“Well, Amelia was not too pleased that you were not there to carry her to breakfast,” I say. “She said she is going to have a talk with you.”

He shakes his head. “Just like her mama,” he jokes, and I roll my eyes.

“She also is going to discuss with you the rules for crayons. FYI, it’s three at a time,” I inform him, and I know that he’s going to give in and give her more. She is the apple of his eye, and she has him wrapped around her little pinky. The minute her lower lip trembles, it’s game over.

“Three,” he says, and then we hear our daughter open the door and walk out.

“You left me,” she says, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Her soft blond curls bounce as she carries her stuffed bunny in one hand. “I was scared.”

I’m about to tell her that she’s fine, but Jacob leans over and takes her in his arms. “We would never leave you.” His gold band is on his hand. The minute we found out I was pregnant, we got married two weeks later. That was me putting my foot down. I wanted to have a wedding dress and flowers and all that jazz, so he gave me seven days. With all the contacts I’ve made over the year and with Olivia’s help, I was ready in three.

We are about to walk inside when we hear another car pull up, and I look over to see it’s my mother. She stops the car and gets out with a huge smile on her face. “There she is,” my mother says, and Amelia smiles huge while she looks over at my mother.

“Hey there,” Jacob says, and as soon as my mother gets close enough, Amelia leans forward to go into her arms.

“Oh, hello, my angel girl.” She kisses Amelia who lays her head on my mother’s shoulder. “I missed you.”

“You saw her yesterday,” I point out and shake my head while Jacob comes and stands next to me, putting his arm around me.

“Well, it was a long time ago.” She side-eyes me with a glare and then whispers to Amelia, “Do you want to come over to the house, and we can bake cupcakes?” Amelia shoots up, and her eyes go big and the smile on her face is huge as she nods. “Then we can have a sleepover in the princess room.” Another thing, my room at home is now the princess room.

“Yeah,” she whispers and then leans in. “Can we do chocolate chip?”

“We can do anything you want.” My mother holds her to her chest. “Say goodbye to Mama and Daddy.”

“She doesn’t have shoes on,” I say, and she shrugs.

“I have three pairs at home,” my mother says and then whispers in her ear. “Let’s get going.”