Her Secret, His Child

"My foot hurts, Daddy," she cried, her eyes brimming over.

"'Can I help?" Ashley's dance instructor hurried toward them, and she and Kyle examined Ashley's foot together. Her left ankle was already swelling.

"Swelling's good," the dance instructor said. "Means it's probably just a sprain. Let's get some ice on it."

"Mr. Kyle?" Kayla tugged at Kyle's shirtsleeve. "Is Ashley gonna die?" she asked, and burst into tears.

Squatting, Kyle grabbed Kayla onto his other hip. "Of course not, honey. She's going to be a hero!"

Both girls quieted at that, although Ashley still hiccuped with the occasional sob.

Fifteen minutes later, Kyle carried his daughter, who now had an ice pack taped to her ankle, to the front of the studio. He held Kayla's hand on his other side, both dance bags slung over his arm.

"I'll take her for an X ray just in c.-e," he was telling their instructor as they reached the door.

"The swelling's gone down already." the woman said. "I'm sure she'll be just fine.'

Kyle nodded, pushing open the door with his back. One of the two bags dangling from his arm caught on the handle.

"Let me get thai!" The instructor freed him, then waved them off.

After that, he was on his own. And quite proud to be managing so well. As daddies went, he wasn't doing too badly. He'd handled his first crisis and there were no fatalities.

TARA TAYLOR QUINN

Jamie panicked when she walked in the front door and saw two little crutches lying in the middle of the living-room floor.

"What happened?" She rushed in to find Kyle on the sofa, sound asleep, a little girl curled up under each arm, two little heads against his chest. And Ashley's ankle had tripled in size since Jamie had last seen it, due, she hoped, only to the elastic bandage wrapped around it. She no longer had to wonder who the crutches belonged to, only how serious the damage was.

Oddly enough, upsetting as it was to see her child hurt, Jamie was relatively calm as she stood there, smiling at the three sleeping faces. Kyle wouldn't be lying there so peacefully if Ashley's injury was serious.

And she hadn't had to handle the crisis on her own. She'd never shared the responsibility of caring for Ashley, the worry. Never imagined what a relief the sharing would be.

"Hi."

Kyle had opened his eyes and was watching her.

"Hi, yourself. Been busy?" she asked.

"We had a little accident at dance."

"I told you she wasn't a dancer," Jamie said, wishing she could get a look at the extent of the damage herself. "What'd she do—fall over when they were doing plies?"

Shaking his head, Kyle sat up very slowly and laid the sleeping girls down on the couch, side by side. "Didn't even make it into the dance room," he told Jamie, a half grin on his face.

HER SECRET, HIS CHILD

It wasn't until late in the evening that Jamie heard about the worst part of the afternoon.

"I take her to the emergency room and they won't let me sign for her treatment!" Kyle said, pacing between the counter and her kitchen table.

"That's ridiculous! What if she'd been bleeding to death?" Jamie stood with her back to the sink. They'd just finished the dishes, having left them earlier to give Ashley a bath and get the exhausted little girl to bed.

He shrugged. "I hope they'd have treated her and worried about legalities later. Thing is, I don't ever want to find out."

Picturing what could have been a horrific situation, Jamie didn't want to find out, either. Not the hard way.

She grabbed two glasses of iced tea, and motioned with her head toward the back door. "Let's take these outside."