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And it might have been reasonable to assume that he would get to wear Kirsten’s grandfather’s clothes, but no. He found himself with a fur shawl around his shoulders.
Well, it sat more like a scarf around his neck. And on his head was a bright pink felt hat that was far too small and kept falling off.
Aimee had put on one of the dresses that she’d found, and it actually looked rather cute on her. It was pink and sleeveless and fell straight down to the top of her knees.
And she’d found a different hat to wear, a rather large straw one.
“Daddy, why aren’t you drinking your tea?” she asked. “Is there something wrong with it? Owly McOwlFace, Daddy isn’t drinking his tea.”
Yes, they were having a pretend tea party with Owly McOwlFace, Garfield, and Kevin.
Although Kevin kept trying to eat the clay so he’d been put back in his cage, which was sitting on the coffee table.
Oh, and did he mention Aimee had also done his makeup? He was currently sporting some very bright pink lipstick that Kirsten must have bought for her.
She leaned down as though listening to what Owly McOwlFace had to say in reply, and he suddenly realized he was sitting there waiting to hear what Owly had to say. It was a stuffed toy, for God’s sake.
But he couldn’t deny that even though he felt a bit ridiculous dressed the way he was, with lipstick on, something he never imagined he would do, it was all worth it to see the smile on her face, to see her shoulders relax as the tension left her.
So he was willing to put up with a lot in order for her to be happy.
“Yes, Owly McOwlFace, I think you are right. Daddy, Owly McOwlFace says that you’re being very rude not drinking your cup of tea.” He looked down at the murky cup of tea skeptically. It was just water and some leaves in an old tin cup.
And he wasn’t drinking it.
He raised the cup up very carefully and pretended to take a sip. He couldn’t exactly hold it properly because it was so tiny, and it looked a bit ridiculous in his giant hand.
“Oh, Daddy, you’ve got to do it like this.” She showed him how she picked up her own cup, and held out her pinky finger. “The pinky finger goes up, see? Then you take a sip like this.” She let out a loud slurp as she took what he hoped was a pretend sip of her tea. “And then you go, ahhh, and that tells the chef that you enjoyed it.”
“A chef made my cup of tea?”
“Yes, Daddy. Chef Aimee made your cup of tea. And I might say, Daddy, I think my snacks are just a little bit better looking than yours.”
Ammo disagreed. Her snacks looked like cow patties. For some reason, she’d mixed the clay together and it had turned into this disgusting brown.
Then she’d put little flecks of black on them, which she was calling raisins, but just looked like flies sitting on the cow patties.
“Well, Daddy? Aren’t you going to eat one of the snacks I’ve prepared for you? Chef Aimee worked very hard.”
“She’s done a great job,” he said, gingerly picking up the cow patty and taking it to his mouth. “Oh, yum, yum.”
She narrowed her gaze at him. “Daddy, you really need better acting skills.”
“Sorry,” he said.
“It’s okay,” she replied. “One day, I’ll make you some real cupcakes.”
“And will they look like this?”
“Oh, no. They’ll look even better.”
“Great. Something to look forward to.”
There was a knock on the door. Shit. He needed to take all this stuff off him before Webb saw him.
But Webb didn’t even wait for him to get to the door, the asshole. He walked right on in and came to a stop.
A huge smile crossed his face as Ammo pushed the shawl off his shoulders.
