“Smoothies first.” I held out two smoothies.

Her face scrunched. “Not the green ones.”

Griffin looked suddenly wary. “Green…smoothies?”

“She puts vegetables in them,” Mia complained.

I tried my best to hold back my laughter, but a little escaped at the look of complete horror on Griffin’s face. “You’ll like it. I promise.”

“I don’t like eating salad. I sure as hell don’t want to drink it.”

Mia turned to him. “You said a bad word. You have to do extra chores.”

He winced and covered her ears. “Don’t listen to me.” He mouthed sorry to me.

“Don’t worry about it. You’ll just have to clean up the kitchen after breakfast.”

Griffin grinned. “Fair enough.”

I held out a smoothie to him. “And you have to try this.”

He looked less enthused about that prospect but took the drink. Cautiously, he took a sip. His eyes widened. “This is…good.”

I rolled my eyes. “Vegetables are not evil.”

“Not evil, but they usually taste like…a word I’m not allowed to say around tiny ears.”

Mia giggled and tugged on Griffin’s free hand. “Come on. Let’s chug them so we can have pancakes!”

He shook his head as he let Mia lead him up the steps and into the house. I followed behind. Will was already at work stirring the pancake batter, and Ava was perched on one of the chairs reading a book. She looked up when we entered. “I got everyone water. Should I do juice, too?”

“Why don’t you ask everyone what they want?”

Ava looked up a little hesitantly at Griffin. “Do you like juice with your pancakes?”

He gave her a gentle smile, one that twisted something inside me in an almost painful way. “No OJ for me, thank you. I’m good with water.”

“I want milk,” Mia called.

We proceeded in the breakfast-making that looked a little more like semi-controlled chaos. But somehow, all managed to get seated around the kitchen table with a plate of pancakes.

I took the platter Will handed me. “Okay, hit me with the good stuff. Three things.”

Mia practically bounced in her seat. “Can I have more than one? I have so many.”

My chest warmed as I unloaded a pancake onto her plate and then mine. “You can have as many as you want.”

She beamed and held up one finger. “Griffin played on the monkey bars with me. We had the best pizza ever even though it was a school night. We got to watch my favorite movie. And I’m teaching Griffin gymnastics.” With each point, she held up another finger.

Will snorted. “How are your splits coming along, Griffin?”

Griffin gave Will a wan smile. “Better than yours, I bet.”

Will arched a brow. “We might just have to put that to the test.”