“Sophia, are you done yet!” I yelled up the stairs for Sophia. After a moment when I received no reply, I sighed. “If you’re not done in five minutes, I’m coming up to get you. Jessica will be here any minute.”

Another pause, then, “Okay, Dad!”

I sighed again as I moved to sit on the couch. There was a street carnival coming to town. While I wasn’t quite into that sort of thing, my mother and daughter both loved it. Usually, the times I didn’t feel like going—though they were rare, there was little I could refuse Sophia without causing a tantrum—she went with my mom, and I got to stay home.

This was a special occasion, though, and I was a little nervous.

We hadn't explicitly told Sophia there was anything between Jessica and me, though we’d met and hung out plenty of times outside of our respective jobs, and I wondered just how much Sophia understood.

This would be the first time we were going out, all three of us as a family. My mom would be going with Jessica’s mom, supposedly to give us space, but I knew it was so that they could gossip between themselves.

A few minutes after I’d sat down, the doorbell rang. I was on my feet in the next moment and rushing for the door. I opened it, and there she stood.

She was dressed in a simple sundress in white with blue and yellow flowers running down it in patterns. It was a dress both Sophia and I had complimented, and I liked to think that was why she chose it. She had a light blue sweater tied loosely around her neck and a pair of blue flats on her feet. Her blonde hair was left to fall around her shoulders in light waves.

“You’re beautiful,” I said unconsciously, but very much meaning it.

Almost immediately, she flushed, and I smiled wryly. As much as I liked the look on her face when she blushed, I disliked it, too, especially once I realized that she still blushed every time I complimented her because a part of her thought she didn’t deserve it.

She might have forgiven me, but I hated it when I realized things about her life now that had been influenced negatively by my actions in the past. Not that she would hold it against me; if anything, she kept blaming herself for not getting over it, so I stopped bringing it up.

“Hey,” she said softly.

Then she stepped over the threshold, threw her arms around my neck and brought my face down to hers for a quick, bruising kiss. Before I could get my bearings and kiss her back properly, she had pulled away. She winked at me, then moved around me to get further into the house. After a moment of standing there, dazed, I closed the door and followed her.

She did that sometimes; one moment she was embarrassed, the next she was bold. She was assertive when it came to the bedroom almost all the time, and the contradiction between that and the woman she showed the world still got me thinking sometimes.

Of course, I was more than happy to be the only one that got to see that side of her.

“Where’s Sophia?” she asked, looking around the room for the little girl, then turning back to me when she didn’t see her. “Is she not ready yet?”

“I honestly don’t know what she’s been doing up there. It’s been nearly an hour, and every time I call up, she says she’s not ready.”

Jessica smiled. “Have you tried going upstairs?”

I gave her a blank look that I felt said all. “You know, I did. Only, I got there, and see, she’d locked the door. When I tried knocking, she screamed at me not to come in.”

I sent a worried look towards the stairs. She still had trouble picking out the best outfit for certain situations, but I knew Sophia didn’t want to disappoint Jessica, and it was probably why she was taking it this seriously.

“Maybe I should go up…”

But Jessica waved her hands at me, before taking hold of my arm, and pulling me over to the couch and sitting us both down.

“Just, no. Ross, she maybe still is young, but you cannot interrupt a girl when she’s trying to pick the perfect outfit for herself.”

“But what if she doesn’t pick something…” I dropped that subject quickly at the dark look Jessica aimed at me, and I switched tactics. “What if she makes a mess? And in the end, she’s not sure of her own choice? She’s done it sometimes, and it frustrates her, which makes it frustrating for me. The only person that seems to be able to calm her down in that state is my mom, and she isn’t here.”

It only ever happened to clothes, too. We’d had plenty of mini-fights over clothes when she didn’t like what I wanted her to wear and I wasn’t satisfied with what she was wearing. Instead of going simple, she loved to mix and match, with almost painful results sometimes, and I was suddenly the enemy when I said anything about it.

Jessica seemed to know what my problem was, and she patted my back sympathetically.

“If any of those happen,” she said soothingly, “then I’ll help you reason with her. You probably wouldn’t want to start fighting with her, right?”

I gave her the look that deserved. “That better be a rhetorical question, Jessica.”

She laughed and lightly thumped my shoulder. “Yeah, you’re right. Stupid of me to think you’d want to fight with your daughter,” she teased. “But if you want to avoid fights, you need to know how to let her down gently. I could always try, now that I’m here,” she added with a shrug.

I seriously considered it, because, with how long she’d been up there ‘getting ready,’ I was starting to worry what Sophia would look like when she did come down. If she ever did.

