Page 122 of Fierce-Dane

“I want to wear jeans like you,” Tiffani said. “Do I have a blue shirt like you too?”

She was rushing to her closet to look. He held his smile in place and then started to pick up the dresses that she’d brought with her and folded them to pack up in a few days.

“Did you find anything?” he asked, standing there.

“I like this shirt,” Tiffani said. “It’s blue with a heart on it.”

“It is,” he said. “Do you know what pants you want to wear? How about these brown ones?”

“Nope,” she said, pulling the brown cotton pants out of his hand. “I want jeans too.”

“You know where your jeans are then,” he said. “Can I go back downstairs?”

“Yes,” Tiffani said. “Are Sloane and Shiloh here?”

“They arrived a minute before you summoned me up here.”

Tiffani giggled. “I didn’t summon you up here, but maybe I should have asked Sloane. She’s a woman. She understands fashion more.”

“I think I did a good job,” he said, lifting his chin and making his daughter giggle again. Another crisis averted.

“Is Tiffani dressed yet?” Tyler asked. “I want to go.”

“We’ll go soon,” he said. “We’ve got time.”

“Mom kept telling her to bring more dresses,” Tyler said. “It was annoying to keep waiting for her to pack.”

He wasn’t going to address any of this. Mel dropped the kids off this morning and he found it odd there was a bigger bag of clothing but would never question those things.

“You know how Tiffani can be,” he said.

“It wasn’t her,” Tyler argued. “She didn’t want to bring a dress. She wanted to leave and Mom made her pack a few and shoes. Said she had to make sure she was the prettiest girl on your arm today.”

He took a deep breath and let it out and turned to see Sloane watching.

He was going to have to deal with this soon with his ex. He’d bitten his tongue and not said a word weeks ago about Mel’s comment over Tiffani checking her toys.

Years of him helping her with her boyfriends and Mel was doing everything she could to use their kids to make his life hell with Sloane.

Not hell, that was wrong.

Just difficult.

If Mel had an issue with him, then she should talk to him. Keep the kids out of it. He was more upset that his ex was using the kids this way and hadn’t expected that.

“I’ve got three pretty girls on my arm today,” he said. “I think I’m one lucky guy.”

“I’m not pretty?” Tyler asked.

His son looked confused. “You’re handsome,” Sloane said. “I think I’m a lucky girl to have two handsome men on my arm.”

“I like you, Sloane,” Tyler said, running to her and giving her a high five. “My mom never says I’m handsome. She says I’m a cutie. I don’t want to be a cutie. That’s for kids.”

“But we are kids,” Shiloh said.

“I’m ready,” Tiffani said, running into the room. His daughter was in dark jeans, the sneakers that she kept here and a different shirt than the one she’d shown him. This one was still blue but long sleeved and had a cat face on the front.

“I like your shirt,” Shiloh said to Tiffani. “I like cats. We don’t have any pets. Do you?”