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Dustin watches for a second as she trudges to Simon and kisses his head. Simon looks up at her with his signature cheeky smile and offers her one of the last Cheerios stuck to his finger.
"For me?" Colleen asks.
Simon nods enthusiastically and thrusts his finger up at her.
"Oh thank you, Simon," she says as she plucks it from his finger and pops it in her mouth. "It's delicious! You're such a good sharer!"
Dustin watches, a little surprised still with how little she cares about baby slobber. "Eggs," he yells out. "Do you want me to make you some eggs?"
"I can do it," she offers.
"I got it. Are scrambled fine or do you want me to get out the bigger pan for poaching?"
"Scrambled works," she assures him. "Can I use one of those lemons?" she asks, pointing at the bag on the counter.
"Go for it. The kettle is ready, too,"
They work quietly together for a bit, and before long, she's settled at the table with her breakfast and lemon water, eating two bites of her eggs for everyone that she convinces Simon to eat.
"Hey buddy, can you tell Colleen what a dog says?"
"Arf arf," Simon replies automatically.
"Show her where your head is."
Simon touches his forehead without looking away from his food.
"Where's your nose?"
Simon grabs at his nose and repeats, "Nose," with a little nod.
"Good job, buddy!" Colleen exclaims! "Aren't you so smart!" Then she turns to Dustin, "I leave for two weeks and he knows where his nose is?"
Simon points to his nose again before eating another bite of toast.
"The last week it's like suddenly half the stuff we've been working with him on has clicked. It's been mind blowing."
They spend another ten lazy minutes around the breakfast table before Simon gets restless and starts bucking in his high chair, trying to get out.
Dustin reprimands him with a gentle voice but releases him and sets him in his play area. He notes that Colleen watches them the whole time with a perplexing look, but what else is new? It feels like everything about her confuses him these days.
"Do you have to get back home and buckle down on work, or do you want to go to the park with us?" Dustin asks. She seems like she's in a relaxed mood to leave.
"I could probably go with you," she says. "Home seems like a lot right now." The way she says it, quiet and stark, is almost like it's a confession.
"Park it is. Do we need to swing by your place first?"
"No. I have my stuff with me. Give me twenty minutes?" She rinses her dishes quickly and loads them into the dishwasher that he's only just started using for things other than sanitizing bottles now that he regularly has someone eating with him, at least when she's in town.
At the park, they work more with Simon on walking, taking every opportunity to get him to walk to either Dustin or Colleen and celebrating with cheers and big hugs. They take turns swinging with him and helping him go down the slide, and as the hour passes, Dustin can see more and more of the tension in Colleen's shoulders ease.
He also finds himself thinking about how gorgeous she is out here in the sunshine. Her freckles stand against the bridge of her nose and are scattered across her shoulders, and her eyes are bright and glittering when she laughs and…
He shuts down those thoughts quickly because this is Colleen; she's beautiful. She's always been beautiful, and that hasn't changed at all. Nothing fundamental has changed for them so she can be gorgeous, but he doesn't get to be attracted to her, not like that.
"What's up?" she asks, startling him out of his thoughts.
Simon is in her arms, with his head on her shoulder, and Dustin realizes it's probably time to get him down for his morning nap.
