Princess, Knight and Dragon ✔️ Reddie

Ice Cream

Maggie slumped in her seat of the car with a happy sigh. 'I love this song!'

'Do you want me to turn it up?' Richie asked, hand poised over the stereo controls. 

She gasped, 'Daddy never lets me have it loud.'

Richie waggled his eyebrows at her in the rear view mirror and cranked up the volume as Maggie whooped. They crooned along together, Richie being painfully aware that he could hardly sing a note. Maggie's voice, on the other hand, was crystal clear and perfectly in tune.

'You're a good singer!' Richie yelled over the din.

Her face lit up. 'You think?'

As Richie nodded, the music was cruelly cut off by the phone ringing. Maggie booed as Richie answered. 'Hello?'

'Hey, Rich, it's me.' Eddie's voice. 'Pick up Maggie okay?'

'Hi, Daddy!' Maggie cried out.

'How are you, my love?' Eddie asked.

'Fine, dear,' Richie joked his reply.

'He means me,' Maggie insisted, giggling. 'I'm good, daddy. I got a gold star on my multiplications at school.'

'Well done! You worked so hard at them.'

Richie saw Maggie beaming at her father's pride. 'We'll be home in ten, I reckon.'

Eddie replied, 'Great. I won't be long either. I'm just at the store, do you want anything?'

Richie was surprised. He scoffed, 'I added all my items to the whiteboard list on the fridge, as per your standard protocol.'

'Don't make fun of the protocol,' Eddie scolded. 'I was just wondering if you wanted to get anything else. Anything special.'

'Ice cream!' Maggie hollered.

'What's the occasion?' Richie asked, furrowing his brow. Not his birthday. Not Eddie's birthday or Maggie's.

Eddie chuckled nervously, 'Does there have to be an occasion?'

Suspicious, but not wanting to raise Maggie's alarm bells, Richie conceded, 'I suppose not. Well, you know I like ice cream as much as Mags does. We could also get some popcorn, Cheetos and soda and maybe show her how we always used to do movie night?'

'Now that,' Eddie said emphatically, 'is a great idea.'

'Yeah? Okay, cool. See you in a bit.' Richie smiled as Eddie said his goodbyes and hung up.

Back at the house, Richie parked up and helped Maggie with her school bag and swimming kit. They both changed into some comfortable jogging bottoms before going into the kitchen, where Maggie sat up on the counter and started on her homework while Richie prepped for dinner.

Eddie always left out the exact recipe book open on the right page before he left for work in the morning. Sometimes he scribbled notes in the margins such as: 'use half this amount of oil' or 'broccoli instead of beans for M' or 'make sure you turn the oven on before you start frying things!'

'How do you spell 'comedian'?' Maggie asked suddenly, looking up from her paper.

Richie spelled it for her, then asked slyly, cracking a pepper mill, 'Why?'

'It's just this thing I have to do for school,' Maggie shrugged. 'For writing.'

'Like a story?' Richie asked.

Maggie shook her head, 'No. I have all these questions from my teacher and I have to pick someone in my family to answer them.'

Richie's stirring slowed, 'You picked me.' It wasn't a question, but Richie felt like it should have been.