You, Me, and Riley

chapter 30

Hayden

"Mommy home!" I heard Riley yell as I walked in the front door after a long shift at the hospital. I smiled as she jumped into my arms and gently kissed her temple.

"I am home" I said placing my hand on her cheek before setting her down on the couch where she was watching TV. I walked into the kitchen and leaned on the counter with a groan "Why is she awake?" I whispered.

"Long night?" Dana asked as she took a long sip of her coffee and put some paperwork in her briefcase.

"Very long night." I said rubbing my eyes "And I was hoping to get a couple of hours of sleep before she woke up for the day, so I repeat why is she awake?"

"I think she had a nightmare." She said rinsing out her mug and putting it in the dishwasher "She woke up in tears about 2 hours ago and wouldn't go back to sleep."

"So she's been up since 4 am." I said pulling out my cell phone with a sigh "Maybe I can get her to sleep with me for a few hours."

"I tried." Dana said giving me a light kiss "But you're better at that stuff than I am." She said walking into the living room to say bye to Riley before heading off to work.

"Bye Mama." I heard Riley giggle as I pushed off the counter and made my way into the living room. I sat on the couch next to Riley and ran my fingers through her hair as she crawled onto my lap and rest her head on my shoulder with a yawn.

"Hi pumpkin." I whispered rubbing her back with a smile when she sighed in contentment. "I missed you."

"Miss you too Mommy." She said looking up at me with a small smile.

"I hear you woke Mama up pretty early today." I said as she laid her head back down with a nod "Why did you do that?"

"I no sweep Mommy."

Why not baby?" I asked "I really want to know pumpkin." I said when she shook her head no with a small whine "will you please tell Mommy, maybe I can help."

"I aww awone Mommy." She said after a second "in my dweam." she said sitting up and looking at me with a trembling lip.

"Oh baby." I started to say before she cut me off to finish.

"I wake up in my cwib an I say Mommy an Mama." she said rubbing her eyes"an you come to my door but den you eave an no come back."

"We would never leave you pumpkin." I said wiping the tears from her eyes.

"I tink it my faut." She said looking at her hands "acause I eft you firs."

"No baby." I said kissing her nose and looking at her with a small smile "nothing about that was your fault. You were a little bit scared and it's okay to be scared. Mama and I were never mad at you for leaving and now that your home we are so happy so we would never ever ever in a million years leave you."

"You pwomise?" she asked rubbing her eyes.

"I promise." I said kissing her nose and pulling her hands away from her eyes "Don't rub your eyes baby, you might hurt them. What do you say you and I take a nap before we get our day started. Mommy had a looooooong day at work and you were up waaaaaay to early." I said picking her up and carrying her to my bedroom setting her down so I could change into some pj's.

"Snuggy up Mommy." She said when I laid down next to her and pulled her to my side for what felt like the quickest nap of my life.

"Mommy Mommy Mommy!" Riley said poking my nose a couple hours late "It time to ake up."

"Are you sure?" I asked rubbing my eyes, laughing when she grabbed my hands and pulled them away from my face.

"You're not apposed to do dat, member?" she said with a serious face "It bad fo your eyes."

"You're right baby." I said sitting up and pulling her into a hug "Thank you for looking out for Mommy."

"What we do today?" Riley asked as we walked into the kitchen.

"I don't know pumpkin." I said setting down a bowl of oatmeal in front of her and watching her play in it. "You're supposed to eat the food baby, not play." I said taking away her bowl.

"But it fun." she said as I started feeding her her breakfast smiling as I thought of an activity for the day.

"Do you want to make a mess with Mommy today?" I asked as we finished breakfast.

"Es." she said with a big smile and excited laugh "I ike messes."

"Me too." I said pulling her out of her chair and carrying her bowl into the kitchen "Lets go!" I said running to the door with her laughing behind me.

"Mommy, we in our pj's" she said laughing.

"Today is a messy day remember" I said throwing on her coat and walking her out to the car. "In you get." I said opening the door and helping her into her car seat.

We quickly drove to the store and picked up as much shaving cream and food coloring as we could find and Riley told every person we saw that we were having a messy day. When we got home I changed Riley and myself into bathing suits so I could take as many pictures as possible. Riley followed me around the house bouncing in excitement as I filled as many bowls as I could with shaving cream and food coloring.

"Follow me!" I said leading her to the bathroom and helping her into the tub.

"What is it?" She asked, poking at the bowls that I had set out along the edge of the bath.

"It's paint." I said sticking my finger in the bowl and brushing it against the tile of the bath, as she laughed I stuck my finger in the purple and put a big dollop on her nose.

"Mommy." she laughed falling backwards into the tub.

"What?" I said with laugh grabbing more paint and making a flower on the wall "Are you going to help me or what?" I said looking down at her as she laid at the bottom of the tub.

"Es." She said sitting up and sticking her hand in the yellow paint. I watched as she looked at her hand the wall and then back to her hand.

"Don't you dare." I said with a smile as she looked at me wiggling her fingers. I laughed as she launched out of the tub and smeared the yellow paint across my face. "Okay little girl, I see how it is." I said setting her back in the tub poking her in the stomach.

We spent the rest of the day painting the bathroom walls and each other until Dana came walking into the room with a smile on her face "What is going on in here?" She asked in surprise turning down the music I had turned on at some point.

"We have messy day!" Riley said holding up her hands to show Dana all of the paint.

"I see that." She said with a smile "Did you get any paint on the walls?" She said laughing at the amount of paint that was covering our bodies.

"Mommy." Riley whispered in my direction "can we gets Mama." She asked with a smile on her face.

"I know what your thinking." Dana said backing out of the bathroom and walking towards our bedroom "But at least let me change out of my work clothes first." she said.

"Ah man." Riley said looking up at me with pout "I wan'ed to geter."

"I know pumpkin." I said with a laugh "maybe next time."