He watched her kneel down to her daughter's level, looking her in the eyes with great care as she waited for her answer. He couldn't believe he didn't hear Luna walk up. He had been standing there holding Audrey.
"Of bad dreams," Luna said.
"Oh, come here, baby, you don't need to be scared. Do you want to pray about it? Do you want to sleep with me?"
"Can he come lay by me till I fall asleep?" she asked. Her eyes were steadily fixed on Audrey, but she pointed to Ash.
"Yes," Ash said, without even thinking that he should let Audrey answer. "If your mom says okay," he added.
"How about we try that while I take a shower, and if you're still up when I'm finished, and you want to, you can come sleep with me."
Luna nodded and reached up for Ash's hand. The precious, sleepy five-year-old wanted to hold his hand and wanted him to sit by her while she fell asleep. His heart wanted to burst.
"Can he read me a story?"
"I guess," Audrey said. "But make it one from the short shelf."
"Okay," Luna said, leading him to her bedroom. "Can Ash spend the night at our house?" she asked her mom.
"No, but he can read you a story. And we'll probably see him tomorrow. He invited us to lunch with his family after church."
"Are we going?" she asked.
Audrey nodded.
"What is it to eat?"
"What is it, Ash?" Audrey asked.
"Barbecue," he said.
"Oh, that's right, the cow."
"What?" Luna asked.
"Nothing," Audrey said. "It's hamburgers and stuff."
"Okay," Lu said, nodding. "Are we going to it with Ash?"
"Yes," Audrey said.
Lu turned and looked at Ash, who shrugged and made a little face since he didn't know what else to do in that moment. Lu lifted her arms. It was a practiced maneuver that made it obvious that she wanted to be picked up and held. Ash picked her up and rested her on his side, and she went to him, clinging and easily letting herself be held.
He went down the hallway with Luna in his arms. It was a little girl who asked him to sit with her while she fell asleep. Ashneeded to put that into perspective and realize it wasn't that big of a deal. It also wasn't a big deal that Audrey had agreed to go to his parents' house the following day. These things were not significant enough to explain how happy he was.
He dropped her onto her bed, and she stayed standing even though he thought she'd climb into it and lie down.
"You have to pick one off the monkey shelf," she said, pointing to her bookshelf. There was a figurine of a monkey on one of the shelves, and Ash walked over there and pointed to it. Luna nodded.
"There are a hundred books on here. What should I pick?"
"Any," she said with a little giggle.
Ash took a handful of them and started walking back to the bed, and Luna crumpled in a silly way and continued to giggle.
"We can't read that manyyy," she said.
"No, I wanted you to have choices. We'll just read one and put the other ones back."
