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“It’s not that bad,” Emily reassured as she shut the kitchen door. She could feel the annoyance and irritation radiating through the walls. There was also another emotion, one she had been reluctant to assign to him. However the pointed way in which he managed to angrily flick the coffee maker on was the final push she needed. “You don’t need to be jealous.”
“I am not jealous!” Aaron retorted sharply as Emily folded her arms and raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. “I’m not.”
“You are, you have nothing to worry about,” Emily reassured as she put her arms around her sulking husband. “You know she loves you most.”
“She betrayed me,” Aaron stated. What hurt wasn’t just the betrayal but who she had betrayed him with. Out of everyone, out of every last person on this planet, it had to be him because of course it was.
“Lilly’s three Aaron, she loves meeting new people, you know that.” Emily reassured him. “She’s still going to be Daddy’s Girl after this.”
“She better be,” Aaron warned, only slightly joking. “It’s bad enough that he’s here and he keeps trying to get you to go back to Interpol, now he’s stealing our daughter too.”
“Clyde’s not stealing her, Aaron.” Emily reminded him. “If anything, she’s stolen him.”
“Well she’s not keeping him! We already have the cat and one condescending, selfish bastard is enough around here!” Aaron insisted as Emily burst out laughing. “It’s not funny Emily!”
“It’s hilarious.” Emily said through her laughter. How could anything about today not be classified as hilarious?
Clyde had called her a few hours ago to inform her that he was in DC following a series of meetings and conferences with the directors and higher ups of various agencies and it look less than two minutes, after confirming that she wasn’t on a case, for him to invite himself over for dinner. It had taken most of the drive home for her to convince Aaron not to slip anything toxic into Clyde’s food, even though it had been almost four years since the whole Doyle debacle; the two men still hated one another.
When Clyde arrived, Aaron was able to keep himself busy in the kitchen to avoid having to speak to him and while Jack was his usual polite self and focused on the TV, three year old Lilly was another story entirely. Lilly had never met Clyde and the outgoing toddler always adored meeting new people. Therefore the moment he sat on the sofa, she had clambered onto his knee and was cuddling him tightly.
“Yes, hello small child,” Clyde said as he looked helplessly at Emily who was smirking at him. She knew that the one thing that he couldn’t handle was a kid. Any kid. If they were under eighteen, he tended to have as little interaction with them as possible. The fact that Lilly had immediately latched onto him and decided that he was her new best friend was hilarious to her.
“Lilly, this is Mommy’s friend Clyde.” Emily introduced. “Clyde, this is Lilly.”
“I gathered,” Clyde said as he attempted to lift Lilly off him, however Lilly latched onto him and he paused in his attempt to remove her. “What’s she doing?”
“Clyde’s silly,” Lilly laughed and Emily smiled. “He’s my friend.”
“Dinner will be ready in five minutes,” Aaron said as he appeared in the doorway of the lounge and frowned at the sight of Lilly perched on Clyde’s lap. “Lilly, do you want to help Daddy?”
“Nuh uh,” Lilly replied with a shake of her head. “I wanna play with Clyde.”
“I see,” Aaron said and left the room. Emily rolled her eyes and followed him into the kitchen. She had rarely spotted Aaron’s jealous side poking out, usually when some cop refused to take the hint that she was married but this was the first time it was because of Lilly. Emily knew she ought to remind her husband not to be so foolish but this was too fun to resist.
As Aaron and Emily served up dinner, she could tell that the fact that Lilly insisted on sitting on Clyde’s lap while she ate, instead of sitting in her usual chair next to Aaron had only served to spike his jealousy further. Jack exchanged amused looks with Emily, Lilly usually refused to sit next to anyone but Aaron and he had taken it as an insult.
After they had finished eating, Lilly had dragged Clyde back into the lounge to play with her while Emily sorted the dishes. Aaron and Jack joined them in the lounge and Aaron knew that although the sight of Clyde Easter being forced to join in with his three year old daughter’s dolls and tea set was indeed hilarious; the fact that it was Clyde of all people that Lilly had become besotted with still stung him deeply. Even as it neared her bedtime and she began to grow tired, Lilly refused to let Clyde go or let him out of her sight for a moment. She had wailed for the entire time it took for Emily to change her for bed while Clyde darted into the bathroom and when Aaron went to tuck her into bed, Lilly squirmed away from him.
“I want Clyde to read me a story,” Lilly insisted as Aaron felt a knife pierce his heart at his daughter’s innocent words but reluctantly, he allowed Clyde to attempt to read her a story. By the time he got halfway through Cinderella, Lilly had drifted off to sleep.
“Well, that was an interesting evening, we’ll have to do it again sometime,” Clyde joked as Emily walked him to the door. Emily smiled back at him and let the door close behind him. Emily walked into the lounge and sat on the couch beside Aaron. She could tell that he was still irritated by Lilly’s infatuation with Clyde and she offered him a reassuring hug and kiss.
“Come on Aaron, you know you’re still her favourite,” Emily teased lightly. Usually Lilly was such a devoted Daddy’s Girl, who refused to leave Aaron’s side, demanded that Aaron read her a bedtime story on any night they were home from a case and loved to spend every moment with him. Emily also knew that the fact that Clyde of all people had been the one to win Lilly’s heart had stung Aaron deeply. Had it been a member of the team or Will, it wouldn’t have hurt him as deeply as this.
“I better be,” Aaron insisted. If not, then he would finally do what he had threatened to do a long time ago and he would destroy Clyde Easter.