The Power of Love by Serena Akeroyd

Luke’s rest to be wrecked either.
    Finding the happy medium was proving difficult, and Gia had no shame in admitting that the search was exhausting.
    “Rather you than me.”
    “It’s a good series,” Gia defended.
    “It’s too old for her. She’ll have nightmares.” Josh took a sip of his juice. “But I’ll leave it in your expert hands.”
    “Hardly expert,” Gia scoffed. “I’m muddling my way through this. If you don’t think she should read it, then find another book for her today.”
    “Uh-oh, someone’s pissed.”
    “You’ll bet I am, Luke,” she retorted, saccharine sweet. “I’m tired, a little strung out, and I have so much to do today I’m going to meet myself coming forward. It’s taken me ages to decide to let her read that series, but apparently His Highness over there knows better than I do!”
    “I never said that,” Josh immediately denied. “I only meant as the series progresses, it gets a little serious for such a young girl.”
    “How do you know if you haven’t read the story?”
    At her question, he flushed. “I had to try them out. I might have enjoyed them.”
    For a second, she was flabbergasted. Josh was not the sort to sit down with a fictional tale of a boy wizard. He was pretty much a stick-in-the-mud. Only his pretty face, his rarely appearing but wicked sense of humor, and his grit and determination, something that made him the best person to have on your team and the worst to have as an enemy, stopped him from being boring as fuck.
    “Well, as it is,” she told him after she’d recovered from her surprise. “I’d like for her to get started on it. She might not like it, but she might. We have to come to terms with the fact she’s going to be reading ahead of her age, and will come across things we can’t always protect her from. At least she can ask us questions, questions she knows we’ll always answer. Even if they make us uncomfortable. I don’t know how else to do it. We know she’s smart, smarter than average. Let’s be glad we’re discussing Harry Potter and not Nietzsche.”
    Josh snorted. “That would be advanced for a five-year-old.” He grinned. “Let’s aim for Nietzsche for her sixth birthday.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Don’t encourage her, for God’s sake.” As she made to walk out of the door, she called out, “I’m making mulled wine to go with dinner. Do not disturb the chef as she creates.”
    Her warning was met with a chuckle from Josh and silence from Luke.
    Sighing at the silence, she retreated to the kitchen and set the dirty dishes on the counter. She started to clear the waste into the trash, then stacked the plates in the dishwasher. As she worked, she could hear faint chatter from the breakfast room as Luke finished eating. The doors swung open from the kitchen into the breakfast room, and as they were like the saloon doors of old, she could hear every word if she didn’t make too much noise as she worked.
    Conversation was innocuous. Luke was interested in Lexi’s new neuroses, and Josh tried his best to answer what he didn’t know. As good a man and as great a soldier as Josh was, he wasn’t the best dad in the world. She didn’t get angry over it, because there was no point. On top of that, how was the best dad award measured? He didn’t beat Lexi or hurt her, physically or emotionally. He was a provider, and when shit came to shit, he was always there. If she had a boo-boo, he could tend to it, and when they ate dinner together, he made her laugh. He knew where her clothes were and what to do if she had an asthma attack… He’d even stepped up to the plate today. Josh was busy, and that made him less hands-on. It wasn’t a crime so she didn’t judge him on it, merely accepted it for what it was.
    Grabbing the bottle of cheap wine she’d bought for a recipe of mulled wine she’d seen on the TV, she peeled off the foil and got to work on the cork. After four tries, however, the stupid thing was stuck.