Fearless

95

"Cora your dad is calling you." Kat said as I flipped the pancakes in front of me, "oh shit okay, can you watch these?" I asked Colby and gestured to the pancakes as I grabbed my phone from Kat, "you got it." He said with a smile as I left the room.

"Hey dad." I said and brushed my hair out of my face, "hey squirt, how are you doing?" He asked as I sat on the stairs. "On edge constantly." I said with a laugh, "why? Is everything okay?" He asked with concern lacing his voice, "yeah, just a little prank war here at the house." I said and shrugged, picking at my nails, "oh that sounds fun, are you winning?" He asked with a laugh, "you could say that...anyways, what's up?" I asked and he chuckled, "Colby asked about Michelle and I coming out there for Thanksgiving, and I was wondering if we could bring her daughter with us? We would all buy our own tickets of course, I just don't know how you feel about having new people around." He rambled nervously, "I'll have to talk to Colby about it, but I'm sure it should be fine. I'd rather meet them for the first time at Thanksgiving rather than at our wedding." I said and stood up.

"Yeah, I really want you to get to know her squirt, I think you'll really like her. Her daughter too..I think you two will really get along." He said as I walked to the kitchen and peaked my head in causing Mia to giggle. I waved at her with a smile then looked at Colby, he smiled and cocked his head to the side as I waved him over.

"I can't wait to meet them, what's her daughters name?" I asked as I grabbed Colby's hand and pulled him out of the room. "Her name is Stephanie." He said as I put him on speaker phone. "Colby's here now." I said as turned to look at Colby,

"hey dad." He said as we sat on the stairs, "hey Colby how are you doing?" He asked with a chuckled, "I'm good! What's going on?" He asked and raked his hand through his hair. "He was asking me about Michelle bringing her daughter to Thanksgiving." I said and Colby smiled, "yeah! The more the merrier." He said as I leaned my head on his shoulder, "I'll let them know! We will get our own tickets so don't worry about that." Dad said as Colby nodded, "sounds good, we have spare rooms for you guys. Can't wait to see you!" He said causing my heart to swell.

Kat came out of the kitchen holding Mia who was crying loudly, "oh okay dad I have to go." I said and got up, handing the phone over to Colby. "Okay I'll talk to you later squirt." Dad said as Colby took him off speaker and put the phone to his ear.

I went over to Mia and cupped her face, "what's wrong sweet girl?" I asked as she looked at me with sad eyes. I bounced her up and down as she cried and looked over at Colby. "Daddy's busy, let's go outside." I cooed and opened the back door to bring her outside.

I went over to the pool and sat down on the edge so I could stick my feet in as I rocked her. She looked up curiously at the sky as she calmed down, I think she just wanted to cuddle for a second because she almost melted into my body as I held her.

She cooed happily up at the birds, as I sang her a lullaby. Colby eventually came out and she reached out for him, causing me to hand her over. "What did you and dad talk about?" I asked as he made silly faces at Mia making her giggle. "Just planning Thanksgiving activities." He said as I kicked in the water. "Oh yeah?" I asked with a smirk, "yeah, my parents are coming too, I talked to them the other day." He said and I smiled down at Mia. She was going to have so many people to love on her and I was so excited. My dad and Colby's parents really didn't get to spend much time with her so they were going to be cute.

"I'm so excited for them to get to interact with Mia. She's going to fall in love." I said with a sigh and leaned my head on Colby's shoulder, "I know, It's gonna be great to have our real family and our chosen family all together for Thanksgiving." He said and kissed Mia's head. "Yeah." I agreed as foot steps came rushing behind us. I jumped and turned my head just as Jake pushed me in the pool.

"JAKE!" I yelled the second I was resurfaced. Colby was stifling a laugh as Mia looked at me with tears in her eyes. "You're dead, Webber." I said and glared at him as I got out of the pool. "You might not want to say that just yet." He said as and pulled out the pancake mix from behind his back and threw it in my face, "JAAAAAAKE!" I screamed and tried to scoop the powder out of my eyes. "PRANKED. I turned you into a pancake!" He yelled as my eye twitched. "You're impossible, Jake." I said and turned to Colby who was still trying not to laugh. "Really?" I asked and glared at him playfully,

"sorry baby I think it's funny..It was pretty genius." He said and I nodded, "Sadly I agree. Whatever, I'm going to go shower." I said and pushed past Jake to go inside.

"Oh shit is that the ghost again?!" Corey yelled as I passed the kitchen, "fuck off, Corey!" I yelled with a laugh as the girls died of laughter.

When I made it upstairs I went straight into the bathroom to look in the mirror, "holy shit." I breathed out with a laugh.

I had to admit it was a pretty good prank, but I was starving and wanted to eat more than anything in the world right now. I sighed and got in the shower.

I sang to myself as I wiped away the pancake mix that was caked on my face until my stomach growled causing me to pick up the pace so I could get back downstairs to eat.

As I jogged down the stairs everyone went silent, "please guys no more pranks." I begged as I walked into the kitchen. Kat smiled, "we aren't going to prank you again, but Jake did make you a plate already." She said and gestured over to Jake who was holding out a plate with three pancakes on it with a smiley face drawn on them with syrup.

"Thanks." I said with caution as I grabbed it.

They were definitely up to something, and I couldn't tell if it was bad or good.