Maggie frowned. “I saided dat.”
Chuckling, I dropped a kiss on Avery’s head. “Yeah, Mommy. She did.” Looking at Maggie, I grinned. “Ready to go, Princess?”
She clapped her hands eagerly. “To da date, Daddy!”
We were walking down the steps when Avery called out. “Remember what I said to tell your date, Maggie!”
“Oh, yeah.” Maggie looked up at me, serious, as I lifted her into her car seat. “I haf to be home by seben. Dats my bedtime.”
I glanced at my watch. Three hours.
I only had three hours?
I looked back to Avery. “Eight!”
She laughed as she went back in the house. My wife knew me well enough to know three hours wouldn’t be enough time with my girl.
A lifetime wasn’t enough.
Maggie’s favorite songs from Frozen were on repeat in the car. Luckily, we arrived at the restaurant before my voice gave out. We did great duets together. It was another tradition when we were in the car.
I carried her inside, since she didn’t want her new shoes to get scuffed up. I settled her into a booster seat, and once she was satisfied her flowers were okay in the glass of water our waitress kindly provided, I ordered her favorite dinner: cheese pizza for two. Since it was our first date, as a treat, I also ordered her all-time favorite beverage: chocolate milk.
Once she’d had a couple sips, I grinned, running my fingers through her curls that spilled over her shoulders. Carter and Dylan both had my brownish-red colored hair, but Maggie’s was even brighter than her mother’s was. Her hair was a mass of blonde curls, the color so light it was white when it glinted in the sunlight. Her eyes were hazel, often more green than blue, while her brothers had my blue irises. They towered over her, always having been in the top percentile of their range, while she had remained in the bottom, small and perfect, just like her mother. “You ready?” I asked, knowing what she wanted me to say.
She nodded.
“Go!”
What came next was our daily ritual. One I had with all my children. It was their time to tell me everything that happened while I was away from them. I sought out each of them, one by one, to listen. Although, usually, what happened, was I’d end up on the floor with all three of them piled on top of me, talking at once. I loved hearing their excited voices and laughter.
Maggie more than made up for her brothers not being with us as she babbled away. She’d had such an exciting day of shopping, exploring, discovering a new kind of jam for her toast Mommy had let her try, and even found her lost button we’d hunted for the other night. She filled me in on how Dylan had been bad—not a big surprise—Carter had scolded him, Mommy had made cookies after lunch, and Grandma had stopped by for a visit. Her eyes were serious as she assured me she’d scrubbed “extra hard” behind her ears for our date.
“See?” she demanded, leaning over and turning her head.
I inspected the smooth skin and bent down, blowing a raspberry behind her ear. Her loud giggles made me laugh, and we were still smiling when the pizza arrived.
A non-stop monologue continued over dinner. I kept interrupting by slipping bites of pizza in her mouth, knowing Avery wouldn’t be happy if she found out Maggie hadn’t eaten. Shamelessly, I bribed her with dessert if she finished her dinner, and finally, she tucked in and polished off her slice. Dessert disappeared significantly quicker. I barely got my spoon into the gelato.
Again, just like her mother—and I wouldn’t have it any other way. My girls owned me. Totally.
Back in the car, I changed Maggie’s shoes and we went to the park. The slide was out, because of her “pwetty dwess,” she informed me, but the swings and teeter-totter were her go-tos, anyway. I pushed her higher and faster, loving her laughter. On the teeter-totter, I was rewarded with her giggles when I would “bump” her hard enough she’d “pop” off the seat.
We ended up with more ice cream, sitting under a tree. I gathered her onto my lap, occasionally licking the c
one when it melted, saving her new dress from complete destruction.
“Daddy?”
“Hmmm?”
“Is we gonna haf anofer date?”
“Yep. Every second month. You and me.”
“What ‘bout the ofer months?”
“Those are fun nights for me with the boys, so you and Mommy can have girl time.” I had tried taking them one at a time, but the boys preferred to go together. Avery and I decided to try it, and it worked well. Everyone was happy, so that was all that mattered, and I got more date time with Maggie.