For Fiona

24. Dinner Date

Peace was hard to come by in their house, so Lucy enjoyed the moment where she was lounging on the couch reading a book with her feet in Tim's lap as he pored over a case file that was bothering him while mindlessly drawing patterns on her calf, Kojo was lightly snoring where he was asleep next to Fiona, and Fiona was sprawled out on the living room floor surrounded by crayons and a nearly full coloring book. Her daughter's tongue stuck out between her teeth in concentration as she worked on staying inside the lines. The peacefulness was so glorious, she hated to interrupt it. "My love," she said softly as she smiled at Fiona.

She looked up from her paper, and wondered, "Yes, Mommy?"

"Have you ever gone to a hair salon before?"

She frowned in thought. "What's a hair salon?"

"It's a place where you can get your hair cut or styled in fancy ways. They make you feel extra pretty."

Fiona's eyes lit up. "Like a princess?"

"Exactly like a princess. So what do you think? Do you want to go to the hair salon with me?"

"Are you going today?" Tim butted in to ask.

"Yeah, and I'm thinking we'll turn it into a girls' afternoon," Lucy explained.

"What brought this on?" He inquired.

She swung her legs out of his lap to flip over and instead scoot until she was in his space. "I want to look extra good for our date tonight," she murmured as she batted her eyelashes at him.

"You don't have to do anything special for me, you know."

"I know." She rested her hand over his heart and continued, "But I want to."

"You're the one that says all of our lunches are dates, so what's the big deal this time?"

"This is dinner, and it's going to be fancier. I can't tell you how excited I am for a night out just you and me."

He snaked an arm around her waist and smirked at the enthusiasm making her eyes dazzle. "I am, too." He dropped a kiss to her forehead. "You two can take my truck for the day. I'll go get your car serviced while you're out."

"You're volunteering to get my car serviced?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because that's so...you're a very good boyfriend, you know that?"

"Am I, or do I just have a very good girlfriend?"

"Both," she decided, grinning.

He chuckled. "Fair."

Lucy slotted her lips with his sweetly before standing up. "Okay, sweetheart, let's put on our shoes. We're going to the salon."

Tim took her hand. As their daughter went into the foyer to slip on her shoes as instructed, he moved close to Lucy and dropped his voice to remind her, "I hope you know you're already beautiful."

She blushed and was rendered speechless.

He went over to help his daughter with her shoes and said, "Have fun, Fi."

"Bye, Daddy!"

Lucy laced up her sneakers and stepped into his space. "Thank you for going to take care of my car today. You being so sweet really means the world to me."

"It's what you deserve."

"And answers like that will get you a princess kiss." She curled her fingers in the collar of his flannel and captured his lips adoringly.

"You didn't say that loud enough for our favorite cheerleader to start yelling for us to kiss," he pointed out.

"I did that for me."