AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, yes. When you have a fancy tea party, you wear your best dress, put on a little makeup, and you absolutely must wear a hat.” She grinned at the little girl. “I have to admit, that’s my favorite part.”
Toni’s eyes grew huge. “Makeup? Ican wear makeup?”
“If your daddy agrees,” she temporized, “and only a very tiny bit.”
“If Daddy agrees to what?” a familiar voice intruded. “And what smells so good?”
“Daddy!” Toni flew from her chair and into her father’s arms. “We’re having a tea party with mommy and cookies and Mia said we should ask you if we can wear makeup next time because tea parties are fancy.”
For an instant his gaze settled on the three place settings then landed on Mia. His expression turned grim. “Three?”
“Me, mommy, and Mia,” Toni supplied before Mia could say aword.
“It’s the biscotti that smells so good,” she added, choosing to answer Brand’s second question. “Would you like to join us?”
“Daddy can’t come to the tea party. It’s only for girls.”
“Maybe if he wore a hat and makeup and a fancy dress?” Mia teased.
“I’ll pass,” Brand retorted. “Toni why don’t you have a cookie and some tea while I talk to Mia.”
Uh-oh. That didn’t sound encouraging. “Great idea,” she said with a brilliant smile. She poured the little girl a cup and checked to make sure it wasn’t too hot. “We’ll be right back,” she assuredher.
“Is Daddy going to wear a hat and makeup?”
“I don’t think so, but I bet he’ll have a chocolate chip cookie or a biscotti.” She switched her smile to Brand. “They turned out perfectly, much better than the ones we had at the hotel.”
“Mia…”
She shivered at his expression, beyond sorry to find herself on the wrong side of a frown like that. Without another word, she followed him into the kitchen where he carefully closed the door connecting to the diningroom.
He immediately attacked. “What thehell,Mia?”
She faced him down, refusing to be intimidated by his anger. Or so she told herself. “What the hell … what?”
“You’re supposed to be helping Toni face reality, not encourage her fantasy life with Carina.”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” she retorted evenly, struggling to hide a sudden wave of exhaustion.
“By having a tea party with her mother?”
Mia folded her arms across her chest, aware it made her appear defensive. Well, she felt defensive so she might as well look that way, too. “We can’t put an end to this fantasy life in a day or even a week, Brand. We probably can’t even do it in a month.”
“That doesn’t mean you should encourage it!”
“I’m not encouraging it,” she retorted, stung. “Not exactly.”
Openly frustrated, he forked his fingers through his hair. “Then, what’s your game plan? You do have one, Ihope.”
She released her breath in a relieved sigh. Okay, at least he showed a willingness to listen. She ticked off on her fingers. “One, this is the first time I found a way to create a connection with your daughter. Instead of resenting me, she’s having fun with me and bonding. Two, instead of retreating to her fantasy world and playing all alone with her mother, the two of us are relating to Carina. And we’re doing it together.”
“I assume your third point is that you’re both at this tea party so Toni is forced to include you in her fantasy world.”
“Actually, just the opposite. Ihope Toni is forced to bring Carina into the real world.”
“What’s the difference?” he demanded. “They’re both a fantasy I don’t want to encourage.”
“At least if we bring Carina into the real world, we’re participating instead of Toni excluding us. It gives us an element of control. We can direct the conversation and discuss the difference between real and pretend. At your daughter’s age that can sometimes be a difficult concept to understand. Think Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. They’re not real, but we encourage children to believe in them.”
