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“Okay Emma,” Lucy says to the five year old at her side. “You can pick out anything for daddy.” Emma looks up at her and she has a serious look in her eyes.
“What about Sophie?” Emma asks pointing to the baby in the basket. She’s sitting up straight and kicking her legs happily.
“Sophie can help too.” Lucy confirms and Emma grins at her. “How about this? We pick out six things for daddy. Three from you and three from Sophie.”
“Okay mommy.” Emma says and Lucy starts pushing the basket. She thought of this one night when she was tossing and turning about what to do for Father’s Day. And then she remembers seeing videos of parents letting their kids pick out the gifts and Lucy thought it would be perfect.
Emma stops at an end cap, it has various condiments on it. “This.” Emma says. She points to ketchup. Lucy blinks at her.
“You want to get him ketchup?” She asks. Emma nods. Lucy really wasn’t sure how that was going to go but—
“Put it in the basket Bug.” She says and he daughter happily puts the bottle of ketchup in the basket.
They walk down the aisle and Emma tells Lucy it’s Sophie’s turn. Sophie is in the basket so Lucy watches her carefully. Sophie probably has no idea what is going on.
“Bear.” Sophie squeals. “Bear!” Lucy blinks at her and she really should have thought this through a little. She looks over and sees a honey bottle shaped like a bear.
Right.
“Aww sissy thinks daddy is honey.” Emma says. Lucy sighs and pulls the honey bottle off the shelf and adds it to the basket. And then gets away from the food aisle. They go down the notebook and pen aisle.
“Daddy needs a planner.” Emma says picking up a pink planner. “He forgets.”
“Forgets what?”
“Everything.” Emma says. Lucy blows out a breath.
“Okay Bug. You have one more gift for daddy. And Sophie has two.” Lucy tells her. Emma looks thoughtful for a moment and then motions Lucy to follow her. She skips right up to the pens. Sophie squeals and points to some ball point pens. They were all the standard colors: red, blue and black. Simple. Very Tim.
“I agree with that.” Lucy says grabbing the pens and tossing them in the basket. “Two more gifts. What about a shirt? Or something—”
“Yes!” Emma squeals and she runs out of the aisle. Lucy follows behind but when she gets to the end of the aisle Emma is nowhere to be seen.
“Emma?” Lucy says and she’s trying not to panic but the last time Emma disappeared, Chris had taken her and she had no idea if she would ever see her daughter again. “Emma!” She pushes the basket a little faster turning into the men’s clothing area. Emma went shopping with her quite often and she knew her way around the store.
“Emma!” Lucy calls. “Emma Lucille—” She stops when she sees her daughter standing in front of Angela.
“Emma Lucille Chen-Bradford!” Lucy says and she feels a little dizzy. Her heart is pounding in her chest and she never wants to feel that kind of panic again.
“Hi mama!” Emma says turning to look at her. “I found aunt Angela!”
“You can’t run off like that.” Lucy says bending down to her level. “You scared mama.” Emma’s eyes widen and she hugs Lucy.
“Sorry mama.”
“For the record,” Angela says. “She said you were right behind her and I was about to come looking for you.” Lucy waves her off and stands up. She is thankful that it was Angela and not a stranger.
“Father’s Day shopping?” Lucy asks. Angela nods and Lucy sees Emma shuffling through some shirts.
“You too?” Angela asks and she peers into the basket. “Um—”
“The girls are picking out his presents.” Lucy says. “Emma—”
“Look mama!” Emma squeals. She hands Lucy a shirt and she holds it up so she can see it better. It’s a Doctor Who shirt. Lucy has no idea how Emma knew that’s what it was. Tim did have a small model of the phone booth and Emma would always want to play with it.
“You want to get this for daddy?” Lucy asks. Emma nods enthusiastically. Lucy puts it in the basket and gives Angela a knowing look.
“This is actually a good idea.” Angela says. Lucy shrugs because she does what she can. Father’s Day wasn’t the easiest for Tim. “It’s actually from the girls.” Sophie giggles suddenly and reaches out to Angela. Angela picks her up and bounces her a little.
“He deserves this. Tim.” Angela says. Lucy looks over at Emma who is skipping around the basket.
“He’s the best dad.” Lucy agrees and then looks at her daughter who is still in Angela’s arms. “Okay Sophie. You have one last gift for your daddy.”
“Dada!” Sophie squeals clapping her hands. “Dada!” Angela hands her back to Lucy and she pushes the basket forward. Sophie reaches out to a pair of house slippers.
“This?” Emma asks grabbing the house slippers. “You want to get daddy this?”
“Dada!”
“I think that’s a yes.” Lucy says. She puts Sophie back in the basket and takes the slippers from Emma. She grabs a bigger size and tosses them in the basket.
“Bye Aunt Angela!” Emma says. “Don’t tell tell my daddy we were here!” Lucy looks back and Angela is zipping her lips.
