Charlie Robin Styles [Addition to We're Having Our Baby]

I miss him.

Charlie's P.O.V. Charlie 7

"Mummy? When is Daddy coming home?"

It makes me sad when I get home from school and Daddy isn't here. He hasn't been home very much, and I miss him a lot. He's always working late, and I hate it.

"He'll be home before bedtime," Mummy tells me, but she doesn't answer my question.

"But when? Will he have dinner with us?"

"Not tonight, sweetheart. But he will be home all day tomorrow."

"Yay!" I do a happy dance when Mummy says I'll see Daddy all day tomorrow. I am still sad that he's not here right now. I want to tell him about my day at school, but I don't think I will have time to tell him before bedtime.

***

Mummy has just told me that it's time to take a bath and get ready for bed, but I hear something from downstairs, so I follow the noise instead of going into my bathroom.

"Daddy!" I see him walking into the kitchen from the garage.

"Charlie-bean! I missed you," he picks me up and we spin around in a circle. "How was your day?"

"I had a lot of fun at school, but I got sad when I came home," I tell him the truth because I'm hurt, and I want him to fix it.

"Oh, no. Why were you sad?"

Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry.

"Charlie-bean, what's the matter?"

"I just miss you," I hide my face, so he doesn't see me cry. Daddy gets sad when I cry, and I don't want him to be sad. But I'm sad, and it makes me cry!

"I'm so sorry, Bean. I know I haven't been home much, but I'm here now."

Daddy is here now, but what about after tomorrow? Will he be gone again?

"I'll spend the rest of the night with you until you fall asleep, is that okay? I'll run you a bath, we'll sing songs, read books, and snuggle."

"Okay," I wipe my nose on my arm and notice that Daddy is carrying me up the stairs.

"Tell me about school," he says when he sets me down in the bathroom and starts the water for my bath.

"We did a really fun science experiment," I tell him as I sit on the toilet lid and wait for the bathtub to be full.

"Yeah? What did you do?" Daddy asks and puts the bubble stuff in the water.

"We put a bunch of different things in water to test if it would float. Like marshmallows, pennies, paperclips, and other stuff."

"Wow! Sounds like you had an awesome day at school. Your bath is almost ready so start getting undressed."

"It was awesome! Kyle tried to eat the marshmallows, but my teacher yelled at him," I continue my story while I get naked for the bath.

"Isn't Kyle the one who colors in library books?"

"Yes, he's very naughty," I tell him and then talk about some other fun things from school today.

Daddy catches me yawning while I put on my cozy pajamas, so he tells me that after I brush my teeth we'll snuggle in my bed and read books.

When I crawl under the covers, I hold one side of the blanket up for Daddy to lay next to me. We he gets in bed, I smile when I see he brought over our favorite book to read, Guess How Much I Love You.

I pull the blankets up to my chin and lay my head on Daddy's chest while he reads and shows me the pictures.

"'I love you right up to the moon,' he said, and closed his eyes."

I decide to close my eyes too, but they're too heavy to open again.