All's Fair in Love and Las Vegas

Bonus Chapter: Story Time (Clay)

      A/n: We got 5k reads on ALILALV!! To celebrate, I wrote a special story for the Borgens. Hope you enjoy and thank you all so much for your support. Love you all! *kisses*

       "Okay, which story do you want?" I asked, lightly sitting on the edge of Astrid's bed.

        "This one!" She ran to the bookshelf, pulling out the tattered copy of Hippos Go Berserk. It had clearly lived a long and fulfilling life, one that I knew wasn't over yet.

        "Again? Are you sure?" I asked with teasing eyes, very well knowing it was her favorite book in the whole world.

        "Yes!" she squealed, climbing up next to me. Kylie sat on my other side, nestled into the crook of my arm. While Hippos Go Berserk wasn't her favorite book in the world, she'd patiently listened to the story for the past twenty-three nights in a row.

        I wasn't sure if Astrid loved the idea of books or if she just loved the idea of a house stuffed with partying hippos. But it was nice to see her take interest in reading, even if she was only three. She would giggle and squeal with delight as I made my way through many, many hippos before finally getting back to just one hippo. We did this every night. I always read, even though Kylie offered. Secretly, I think she liked listening to me read, even if it was about hippos.

       As I shut the book, Astrid suddenly took the pages and flipped it back around, now at the beginning again. "Daddy?"

        "Yes, sweetheart?" I asked, smiling. It was so hard not to just constantly smile when I was with Astrid. She was so full of joy and smiles herself that it was infectious. 

        "The way the book is written, you could start over. And over, and over, and just never stop reading," she told me, showing me both the first and last pages.

        "You could," I said, knowing where this was going.

        "Then we should read it again," she pressed, putting her palm on the book. "That way the hippos can have a party again."

        "Not until tomorrow night," I said reluctantly. "You have to go to sleep now."

        "Please, daddy?" she said in that sad, pitiful voice that was bound to crush me someday.

        I kissed her cheek. "Maybe some other night we can read it in a loop. But for now you're tired, so you have to go to bed."

        She looked so crestfallen that I was tempted to pull the book back from the shelf and read it a dozen times until she was so sick of hippos that she never wanted to see one again. But I resisted, using superhuman strength to do so, instead choosing to take her little fuzzy slippers off her feet.

        "Daddy, mommy's asleep," Astrid pointed out in a loud whisper. I glanced at Kylie, who was still leaning into me, but was now breathing deeply with her eyes closed. 

        "So she is," I said softly, my heat throbbing for her. Kylie had been swamped with classes lately. Since we could afford it, she'd chosen not to take on a job along with school, supposedly to have more time for studying. However, she'd made up the difference by taking a ridiculous amount of classes. 

        "I'll put her to bed after I tuck you in," I told Astrid, who was wiggling into her Cinderella nightgown, the blue one with ribbons on the sleeves. 

       She twirled, poofing the skirt out. "I'm all ready for bed," she sang, pulling back her blankets. Gently, I moved Kylie towards the end of the bed so that Astrid could crawl under the covers. I pulled them up to Astrid's chin, her eyes peeking out over the edge. With a smile, I bent down and kissed her forehead.