Riley's third summer was nowhere near as hot as last year but it was still warm. We spent a lot of time outside in our backyard as we'd had a pool installed this year and we were excited to use it. Riley loved practicing her swimming with us and she was starting to get quite good. She could almost float by herself and was happy to hold onto something to keep her floating without assistance from us.
Her favourite thing, however, was to splash the water in our direction and get us as wet as possible. But honestly, Troye and I didn't mind. We were just having fun.
Today, however, we were inside, cleaning the house because we had some friends coming over for dinner. Riley wasn't much help because she kept tipping her toys out in the living room as soon as Troye and I tidied them up. I could tell it was frustrating Troye a lot so I quietly scooped up our daughter and took her up to her room where I told her she could play with her toys.
"Thanks, Con." Troye said with smile when I came back down.
"All good. What are you doing?" I had noticed that he was busy in the kitchen but I couldn't tell what he was doing.
"Making pastry."
"Why?"
"For dessert. I'm making apple pie." I rolled my eyes. Since we'd found out we were getting Riley, Troye had been building on his cooking and baking skills and took every chance he could to show off.
"Of course you are."
"You love it. Don't even try to deny it."
"I'm not. I think it's cute." He grinned at me as I leaned over to kiss him, being careful not to get any flour on me. "I love you."
"Love you too." He said distractedly, his attention completely on the task at hand. I just laughed and left the room to finish sorting out dishes in the dining room. We wanted to use our special plates tonight instead of our usual scratched and chipped ones but the good ones were buried in the back of the cupboard because we hadn't used them in so long.
"Papa!" I heard Riley call out for me just as I set the plates on the table and I ran upstairs to find her sitting on the floor of her room, crying and holding her knee.
"What happened, princess?" I asked, going over to her.
"I falled papa. On that." She pointed to a little wooden dog that lay on the floor nearby.
"Oh no. Can I see?" I gently pulled her hand away from her knee, quickly noticing that there was no blood but she'd probably get a bruise. "Is it sore?"
"Mhm. Can you kiss?"
"Of course." I leaned down and kissed her knee gently before sitting back up and pulling her into my lap. "All better?"
"What's wrong?" Troye appeared in the doorway as I spoke.
"All better papa." Riley agreed, cuddling up to me.
"She fell over on that dog thing." I explained, wiping away Riley's tears.
"Oh. Sorry, I would have been up here sooner but I had to wash my hands..." He trailed off as I nodded.
"All good. There's no blood or anything. So we're fine." He was looking around the room, not at me, which was something I'd learnt meant he was up to something or he wanted something. "What is it?"
"Um, I kind of just found out that I need more cinnamon. Could you run to the store and get some? I can't leave the pastry." He batted his eyelashes at me and I laughed, shaking my head.
"Alright. I'll take Riley with me."
"Thank you, Connor." He replied in a child-like voice.
"You're such a dork sometimes." I told him, getting up off the floor and searching for Riley's shoes. "You want to go for an adventure, baby girl?"
