‘Of course.’
‘I want to eat mine in the bread like a long sausage,’ Lilly declared.
‘So long as it’s cool enough,’ Jasper said, but knew Lilly had a little more patience than her sister.
Lola leaned back against her, snuggling in a little bit, and Jennifer’s heart turned over with love. It hadn’t taken her long to fall in love with these two adorable girls, who were so full of life, so spirited and so accepting. Jennifer glanced at Jasper as he spoke to Lilly, smiling when he bent and blew a raspberry on Lilly’s neck, making her squirm and squeal with laughter.
How long would it be, she wondered, before she fell in love with their father?
CHAPTER EIGHT
BY THE time they arrived back at Jasper’s house, both girls were starting to get grumpy. They’d all had a fantastic afternoon, with Jennifer and Jasper receiving more than one or two meaningful looks from the family and friends around them.
‘It was like being in a goldfish bowl,’ Jasper joked as he carried Lilly towards her bedroom. Jennifer followed suit, Lola’s arms firmly wrapped around her neck.
‘I know what you mean. All eyes on us.’
‘Were you wet?’ Lola asked.
‘Wet?’ Jennifer touched her nose to the little girl’s and both of them giggled. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Goldfish live in water,’ she stated, as though it was a new scientific breakthrough. ‘Were you wet?’
Both Jennifer and Jasper laughed. ‘Not quite, sweetheart,’ her father answered. ‘Right. Time for bath.’
‘No!’ the girls said in unison.
‘Jennifer’s going to bathe you tonight and then she’s going to stay for dinner and then a quick story.’ Two pairs of bright blue eyes widened with delight.
‘Will you check my teeth?’ Lola wanted to know.
Jennifer had no idea how, exactly, she was to do this but was more than ready to agree, touched by such a request. ‘I would be delighted to check your teeth.’
‘Mine, too,’ Lilly demanded.
‘Yours too.’
‘And you can have a sleepover, too.’ Lilly had scrambled from her father’s arms and was eagerly pulling off her clothes. ‘We have a special hidey bed under my bed.’ Totally naked now and without a care in the world, Lilly shifted some toys out of the way and tried to tug out the trundle bed.
‘Why don’t we leave the bed where it is for now and get you two into the bath?’ Jasper wrapped Lilly up in a fluffy towel so she didn’t get cold.
‘Please will you sleep the night?’ Lola asked, pleading and fluttering her eyelashes.
‘She was born doing that,’ Jasper murmured, and the adults smiled.
‘I’d love to, Lola, but I have to be at the hospital bright and early tomorrow morning. Maybe another time.’
Lola opened her mouth to object but one quick look at her father had her closing it again.
‘Jen will be here until you’re asleep. You’ll just have to be content with that.’ Jasper went off to run their bath and Jennifer helped Lola undo the buttons on her dress.
‘I like having you here,’ Lola declared.
‘Me, too,’ Lilly added.
‘We don’t have big girls here. Sometimes Aunty Megan comes but she’s been very busy with the wedding.’
‘Your daddy must have lots of friends.’
‘Sometimes Aunty Sara comes but mostly we go to her house.’
‘You have Grandma.’
‘She’s not a big girl. She’s an old girl,’ Lola declared, little hands on her naked hips. Jennifer wrapped her in the towel Jasper had placed at the end of her bed, trying not to smile. She was discovering that four-year-olds could be very direct and brutally honest.
‘Do you like my daddy?’ Lilly was the one to ask the question and Jasper heard it from the hallway. He stopped just outside the door, holding his breath as he waited for Jennifer’s answer.
‘I do.’
‘A lot?’ Lola questioned.
Jennifer couldn’t help but smile. ‘Yes. A lot.’
‘A lot, a lot?’
‘Yes.’ Her smile drew bigger. ‘A lot, a lot.’
‘Are you going to marry him?’
The smile vanished. ‘Uh…’ Jennifer was completely stunned at the question but obviously the girls were dead serious as they looked up at her with their expectant blue eyes. ‘Well…that’s an interesting ques—’
‘You could be our mummy.’
‘We don’t have one,’ Lilly added matter-of-factly, shaking her head slowly.
‘Uh…I know.’
‘She died when we was just babies but she was very pretty.’