The adrenaline slowly wore off as Wyatt pulled the car through his neighborhood and parked in front of his garage. The kitchen and living room lights were on. He grabbed his briefcase and headed inside, excited to see the girls.
As soon as he walked into the entry way, he heard Maggie and Lily laughing. The air smelled of good food. He couldn't quite place what it was, but recognized the smell of baking bread. When he stepped around the corner, he saw Maggie and Lily playing a board game on the center island. Both of them were wearing cooking aprons and Maggie's was covered in flour. She glanced over and squealed in excitement as soon as she laid eyes on Wyatt.
“Daddy's home!”
“How's my girl?” Wyatt squatted down to give her a hug. He lifted her from the floor as soon as her arms wrapped his neck.
“Aunt Wiwee and I are making pizza,” she said.
“Making pizza?” he asked.
Lily spun around and nodded. She, too, had flour all over her apron.
“Yes, pepperoni and mushroom pizza, to be exact,” she said. “You're actually right on time. It should be done cooking in about five minutes.”
“That's perfect,” Wyatt said, as he set Maggie back onto the floor. “I'll run up and get changed real quick.”
He ran upstairs and got out of his suit. He put on some jeans and a black t-shirt, then headed back to the kitchen.
“How was your day?” he asked Lily.
She was seated at the island, holding her chin up with her hands. “It was good. Maggie and I played outside for most of the day. She can officially tread water and do the side stroke. Isn't that right, Mags?”
Maggie nodded excitedly. “Yep! I can swim all by myself, Daddy!”
Wyatt shook his head in awe. “That's seriously amazing, sweetheart. I'm so glad that Aunt Lily taught you how to do that. I'm so proud of you.”
“She's a natural,” Lily said. “You might have a little Olympic swimmer on your hands one day. She figured out how to do the side stroke in a matter of minutes. Next time, I'm going to start teaching her the free style.”
“Wow, I'm legitimately impressed.” Wyatt took a seat at the island next to Maggie. “You're something else, you know that, Lily?”
“Awe, I don't know about that,” she said. “Just doing my job.”
“You're doing more than your job,” Wyatt said. “I just hired you to watch Maggie and make sure she was safe while I was at work. You've gone above and beyond. I really appreciate it. I have to admit, that I'm going to be sad to see you leave on Sunday.”
“Me too,” Lily said, with a sigh. “I've been having so much fun over the past week. It's been amazing.”
“There's something I want to talk to you about, but tonight probably isn't the best night,” he said. “Remind me before you leave.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything is great,” he said. “Just wanted to chat with you about maybe taking on a part-time job here. We can talk about it all later, but I've been tossing some ideas around about how you can spend more time here with Maggie.”
Her eyes widened and she smiled. “Yeah, I'd love to talk about something like that. We should definitely have that talk before I head back home this weekend.”
Wyatt had spent some of his work day racking his brain about a way to keep Lily working for him. A thought occurred to him. It was one that he had had before, but didn't pay much attention to it the first time. He realized that there was a good chance Mildred would want the weekends off. If that were the case, then he figured he might be able to talk Lily into taking Mildred's place on Saturday and Sunday.
The timer on the oven beeped and Lily got up from her seat. She pulled the pizza out of the oven and set it onto the center island. To Wyatt's surprise, it didn't look burned or under done or anything like that at all. In fact, the cheese was perfectly browned and the pepperoni looked like it was just the right amount of crisp. It smelled amazing, too.
“Looks great, Lily.” Wyatt got up and grabbed a few plates from the cabinet, then took his seat again. Lily served the pizza. She looked a bit nervous as Wyatt picked up his piece, bringing it close to his lips.
He paused before taking a bite. “No matter what, I'm going to appreciate that you tried.”
She just laughed. “Fair enough.”
He took the bite and was pleasantly surprised. The dough was nice and soft and the cheese was perfectly done. Admittedly, it was a little bit bland, but not too bad at all.
“I like it,” he said, after washing the bite down with a swig of water.