For Fiona

43. About Time

Tim was struggling to carry the pile of clothes in his arms while following his girls around the store.

Lucy scanned the last rack and determined, "I don't think there are anymore green dresses in here, Fi, so let's try these on."

"I want the prettiest one!" Fiona proclaimed. "Which one do you think is the prettiest, Daddy?"

He eyed the few he could see. Between the frills, and patterns, and tulle, and bows, they blended together, so he told her the truth, "Well, munchkin, just like your mommy, you make every dress look the prettiest when you wear it."

Lucy wondered if her heart would stop fluttering whenever her husband so casually complimented her or showed how amazing of a father he was, but if her body would always react, she decided the least she could do was stand up tall and give him a peck on the cheek in appreciation, so she did.

"I wanna give Daddy a kiss, too," Fiona said, though she did not have the same vertical advantage as her mother, so she shot her hands up for her mom to lift her up and carry her close enough to press her lips to her dad's cheek.

"Your daddy is the best ever," Lucy stated factually.

"I know," Fiona agreed.

Tim grinned at his girls feeling warm all over. His whole life was spent under the heat of the Los Angeles sun, but it never warmed him up the way his family did.

"We have lots of dresses to try on," Lucy prompted and brought her daughter into a fitting room.

He deposited the comically large stack of dresses onto the bench in the fitting room and left his girls to sort out trying on each one while he sat on a chair waiting for Fiona to strut out modeling her favorites for her dad.

"Okay, Fi," Lucy said, "now that you've tried all of them on, which one do you like better?"

"I don't know," she answered with her lips pulled down as she thought more seriously about her options. She picked through the pile and decided, "I like this one, and this one, and that one, and this one the bestest. What dress do you like?" She asked her mom.

"They're all very nice dresses. Whatever you choose, I'll love," Lucy responded sweetly.

Fiona looked between the four finalists unsure which she preferred. Torn about what to do, she gathered all of them and teetered past the curtain of the fitting room to find her dad and plop down her dress options in front of him. "Pick, Daddy."

He would not say he was an expert at little girl fashion, so he was certain he was not the person to be making such a choice and instead determined, "Since they're all so pretty, we'll buy all four."

Lucy poked her head out from between the curtains to narrow her eyes at him. "That can't always be the solution, or we'll spoil her."

"I don't care," he replied smoothly with an easy smile forming on his face.

"Remind me to take you with me next time I go shoe shopping," Lucy responded, smirking. "You heard your daddy. We're buying all four, but I need you to pick only one of them for tomorrow, because it's a special day."

Fiona took her mom's hand and nodded. "Special days are fun! Can I play wedding in all of my new dresses?"

"You sure can," Tim answered and brought all four small dresses to the checkout counter to pay for them. "Do we need to pick anything else up while we're here, or are we done going overboard for tomorrow?"

Lucy's face pulled with guilt. "Have I been that bad?"

"You could be worse," he joked.

"I just want everything to be perfect."