Protection

Chapter 24: Snickerdoodle

Jen's Pov:

After a long day of play rehearsal I come home to my apartment. Ava greets me at the door and I pick her up. I see Ainsley, Lorelei and Kyle standing in the kitchen covered in flour, Eli is on the floor crawling in it.

"Mommy!" Ainsley says and runs over to me. I pick her up getting some flour on myself

"Can I ask what happened here" I say and turn my attention towards Kyle

He comes over to me and kisses my cheek, leaving a flour imprint "we were just making your favorite, snickerdoodle cookies"

"And getting in a flour fight?" I question and Ainsley starts laughing

"The cookies taste pretty good though" Lorelei says

"Okay girls why don't you go wash up and change, then we can eat dinner" Kyle says

The girls run off and Kyle picks up Eli. I sit at the kitchen counter

"Why are you making my favorite cookies" I ask suspiciously

"Can't I just want to make you happy. You've been working pretty hard this last week"

I smirk at him and take a bite of a cookie

"Okay okay, I have something to tell you but it can wait until we're alone." He admits

I look at him concerned "is it bad?"

"No, well no"

I stand up and begin to help him clean the kitchen as he cleans the baby.

"What's for dinner?" I ask trying to make conversation

"I made some tacos after my conference call. Ainsley was really good and played with Eli all day after her schooling"

"Good, she's been okay? I still feel bad leaving her alone all day"

"You don't work every day, and once the play starts you only work evenings and some afternoons"

"True" I smile

Once everything is cleaned, we set the table. The girls come out and take their seats. We all sit around eating the tacos. Eli eats some Cheerios and mashed carrots.

"Mommy guess what! I helped Kyle read some of the recipe " Ainsley says excitedly

"That's great sweetheart! And you are getting better with addition. You are super smart" I say with a big smile

"She is, we even read a little book together today" Kyle says

"They kept laughing at the pictures and distracting me" Lorelei says and starts tickling Ainsley

Ainsley chuckles "Lorelei was doing math and we were too loud"

"Hey, Calculus is hard!" Lorelei argues

"She's really a genius" Kyle adds

Once dinner is over we get ready for bed. I change Eli and get him in his pajamas. We all gather around his crib cause Ainsley wants to sing him a lullaby. She just learned the song that Lorelei sang to Eli when he was even younger. This will be the first time I hear Kyle or Lorelei sing and the first time they hear me. Ainsley starts, she can't really sing but her little girl voice is very cute.

"Come stop your crying it will be alright. Just take my hand, hold it tight" she sings

Lorelei joins "I will protect you from all around you, I will be here don't you cry"