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JALEN SAT BY ALANI'S high chair, his face creased with impatience and annoyance.
This was the third time that Jalen had tried to feed her baby food and the second time that the one-year-old had thumped the tiny blue and yellow spoon so that the mashed banana would land on the floor instead of her mouth.
" C'mon, Lani number two. Doesn't this look good?" Jalen attempted a pleasant voice as he scooped up more of the baby food from the minuscule jar, "Open up!"
"No!" The child pressed her lips together more firmly and scrunched her dark eyebrows in an angry expression that matched her mother's when she was also upset.
Jalen pushed his curls out of his face in a frustrated motion just as the doorbell rang, the chime emanating throughout the large but empty home. As soon as the first chime ended, the doorbell began to sound off in quick succession.
"I'm coming," Jalen muttered to himself as he picked up the pace from a casual stride to a light jog.
As soon as he opened the front door a crack, his younger sister, Jurnee, pushed through to the entryway with a duffle bag hanging from her left shoulder. Jalen raised an eyebrow, "I thought mom and pops were heading to Vegas tomorrow. Why are you here?"
Jurnee sighed as she dropped her bag near the staircase, "They wanted to start their romantic getaway whatever thing early."
"Okay. Make yourself at home." Jalen shrugged before he whirled on his heel to stride back to the kitchen and continue his attempt at feeding his daughter.
In the thirty seconds that Jalen had been gone, Alani had scooped some of the baby food that had spilled and let it splatter onto the floor with a series of laughter.
"Oh no," Jalen groaned as he scanned the previously clean kitchen floor, "Jesus."
Jurnee sat down at the kitchen table across from Jalen, her cell phone held aloft in her dominant hand. She glanced at the tiny jar on the white plastic tray attached to Alani's high chair before releasing her own childlike giggle, "Father of the year."
Jalen immediately creased his face into a scowl, "Jurnee, do me a favor and shut the fuck up."
Alani smacked the top of the tray and fussed even louder, "Fuck!"
Jalen raised his head so fast that it almost gave him whiplash, "No. No, Alani that's a bad word."
Alani ignored him with a laugh, "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" The baby was visibly amused at her father's anguish.