“Would you mind,” I started slowly, “going up there to check on her now? I don’t want to hurry her, but she might need help. I honestly don’t think this is one of those things I could ever help her with, you know?”

Her expression was amused. “Of course not, Ross. Most little girls need moms for that.”

I sucked my breath in a little sharply, but she was getting to her feet and didn’t seem to notice. She slid her fingers through my hair as she walked around the couch and headed for the stairs. I was stuck waiting again, but I was surprised when, less than five minutes later, there were two pairs of steps coming down the stairs.

“Dad, I’m ready!” Sophia called out like she hadn't been locked up in her room almost since she woke up, and it was almost eleven already. “Come see the dress Jessica helped me pick out!”

I got up from my perch on the couch. I smiled as soon as I caught sight of my daughter. She was in a white dress with a blue ribbon that wrapped around the waist. She did a little spin, so I could see the large bow tied in the back. Her hair was brushed and put up in twin tails that swished with every movement.

No pink in sight and I wondered how Jessica had managed that. Though there was a suspicious glittering on her face when she shifted at just the right angle, I decided to let it go.

“You look so pretty, baby,” I told her honestly.

Sophia giggled at the compliment. “Not as pretty as Jessica, though,” she added with a sigh, placing her hands on her hips.

“Oh, no!”

“No way!”

We both protested, and it only made her giggle some more. I watched as Jessica crouched down to be at eye level with Sophia and whispered something in her ear. Sophia nodded her head and beamed.

“Why don’t you go get your shoes, sweetie,” Jessica prompted lightly. “The carnival’s already started by now, and, if you don’t hurry, we’ll miss all the good parts.”

Sophia squeaked, then rushed like she was being chased, off to find her shoes. I arched an eyebrow at Jessica, a part of me jealous that Sophia took to her so quickly. Of course, the rational part of me was just glad that Sophia was opening up to Jessica at all.

“There was a bit of a mess in her room when I got in,” Jessica said quietly. “Don’t worry, I cleaned some of it, and I promised her something if she would help me clean what’s left after we get back.”

I sighed. “I could help you guys out if you’d like.”

She shook her head, though. “Well be fine. The girl time will be good for us.”

I felt something strange when she said ‘girl time,’ the same feeling I got before when she left me on the couch. I wondered if she even realized it herself, how easily she seemed to fit into the family and was quickly taking the role Sophia’s mom would have, the role my mom had been taking when I wasn’t sufficient enough to fill it.

“I’m ready now,” Sophia said as she skipped back into the living room, wearing a pair of white shoes. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

She took one of my hands, and one of Jessica’s, and tugged us both to the door. We didn’t resist, though I had to pause long enough to lock up the door, then joined them where they waited at the curb.

“Why can't we take the car again?” Sophia asked, pouting.

“Because it’s a street carnival, honey. We don’t want to interfere, or accidentally hit someone, do we?”

She was still pouting, but she nodded.

“It’s not that far a walk, anyway,” I tried to reassure her, wondering why she needed it at all. She was a bundle of energy. How could she have trouble walking down a few blocks? “And,” I went on, “we’ll be stopping by the diner, because it’s on the way, and you can get whatever you want.”

It still wasn’t enough to pacify her. Then Jessica held out a hand for her, smiling at her until she took it.

“You can just hold onto my hand if you feel tired,” she offered. “Or I could carry you, if you wouldn’t mind it.”

Sophia eyed her in seriousness for a moment, but then smiled as I came to stand on the other side of her, and we started walking slowly. Even though we were a few streets away from the festivities, I could still hear them in the distance.

“You know, I always wondered what happened to my mommy,” Sophia mused to herself suddenly, catching both our attentions. Then she smiled up at Jessica. “I wouldn’t mind getting a new mom, though. I’d love it!”

She grinned, then went back to skipping along between the two of us as we walked down the road, leaving the adults fumbling a little on how to react.

Or, at least, me. It had been entering my mind a lot more lately, how great Jessica would be as Sophia’s mom. To hear my daughter say it…

But my opinion mattered least in all of this. It mattered to Sophia because this would affect her in a big way. It would matter to me, as well, but I was pretty much willing to take any change if it meant keeping Jessica in my life. The woman herself, though…

I looked up at her expression, expecting the worst, only to be surprised. She still held an edge of shock in her expression. She was staring straight ahead, but she was smiling. And I thought, for the first time since we officially started going out, that Jessica looked happy. It made me realize that everything was going according to plan and I could relax. Nothing was going to stand in the way of us being together. Nothing. Not again, I fucking wouldn’t let it.