Closer 2

141.

"Wanna go to the park with uncle Ray today, baby?" baba asked, and Elise immediately grinned. Of course she did! Uncle Ray was always so nuce and always had time to play with her and push her on the swings. Of course she wanted to go to the park with him!

"Yeahhhh!" she screamed excitedly, clapping her hands. "Unce Ray!"

"Well, he's on his way to pick you up," baba smiled, giving her forehead a little kiss. "How about you look for him in the window, huh?"

Elise nodded eagerly, running over to the couch and crawling in so she could stand and lean against the back to look for uncle.

It seemed like it took forever, but eventually she recognized uncle Ray's car turning into their driveway. She let out an excited squeal and struggled to get down from the couch quickly enough so she could get out to the front door.

"Shh Elise, inside voice, yeah?" daddy reminded her as he came over to help her down. Elise thought the inside voice was unfair, because her brothers got to scream as much as they wanted, but she shut up anyway so she wouldn't be told off.

Once both feet were on the floor, she ran out to the front door, struggling to reach up to the door handle to let uncle inside. Luckily, daddy followed right behind and opened it for her so she could run into uncle right as he came up to the door.

"Hey there little princess! You've grown so big, haven't you, huh?" Uncle asked, lifting her up in his arms while she kicked her legs with excitement, giggling as she wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him.

"Uncle! Ahhh!" she squealed, laughing when uncle pressed a bunch of kisses all over her face. "Park!"

"Yeah, we're going to the park today! Are you excited?"

"Yeahh!! Play slides!" Elise grinned, wiggling with excitement as uncle carried her inside again. She figured it was to get her shoes on to get going right away, so when he set her down she immediately went to grab her trainers to start putting them on.

"Wait a bit, princess, uncle wanna see your brothers too for a bit first," uncle said, giving daddy a grin. Elise grabbed uncle's hand, trying to hold him back from going inside to see.

"Nooo, go to park..!" she said, stomping her feet impatiently. "Go now!"

"Li-Li, Ray is uncle for Benjamin and Aiden too. He just wants to say hi and then you can go," Daddy said softly, pulling her away from him.

"Nooo!" Elise said loudly, her excitement completely vanished. She reached out for uncle's hand again, but instead he knelt down to be as tall as her.

"I just wanna say hi to your brothers and then I'm all yours, okay? Just a quick hello," Ray said with a small smile, stroking her arm carefully.

Elise's lower lip began trembling first, and then the tears came. Finally the little whimpers that always sounded just before a proper meltdown happened.

"Hey now, it'll just be a minute okay? No need to cry, baby," uncle said softly, trying to wipe her tears a bit. "I'll be right back, okay?"

"No!"

Elise finally tilted, lashing out at uncle Ray and hitting him right on the nose before running away while crying. She got to her room and hid behind her crib, knowing daddy would be angry. Baba and daddy were always angry when she hit someone.

At least the kitty came into the room first and reminded her that she had left Sharkie in her crib that morning by sneaking in between the bars and lying down next to him. She grabbed Sharkie through the bars and hugged him to her chest, rocking slightly back and forth as she cried. She just hoped daddy wouldn't be too angry with her.