Mr. Mom

27

Alice wakes up as the smell of waffles and coffee travels through the house. Ellie still has her arms and legs wrapped around her and she very slowly slips out of the 3 year old's grip and out of bed.

She walks out into the kitchen and FP smiles at her. "Good morning. I had a feeling one of you would wake up when you smelt food." He says with a chuckle.

"Well she's still passed out so it's just you and I."

"Well, that's a nice change of pace." He places a mug of coffee in front of her. "There's plenty of food, help yourself.

"Thank you. What time did you get home at last night? I didn't even hear you come in."

"10:45ish." He tells her. "I came in and looked into Ellie's room to check on her and almost had a heart attack when I didn't see her."

"Oh yeah, she had a bad dream and wanted to come sleep with me."

"I know I saw, thanks for taking care of my babygirl for me."

"Of course. It's not like she's any trouble, we have fun."

"She adores you." He tells her, laughing a little.

"Feelings mutual." Alice says with a smile just as the little girl comes running into the kitchen.

"Allie?" She calls, smiling wide when she sees both Alice and FP at the table. "Daddy!" She runs over to him and he lifts her onto his lap as she gives him a big hug. "I missed you!"

"I missed you too, honey." He pecks a kiss to her cheek. "Did you have fun with Allie?"

She nods excitedly. "Yeah! We watched a movie and she read me a story and then we had a sleepover because I had a bad dream."

"You had a bad dream, kiddo? I'm sorry I wasn't here." He presses a kiss to her head.

"It's okay, daddy, Allie made sure no monsters got me!"

"Well thank goodness Allie was here to protect my little princess!" He smiles over at Alice who is smiling at the two of them. "I made you pancakes!"

"Yay!"

He sets her on the chair between he and Alice and plates the two pancakes he made for her. He cuts them up and pours her a cup of apple juice, then sets both the plate and cup down in front of her.

"Allie can you pour the syrup on my pancakes?" Ellie asks her, pointing to the maple syrup.

Alice nods and drizzles the syrup over Ellie's pancakes. "You just tell me when to stop." She keeps pouring as Ellie watches with wide eyes, the kid loves anything sweet or sugary.

FP watches with a fond smile as Alice and Ellie giggle and as much as he's trying not to he knows he's falling hard for Alice.