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Dean’s POV
I was sitting on the couch, minding my business, trying to relax after a busy week, and then, of course, I was interrupted.
“Daddy! Daddy!” Belle said, running into the room at full speed like a little torpedo.
“Hey, darling,” I said, catching her in my arms.
“Come wif me righ’ now,” she said as her little three year old hand grasped mine and dragged me to the master bathroom.
There I saw my eldest daughter, Ashlyn, standing on her stepstool setting up all of Cassie’s makeup, along with her own kid makeup, in neat rows on the counter.
“Daddy,” Ashlyn said with a completely serious face. “We decided that you need a makeover.”
“Ya, look at you face,” Belle said, with a level of sassiness she could have only learned from her one and only Auntie Lia.
“Thank you very much, darling,” I said sarcastically.
“Sit in the chair,” Ashlyn said, gesturing to the makeshift chair they set up on my bathroom floor with pillows and towels. I stood there for a moment, contemplating my life choices, before sitting in the chair.
Belle toddled up to me and started to pat my face.
“It’s so spikey. Ashy, will the makeup work?”
“Daddy, you need to shave,” Ashlyn demanded.
“You sound more and more like your mother every day,” I muttered, while Ashlyn went back to the counter.
“It should be fine, Belle,” Ashlyn said, grabbing a bottle of concealer. “Put this on all the ugly parts,” she said, handing the bottle to her sister.
“So all of it,” Belle said, a grin on her face.
“Haha very funny,” I said sarcastically as she vigorously rubbed the concealer all over my face.
“No, Belle!” Ashlyn said, snatching the bottle and wand out of her sister’s hand. “Like this,” she continued, putting the liquid under my eyes.
I raised an eyebrow. “How do you know this?”
“I watched Mommy in the mornings.”
“This one next?” Belle asked, lipstick in hand.
“Maybe don’t use this one, darling. That’s Mommy’s. Do you have one you can use?”
“But I wanna use this one,” Belle said, bottom lip trembling, tears welling up in her eyes.
“I know, but Mommy needs that one. How about this one?” I said, reaching over and grabbing a hot pink kid’s lipstick.
“Why don’t you love me,” she sobbed.
“I love you. I love you so so so so much,” I said, kissing her head. ”But, we have to be careful with other people’s things.”
“But I don’t wannaaaa.”
“Belle, how about this one,” Ashlyn said, showing Belle the exact lipstick I showed her a second ago.
“Okay, Ashy!” She said, immediately perking up. “Don’t worry, Daddy. I’s okay now,” she continued, patting my face.
“I’m glad,” I said, while Belle tried to put the lipstick on my lips.
Keyword: Tried.
It got everywhere, all across my face, and down my chin. And then she used the lipstick on my cheeks too.
“Now it’s time for the best part!” Ashlyn said, holding her phone-shaped eyeshadow palette filled with sparkly bright colors. She grabbed the cheap, tiny, plastic applicator the kit came with and made sure it was completely covered in the glittery, bright green eyeshadow before rubbing it all over my eyelids.
“Close your eyes, Daddy,” Belle said, physically pushing my eyelids down, and for the first time that night, Belle may have been right, because at that moment Ashlyn accidentally poked me in the eye.
“Oopies. Sorry, Daddy,” Ashlyn said, continuing to put eyeshadow on my eyelids as well as my eyebrows.
“It’s fine, darling,” I said, as she finally finished up on the eyeshadow. “I think this is a little much, Ash,” I said, trying to look at myself in the mirror.
“No look!” Belle said, using all her three year old strength to push me back.
“It’s perfect, Daddy.” Ashlyn said at the same time. “Now it’s time for the mascar.”
“I think you mean mascara.”
“No, it’s mascar, Daddy,” she said with a certainty that I didn’t want to argue with. I looked over at Belle who was sitting in the corner.
“Hey,” I whispered to Ashlyn. “How about you give your sister a turn.”
“But she’s not as good as me and you need to be pretty for Mommy.”
“It’s okay, Ash. I care more about both of you being happy and I’m sure Mommy does too.”
She gave in. “Okay… Hey Belle, do you want a turn?” She said, turning to her little sister. Belle’s face lit up as she ran as fast as her toddler legs could carry her and grabbed the mascara wand.
