Sorry, I Love You.

3.05

( 1 week later )

"Oww-ee! Too tight!" Bailey wailed as she tried to pull her head away from Teddy.

"Pumpkin, sit still or it's going to hurt worse," Teddy grumbled in retort as he locked Bailey between his legs and continued to braid her hair. "Your mom says they have to be tight if you want them to last. Don't blame me."

"How's it going out there?" Carmen yelled from the laundry room with a humorous tone to her voice.

Carmen loved that Teddy was frustrated with Bailey while she acted like a brat. She was always the one in those shoes and now Teddy finally had to fight to maintain control over the situation and endure Bailey's whining when he was suppose to be 'the fun uncle.' Bailey wasn't always so fussy, but when she was, it was never towards Teddy and Carmen was always the one that had to fight her cranky moods. Not this time..

Carmen was curious as to why Teddy would be volunteering himself for something like this. He had never braided anybody's hair but he asked Carmen to teach him. Carmen volunteered her own hair, hoping she could get him to do all the hard work while she caught up on her Netflix shows, but Teddy wanted to do Bailey's hair. He was insistent that he learn how to take care of the kids without Carmen being around, and when she pressed him on why, he claimed it was because she would be working soon and he'd have to pick up some of the slack.

There was something about that that Carmen didn't believe, however. Bailey was about to start school and Carmen was already looking for caretakers on those nanny-hiring websites. Teddy had school and work and friends to occupy his time anyways. He really wouldn't be taking care of them anymore than Carmen would be. Still, Carmen decided the extra help couldn't hurt and handed Bailey and her messy braids over to Teddy.

"Fine!" Teddy called back, his tone annoyed as he put a hand around Bailey to pull her back when she tried to run. "How's it going in there? Is that window shut and locked?"

Carmen rolled her eyes but still stole a glance at the window, which was in fact shut and locked. The only reason that intruder got in was because Carmen opened it one day to air out all the hot air when she was doing loads and loads of laundry one day and forget to lock it when she was done. It was probably the only window that had been opened in this house in ages and it just happened to be the one vulnerable spot when an intruder was looking for an entrance.

"We're all good in here!" Carmen hollered back.

"I wanna colorrrr!" Bailey wailed her protest again as she tried to wiggle and twist to get out from between Teddy's legs. She wanted to escape so badly that her neck was cranking backwards. Everything about her squirming was irritating Teddy right now.

"Bailey, knock it off! Behave for two seconds!" Teddy growled firm and deep.

Teddy could feel Bailey stiffen between his legs before she dropped her hands to his knees and her shoulders fell in defeat. All he had to do was use his dad voice and she settled. It was nice to know that he could force her to calm down with just his voice but Teddy also didn't really like having to do that. He was the fun uncle that gave Bailey anything she wanted whenever she asked. He didn't want to be the one to give her timeouts and scold her for her occasional attitudes.

But, as a parental figure, there wasn't much choice and Teddy understood that. If he needed to use his dad voice for Bailey to listen to him when he was doing what was best for her, he would.