“I know you’ll take good care of them, and if something happens, well, I know how to find your dad,” Bella said with a wink.
“Is it okay Dad, can I?”
Jack knew when he’d been outmaneuvered. “Sure honey, who am I to keep a girl from her Hobulubus.”
“Louboutin’s Jack, Louboutin’s.”
Finishing up their food, they headed back to the car, when Bella yelled out “Shotgun” and raced Piper to the car. Out of breath and flushed when they reached the car, Bella turned to Jack with a grin, looking almost like a teenager herself, carefree and happy. He unlocked the car, loaded the bags into the back, and got behind the wheel, pulling out of the parking lot toward the hotel.
“You’re being quiet, Dad, everything okay?” Sloane asked.
“Everything is more than okay, baby.”
As they pulled into Bella’s hotel to drop her off, Jack said “Is 7pm okay for dinner?”
“Dinner out - what a great day! Where are we going Dad?” cried Piper.
"I was going to take Bella out for dinner — my way of saying thank you for today. Just adults, I thought I’d order pizza for you girls before I left.”
“Oh man, we want to go out to dinner too, I don’t want pizza at home” Piper pouted from the back.
“Bella, do you mind?”
“Of course not, the more the merrier, I say. What do you girls want? I could go for a burger and fries tonight. And a big chocolate shake. How about you?”
“Our dad makes the BEST burgers ever. Can we barbecue instead, dad, can we, can we?”
“Bella didn’t come all this way to eat burgers in the back yard.”
“I’d love that if it means I can meet Daisy, actually.”
“Sure, why not? I can stop by Whole Foods on the way home, pick up some sides and salads to go with the burgers. Pick you back up here about 6:30 then?”
“I can take an Uber if you give me the address. Text it to me. And see you all later.” said Bella as she got out of the car and walked into the hotel.
“Piper. What was that all about? First, you wanted to go out, then you wanted to eat at home?”
Her face the picture of innocence in the rearview mirror, Piper replied “Nothing Dad, I just changed my mind.”
“Okay, well let’s get to the store before all the good stuff is gone!”
Bella arrived at Jack’s at 6:30 on the dot. She’d changed tops, a tank again this time in a soft pink, keeping the comfortable jeans and flip flops from earlier on. She felt bad because she hadn’t brought anything - she was a firm believer you don’t show up to someone’s home as an invited guest without some small token of thanks. She rang the bell and smiled when she heard the familiar sound of a Corgi barking. Sloane opened the door, holding the Corgi back and invited Bella in.
“Well hello Daisy, I’m happy to meet you,” Bella bent down to pet the smiling dog, whose bottom was going as crazy as Primrose's ever did.
“Dad said you have a Corgi too. Is she the same color as Daisy?”
“No, Primrose is what they call fawn colored.” Daisy was a tri-color Corgi.
“Cool - is she as crazy as Daisy?”
“Of course - she’s a Corgi!”
Laughing they walked down the hallway to the living room. Bella looked around - it had a farmhouse chic warmth that surprised her — she wasn't sure what she'd expected, but it hadn't been this. A bookcase lined with technical books on engineering, science, and space, as well as various framed photos of Jack in uniform, floating in space from his time on the International Space Station, his diplomas from the Naval Academy and Stanford lined one wall of the room. Bella saw aframed photo of Jack with the girls and a smiling woman who looked a lot like Sloane.This must be Susan.
“Hey Sloane, you didn’t tell me Bella was here!”
“Bella, welcome to Chez Calloway!”
