Just Like Her

Chapter 87

Tom

Lizzie's little fingers—still coated with sugary residue from the cotton candy she'd nearly inhaled earlier in the afternoon—pulled at and twirled locks of Emma's hair.

Emma, for her part, paid little notice as she continued to quietly explained the concept of hibernation.

"Like a nap," Lizzie concluded as she released one chunk of Emma's hair and reached for another.

"Like a long nap," Emma clarified as she shifted Lizzie's weight in her arms.

"Loooooooooong nap!" Francis cheered as he danced around Emma's feet. with a spastic little wiggle for added flair. 

I chuckled at his spastic wiggling and grabbed him by the armpits, swinging him up high to sit on my shoulders.

"Whoooo I'm a giraffe!" He cried as the heels of his light up sneakers excitedly kicked my chest.

Now it was Emma's turn to laugh at my grunting.

"Is that your rendition of a gorilla?" she teased.

"Why, you in to that type of mating call?" I shot back.

"Mate like a friend?" Lizzie chirped.

Emma threw her head back in laughter then. Lizzie—with her fingers still wrapped in Emma's tresses—toppled forward. Emma caught her easily and planted a gentle kiss on the little girl's head.

"Just like," she giggled before glancing my way.

My chest ached, not from the force of Francis' kicks but the sight of Emma cuddling our niece, grinning back at me with a light in her eyes I'd never...

Beautiful doesn't begin to describe how she looked to me in that moment.

She was radiant.

That morning, when Matilda had called asking if we could babysit for the day, I'd secretly begrudged Emma for immediately agreeing.

It had been a long week at work with seemingly every major project of the foundation's suffering various crises. With herculean efforts (and no small amount of sheer luck) we had avoided the potential disasters and even secured several new endowments, but it had all left me feeling utterly ragged.

When I woke up Saturday I had hoped to roll over and find Emma snuggled beside me, also awake and, hopefully, also in the mood to destress...

But when I reached out for her, the bed was empty.

To make matters worse, she was in the kitchen fully dressed and chatting away with my sister on the phone. I'd barely taken a sip of coffee when I heard her assure Matilda that we would absolutely love to take the children to the zoo for the day.

"Tom?" Emma called to me, breaking me of reverie.

I blinked several times, having difficulty mentally returning to the Tiger Territory.  Still lost for words, I responded in the only logical manner.

Emma snorted at my dramatic gorilla call.

"I was saying, don't you think it's time we head back? Matilda wanted them back by four."

Without missing a beat, Francis and Lizzie let out a chorus of howling protests.

I clapped the heels of Francis's light-up shoes together and nodded. "Auntie Em's right. We best be off, little monkeys."

"B-but—" Francis started to quibble.

"We'll come back another day," Emma consoled him.

"Do you promise?" Lizzie demanded.