“Now for cards and bags.” Lucy says. She pushes the basket to the card aisle while Emma skips next to the basket. Lucy grabs two bags, some tissue paper and then helps the girls pick out cards.
“I can’t wait to give daddy these presents!” Emma says.
“You have to wait until Sunday.” Lucy reminds her, but honestly she’s excited to see Tim’s reaction too.
She hopes this would be a good Father’s Day.
***
“Happy Father’s Day!” Emma says running into the room. Lucy sits up quickly and Tim stirs a little. “Daddy wake up!”
“Emma—”
“Dada!” A tiny voice says and Lucy looks over to see Sophie. Emma must have gotten her out of her crib. “Dada!”
Tim finally sits up and looks around. “I see we have a party in here.” He says. Lucy laughs and pulls Sophie up on the bed. Emma climbs on the bed too and then on top of Tim. She has both of the bags in her hands.
“Happy Father’s Day daddy!” Emma says. Tim gives Lucy a look and then leans forward to give Emma a kiss.
“Thank you Bug.” Tim says yawning. Sophie crawls over to him, and looks up at him with big blue eyes.
“Dada!”
“Hi Bean.” He says and he gives her a kiss too. Sophie giggles and Lucy sees a smile growing on her face.
“We have presents.” Emma says and hands Tim the two bags. Tim raises his eyebrows and looks at Lucy who gives him a nod.
“Okay.” He says. “I’ll open them.” He pulls the card out and she watches as a smile grows on his face.
“Thank you Emma.” He says. Emma giggles and bounces a little.
“Open it daddy!”
“Okay. Okay.” He says. He pulls the tissue paper out. He pulls the planner out first and tilts his head at it. “A planner.”
“To be organized and not forget things.” Lucy says and she’s trying not to laugh. “According to Emma.”
“Oh.” Tim says. He pulls out the ketchup next and now he just looks confused.
“You like ketchup daddy.” Emma says.
“I do.” Tim agrees. “And I’ve been meaning to grab some ketchup at the store.” Emma beams at him. He pulls the shirt out next and then looks at Lucy.
“I’ll explain later but Emma picked all those out.” Lucy says. “And Sophie picked all these out.” She sets the other bag in front of him.
“Alright.” Tim says and he pulls out the other card. Lucy figured having two cards from each of the girls was the way to go. He pulls the honey out first.
“Honey?”
“Because you are sweet!” Emma says. “And it’s a bear.”
“Right.” Tim says and he looks a little confused. He pulls the pens out. “For my planner?”
“Yes!” Emma says. “Sophie picked them out.” Lucy looks at her baby who is playing with the tissue paper.
“I see.” Tim says. He pulls out the slippers and looks at Lucy. “Slippers?”
“For the house babe.” Lucy says. She leans in and presses a kiss of his cheek. “Do you like everything?”
It takes a few minutes for Tim to answer like he’s mulling over the answer. Lucy touches his shoulder and he turns to look at her. He has the softest look on his face. “Yes.” He says. “I love it all. Thank you.”
Emma beams at him some more and launches herself at him. Sophie curls up on his chest. Lucy leans over and cuddles in too.
Oh how she loves this man who was a father to Emma when he didn’t have to be. Who was the dad Emma always deserved. This man who was the greatest husband and daddy to both their girls.
This man would move mountains for her and the girls. He would do whatever it took so they would be happy.
And she would try and do the same.
***
Tim carries all these presents down stairs, he puts the ketchup and honey away. He slips on his shirt and slippers. He’s not sure how the girls decided on all the presents but—
“They picked them all themselves.” A voice says from behind him. He turns around to see Lucy, she’s already dressed for the day. “Well Sophie had to have a little encouragement but for the most part.”
“I see.”
“We can switch out the planner.” Lucy says gesturing to the pink planner and normally he would say yes but the smile on Emma’s face, he decided that a pink planner would be fine.
(Did he even need a planner?)
“It’s fine.” He says. “The pens are good.” Lucy nods and walks over to him.
“Emma was really excited to do this.” Lucy says. “She saw it on some videos and wanted to try.”
“She did a good job.”
“I agree.” Lucy says and then pulls him down but doesn’t kiss him. “You are an amazing dad. To Emma. To Sophie. I will keep saying that to you.”
“Good.” Tim says. Lucy smiles and this time she kisses him.
“Daddy!” A voice yells. Tim breaks away just as Emma comes running into the room. Tim catches her easily and then Sophie who also launches herself at him.
“Daddy?” Tim looks at Emma.
“Yes Bug?” He asks and he can’t believe this is his life. His rep beautiful daughters, his beautiful and amazing wife. He’s a dad. This is what it’s all about. He is going to do everything to protect his girls, make them feel safe.
“Happy Father’s Day!” And Tim smiles this was going to be a very good day indeed.