing this when they finally got together as a real family.He hoped it was sooner rather than later.He’d already fallen in love with the two of them.
Helping Harri with her homework, reading to her for twenty minutes, he was glad to see that she wanted more.He nearly finished the book when she was called for bathtime, and by the time she was out of the tub, he was ready to leave.He wanted to stay more than anything, but he knew that his trust with the two of them was still being weighted.
He asked when they could talk about the move of his time schedule at work, and she told him it wouldn’t start until Wednesday of next week.He was good with that.It would give him plenty of time to cover his shift.Aaron might even help him out with it since he was in so early all the time anyway.
On the way home, he reached out to his brother to tell him what was going on.Just like he had hoped, Aaron was all right with covering his early morning shift and said he’d be all right with him leaving a half an hour early.Earl, their boss was having some tests done this week so he was in charge of the station while he was gone.He wished his brother would take over the job, but he could understand why he wasn’t.It was a lot of work, and him just finding his mate.He knew that he didn’t want to spend any more time at work than he had to.
“Just make sure when you pick her up, you’re okaying it with the teachers first.They might have some kind of rules about strangers picking up kids that don’t belong to them.”He told him that Anna was taking care that he was on the list to get her.“I’d see if you can add Mom too.Just in case something happens and you can’t make it.That way you won’t have to stress about her not getting picked up on time, and I think that Mom would love that.”
“She probably would, but I’ll have to talk to Anna about it.Adding Dad, too, might not be such a bad idea but like I said, I need to talk to her.She’s very stressful about the changes to Harri’s schedule.I don’t remember Mom being that stressed out over us.”He said because Mom never messed with changes to their going to school schedule.“You think?I never remembered it that way.”
“Don’t you remember when Dad would have a patient at the clinic and how Mom would keep us in the upstairs?It was because she didn’t want things to be off for us when we went to school.She was forever doing that for us.I’m going to be the same way with my kids.Getting stressed out before school can ruin your whole day.Theirs, too, if you’re not careful.”Zeno said that he didn’t remember being stressed out before school, and that was probably why.“Mom made sure that we went to bed on time, too.It was another thing that I’mgoing to do.
“Harri has to have her bath by seven so she can go to bed at nine.She’s very good about that, too.Like it’s an unwritten rule that they have.”He said that they more than likely did.“I’m glad that I reached out to you.I missed that about Mom keeping us from having to change things up.I’ll make sure that I do that when I have her.Anna told me that there would be rules, and I thought she was talking about ice cream before dinner.”
“Don’t do that either, or you might find yourself in the dog house again.”He promised that he’d not and decided that his brother had a lot of good advice.“Another thing you might want to do is to make sure you have a car seat for her.I know you know the laws about them, but you don’t want to be teased about having her in your car and no car seat.”
He started making notes on things that his brother was telling him, and was very glad that he wasn’t making fun of him.He would make sure not only did she have a car seat, but that she was buckled in properly too.There were all kinds of things that he was going to have to do with the little girl.The topmost was to make her safe as she’d be with her mom.Secondly, it was to make sure that nothing ever happened to her while on his time.He’d never forgive himself if something happened to the little girl.She was quickly becoming someone that he loved as much as he already did her mom.
It didn’t take him long to get ready for work tomorrow.He was going to start going in early now so that he’d be ready when the time came.He also wanted to make sure that the school had his name and phone number in the event that they couldn’t get in touch with Anna.He was going to be her stepdad soon, and he wanted to make sure that the world knew it.
Going to bed tonight, he felt good about the progress he was making in their lives.They sure had made an impact on his life, and he wanted to make sure that they knew it.Tomorrow afternoon, he had an appointment to look at a house.While he knew that Anna couldn’t get out of work to go with him, he’d make sure that he took plenty of pictures so that she could see it when he did.He was going to be a girl dad, and he wanted to also have plenty of bathroom space in the house for them.Being sentimental had never felt so good before.
Just before he was ready to close his eyes, Anna called him.He was worried that something had gone wrong, but all she wanted to do was to tell him that she was sorry for overreacting today.
“I had it in my head that things were never going to be right, and I took it out on you.”He said he’d never felt like that, and she had been fine.“I talked to Harri, and she said that you picking her up would be all right.But I was to make sure you knew the rules.I have to get you a car seat for her, too.That’s something that I don’t want to forget having a police officer pick my girl up.”They both laughed, and he mentally marked that off of his list to talk to her about.
“We’ll do just fine, the two of us.And like I said, we can get to know one another better, too with just the two of us hanging around together.”She thought that was going to be the best part.“Thank you for saying that.I already love the little girl and can’t wait to see what she grows up to be.”
“I don’t want to talk about her growing up.She’s all I have at the moment, and talking about her growing up will make the time go by faster.I don’t need that.”Anna sounded teary-eyed and he changed the subject.“Yes, having your parents on the list, too would be a good idea.I’m glad you thought of that.”He gave credit to Aaron about that and was glad that he’d been able to bring it up with her.“I need to get off here and get to bed.I hope that I didn’t wake you up.”
“No.I was just going to bed, but not asleep yet.”He wanted to tell her that he’d fallen in love with her, but knew she’d not be ready to hear that.He was trying to be the best he could be for her and was happy when she told him to sleep well.Zeno knew that he would because he’d ended his day talking to her.Yes, he was being sappy again.
~*~
Anna finished up the route in record time today.She wasn’t sure how, David had been lagging behind since they started out.He was out of shape, too, for someone that wanted a walking route.She supposed that she’d been as well when she first started out, but she’d been working in it.He didn’t seem to understand why they had to stop at each house, even when they didn’t have any mail.