“How do you know so much about makeup, anyway?” Ashlyn questioned, as Belle flicked the mascara wand across my eyes, hitting the eyelashes around 30 percent of the time.
“Well, I lived with your Auntie Lia for a long time,” I started.
“So this isn’t your first makeover?” Ashlyn asked, already knowing the answer.
“No, this definitely isn’t.” I said, remembering when Lia and I were 14 and she wanted to “experiment” with her makeup and forced me to be her test subject.
“Did you also have to take her makeup shopping?”
“Yes. A lot.” I said, then remembering the grueling hours Judd and I spent in Sephora with Lia.
“Will you take me makeup shopping? Like real makeup shopping? Not the kid stuff.”
“Maybe when you’re a bit older.”
“Okay, I love you, Daddy,” Ashlyn said, embracing me in a hug.
I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tight. “I love you too, Ashlyn.”
I then grabbed the mascara wand from Belle who was still swooping it back and forth for probably the 100th time. “I think that’s enough, darling.”
“Okay!” Belle said joyfully, clapping her hands together, getting mascara all over them. I gently grabbed them and handed Ashlyn the mascara.
“Okay,” Ashlyn said, clapping her hands together like a tiny teacher. “It is time for the hair.”
I raised my eyebrows. “The hair, I thought this was just makeup.”
“Well, we gotta do something because Mommy always tells you to cut your hair and you need to look pretty for Mommy tonight.”
“What are you two planning,” I asked skeptically.
“Nothing,” they said together in a high suspicious voice and then they both burst into giggles.
“Belle, I’m going to go set up the next part, while you do Daddy’s hair.” Ashlyn whispered into her sister’s ear.
“Okay!” Belle said, holding a box of hair accessories that was almost as big as her body.
“Why do we have so many hair things?” I asked as Ashlyn made her way out the door.
“You silly,” Belle giggled. “We need it, but that one is Mommy’s. And that one. And that one and this one and that one.” She said pointing to the hair ties, clips, and something that looked like a foam donut that was probably for buns.
“I’m the silly one,” I teased, tickling her, and she burst into uncontrollable giggles.
“Stop it, Daddy,” she laughed, and I immediately stopped. Cassie and I were trying to teach the girls, especially Ashlyn, that no means no and they can always say no.
“I need to do your hair now,” she said, suddenly serious, pretending to dust off her pants, as she walked behind me and grabbed a small chunk of my hair. She tied it with a tiny hair tie and repeated the process on around 10 different uneven sections of my hair.
“The final touch!” She said, doing a chef’s kiss, as she put a sparkly pink bow in my hair.
“Thank you, darling. I think I look great,” I said trying to please her, and Belle turned a mirror to me.
I looked like… something all right. The lipstick was more like a hot pink scribble on my face. There was glitter everywhere from who knows what. There was green eyeshadow that went up past my eyebrows. There were black streaks all over my eyes as well from the mascara that didn’t make it to my almost non-existent eyelashes. Suddenly Belle’s tiny hand grabbed me and started dragging me once again.
“Close you eyes,” she told me, and I did as told and she guided me out of the bathroom, and into the hallway.
“Sit here and wait for Mommy. And DON’T look inside you room, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am”
“I not a ma’am, I a miss.”
I corrected myself. “Yes, miss.”
I slid down the wall and sat on the floor for around 10 minutes before I heard the front door open.
“Mommy!” I heard Ashlyn call, and I could hear 2 sets of little feet running down the hallway to their mother.
“Hi girls, how was your day?” I heard Cassie ask.
“Good, good, now come on and close your eyes.” Ashlyn demanded
“Oh okay,” I heard Cassie’s surprised voice and I could tell she was being dragged by a little 3 year old hand and 6 year old. There were stomps up the stairs and then my wife appeared, being dragged by my two daughters.
“Dean? Are you there? What’s going on?” Cassie asked, and I was about to answer when Ashlyn put a finger to her mouth and told me to shush.
“Daddy, you close your eyes and then both of you come on.” Ashlyn said, grabbing my hand, and Belle grabbed Cassie’s. They both led us to the bedroom and guided us to sit on the bed.
“Okay, now count to 5 and open your eyes,” Ashlyn said, and I could hear them both running out of the room and closing the door.
