“Logan!” Evelyn screams his name as she comes running out of her room. He bends down to pick her up and sets her on his hip as he continues toward the kitchen. I follow, watching the two of them interact. He sits her on the counter and opens the cupboard to grab some plates.
“Did you shoot your gun this week?” she asks him. While Logan and I have been seeing each other, whenever he’s with Evelyn, they talk about his job and her schooling as if what she did during the week was work too.
“I didn’t.”
“It’s going to get rusty, ya know. My grandpa says you have to take care of your piece.”
Logan chuckles. He helps her get down from the counter and takes all three plates into the dining room. “I’ll make sure to shoot it when I get back to base. Tell me, how was work this week? Any new co-workers?”
Evelyn shakes her head. “Nope, but we had a substitute. What would they be called?”
Logan pretends to think for a moment. “Oh, I think we’d call them a ‘temporary employee’.”
“Yes, one of those. She wasn’t very nice, which is probably why she doesn’t get to work every day.”
I snort and Logan chokes on his sip of coffee. “Could be,” he says through gasps of air. “Or maybe she hasn’t found the right job.”
Evelyn shrugs and takes a bite of her roll. “My boss says we’re getting a new co-worker next week.”
“Who did they hire?” he asks her.
“Dunno. Probably another boy. You know boys have cooties, Logan, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he says, sighing. “I’m fully aware.”
“Logan, did you know that I have a loose tooth?”
“I did not.” He leans closer to her. “Let me see.”
My daughter opens her mouth, which has left over cinnamon roll pieces in it, and puts her finger on her tooth. I look as well because this is news to me and sure enough, there’s a little wiggle.
“You know what this means?”
“What?” Logan asks.
“That the tooth fairy is coming back!” She throws her hands up in the air.
Logan leans toward her again and in a quiet voice asks her, “Is your room clean?” I want to high-five Logan so much right now. He’s been on the receiving end of many late-night calls with me frustrated over Evelyn’s room. Every month I go in there and throw random toys out, pack old clothes and donate them, and still it’s like her toys procreate when I’m at work. I don’t get it.
She huffs and rolls her eyes. “No, but it will be when my tooth comes out. I’m broke.” This time I’m the one choking on my coffee. She looks at me like I’ve insulted her or something. I stand, kiss her on her forehead and start clearing plates.
“Evelyn, do you want to go somewhere fun?” I hear Logan ask her.
“Dunno, Mommy has to work.”
“Not until later tonight,” he tells her. “Today, we are going to the fair!” I imagine that her eyes are wide, and her mouth has dropped open. Every time she sees the commercial, she asks if we can go.
“Will they have lions and tigers?”
“No, that’s the zoo or the circus,” I interject as I come around the corner.
“Oh,” she says as her face falls.
“But there will be horses, cows, chickens and baby goats,” Logan starts to tell her.
“Like the baby goats in the funny videos?”
He nods and smiles happily at her. “Why don’t you go get ready?”