Picture Perfect

Chapter Thirty - Elliot

We were not above using gifts to put her in a better mood. Tyler was firm about teaching her to manage her emotions and be okay with being sad or disappointed, but right now we were knackered and about to go through our second flight in three days.

"What did she get me?" Saskie asked, falling for the bait.

"You'll have to wait and see," Tyler beamed. "And then when we get home, we'll have a nice dinner, and get an early night. Okay?"

"Okay," Saskie replied, sounding a bit sulky but mostly mollified.

*****

"Oh, shit," Tyler cursed, four hours later.

Sorcha looked at the pan that he'd somehow managed to set on fire, and sighed, cutting off the oxygen to it by taking it off the stove and placing a pan lid on it.

"I can see why Colin was the cook," I commented dryly, as the fire went out.

Tyler grinned. "I'm not that bad," he said.

"You're terrible when you don't stick to a recipe," Sorcha replied, looking at the pan once the food was doused. "What was this even supposed to be?"

Tyler eyed it and said, "You know, I'm honestly not too sure."

There was a shuffling noise, and Saskie appeared with a sleepy and slightly grumpy look on her face. Tyler looked at her and said with a guilty tone, "Sorry, sweetie, did we wake you up?"

"Noisy," she complained.

I grinned and said, "Want me to read you a story to try and help you get back to sleep?"

"Yes," she said, and held out her arms so I could pick her up. Her body was heavy with sleep, and she curled into me in a very similar way to Pumpkin when she was sleepy. I smiled, kissing her on the forehead, and carried her through to her bedroom.

Behind me, I heard Tyler said, "Sorcha, attempt to salvage my cooking."

"I think I'll just cook something else," she said apologetically, pushing the pan of burned food into the sink. "Sorry, Tyler, but there's no way to salvage hell."

I walked into Saskie's room and closed the door, muffling any further conversation from the others. I settled her into bed and lay down next to her, taking one of the books from her bedside table and opening it up. It was a very cute little storybook that Tyler had recently got her that featured a baby bear that had a non-traditional family situation, with divorced parents and their respective partners. It was a sweet story about how people could be happy separated, and how that meant there was more love all round for the baby bear.

Saskie settled against my side, and after a few minutes I thought she might have already dozed back off, so I whispered, "Sask, you awake?"

"Yeah," she replied, genuinely startling me.

"Sorry, sweetpea, thought you were asleep," I laughed a little at myself. "Want me to keep going?"

There was a pause, and then Saskie said, "Grandad is daddy's stepdad."

"Yeah," I replied. I wondered where this was going; often, Saskie would say something that I understood as a statement, but didn't understand the actual question behind it.

"Daddy calls Grandad 'dad'," Saskie continued.

"He does, yes," I nodded.

"Is that normal for stepdads?" Saskie asked.