5…4…3…2…1…
I slowly opened my eyes to see our bedroom full of flower petals and a note from Ashlyn in her crooked kindergarten handwriting that said “Hapy Date Nite, Mommy and Daddy!”
While I was looking around the room, Cassie was looking at something else. Right at my face. And she was laughing uncontrollably.
“Hey, It looks–,” I said defensively, but I was unable to finish my sentence.
“It–I can’t–the lipstick–” she said through laughter. “And the bows–and the hair spikes–and the eyeshadow.”
“Hey,” she said, giggles finally fading. “You’re a really good dad. A really really good dad.”
I just grumbled in response.
“You want me to help you remove all of it.” She asked, and I could tell she felt bad.
“Okay,” I muttered.
“Come on, don’t be such a grump, it’s a date night remember,” she said, pulling me to the bathroom.
“Okay, first we have to take out all of those rubber bands that Belle thought were hair ti–” she said, until she stopped mid-sentence.
“This bathroom is a mess,” she said, eyes wide.
“Yeah, umm, they had a lot of fun,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck.
“Okay, amendment: Clean up the bathroom first, and then get the bands out of your hair.”
“Great plan,” I said sarcastically.
Cassie started to gather up Ashlyn’s kid makeup and put it in a pile. “Wait, how much of my makeup did they use?” She asked.
“Not much, they wanted to use your lipstick, but they just ended up using the concealer and mascara.”
“Oh, the concealer is fine, that’s Ashlyn’s special concealer."
I raised an eyebrow.
“Well it's different, thicker, waterproof, has a tiny bit of green in it for color correction. Lia got it for her a few years ago, I use it for her scars sometimes. It makes her feel more normal, ” Cassie explained hastily.
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” she said, turning back to the counter, and I joined her helping her clean.
“Okay,” she said, clapping her hands together, scarily similar to what her daughter did a few hours earlier. “It’s time for me to remove all the hair ties. This will hurt, sit down,” she continued, not sugar coating this at all.
I did as she told me and I sat down on the makeshift chair that Ashlyn and Belle made. Cassie knelt behind me and slowly started to take the hair ties out, and I almost immediately winced.
“Sorry, the small rubberband ones pull,” Cassie said as she kissed my head. After around 15 minutes of tugging at my scalp, she was finally finished, and grabbed a cleanser.
“I can wash my face, you know that right,” I told her.
“I just feel bad,” she said, voice quiet.
“For laughing at me, leaving me home alone with 3 and 6 year olds, or for letting them do this to me,” I said dryly.
“Come on and wash your face, Mr. Grumpy,” she teased, rolling her eyes. I washed my face quickly, scrubbing the makeup off. Once I was finished Cassie cupped my face with her hands.
“You are the best dad in the world, and I wouldn’t want anyone else to be the father of my children,” she said, voice warm with emotion. “Also,” she continued in a lighter voice, “You need to shave, it's so pointy.”
“Like mother like daughter,” I muttered, and kissed her.
“It’s been 16 years since we started to date and you’re still kissing me to get me to shut up,” she said, but then she leaned in for another one. It was a long, slow kiss that would’ve gone on for longer until we were interrupted.
“Mommy! Daddy! How was your date!” Ashlyn said as she came into the bathroom, Belle following close behind.
“It was wonderful, thank you both,” Cassie said, picking up Belle, and I picked up Ashlyn.
“Sooo, we get ice cream for dinner?” Belle asked, with a cheeky smile on her face.
“Isabelle Hobbes, did you and your sister do all of this just for ice cream?” Cassie asked.
“No,” Belle said through giggles.
I raised an eyebrow. “No Daddy we promise we love you just we also want ice cream.” Ashlyn explained on her sister’s behalf.
“Come on, let go get ice cream,” Cassie said, planting a kiss on Belle’s forehead and I mirrored her with Ashlyn. We started to walk down the stairs and I thought about the roller coaster that was my life.
I had spent the week chasing down serial killers, my wife had been at a supermax prison interviewing inmates all day, we had been sitting on our bed with fake rose petals scattered around, I had a full face of makeup and hair done by a 3 year old and a 6 year old, and we were going to have ice cream for dinner. This was my life and I don’t think I would trade it for anything.