Nick opened his eyes, blinking hard a few times to adjust to the sunlight streaming in through the sheer curtains.

“Are you awake?” a little voice asked and he looked down to his chest to see his daughter staring up at him eagerly.

“I’m awake,” he muttered sleepily, wishing for the days when he could have just rolled over and gone back to sleep for another couple of hours.

She smiled and slid off of him, grabbing her cat before bouncing off Holly’s side of the bed, “Let’s go! Let’s go!” she cheered loudly, running around to his side of the bed.

“Breakfast first,” he instructed, sliding out from underneath the warm covers to a blast of cool air.

Every day it was the same. She followed him around like a shadow, not even leaving him alone for a moment. She stood by the bathroom door while he peed; she stood by the dresser while he grabbed some clothes and dressed, held his hand as he made his way down the stairs, stood behind him gripping his pant leg as he rummaged through cupboards for cereal and finally let him lift her onto her small stack of phonebooks for breakfast.

“You gotta sleep in your own bed tonight,” Nick said as he took a sip of his coffee, deciding to bring this subject up with her before he broke it to Holly.

Olivia looked up at him with her big blue eyes questioning his words, “But I like sleeping beside you Daddy.”

His heart broke, just a little, “I know you do baby, but you’re a big girl now. You need to sleep in your big girl bed. Next year you’ll be starting kindergarten and you don’t want to have to tell the other kids that you still sleep with your Mommy and Daddy.”

“Why?” she asked, not coming up with a single reason why that would be a bad thing. Anyone would be lucky to sleep in a nice warm bed snuggled between the three people they loved most in the world; Mommy, Daddy, and Mittens the kitty.

There was not a single word in the world Nick had come to despise as much as the dreaded why. He couldn’t do very much throughout the day without that question coming up. Why, why, why, it was a question that could never really be answered without him lying through his teeth and he hated it.

He searched his vast vocabulary for a reason, knowing that with 50,000 words to choose from as compared to her 1,500 he had to be able to come up with a perfectly sensible explanation as to why things were the way they were.

“Because I said so,” he announced, feeling less than satisfied with his choice of words.

Of course his rationale wasn’t without repercussions. The second the words hit the girl her mouth formed a pout and she glared at her father as if expecting him to immediately take them back.

“Keep looking at me like that and you won’t go to the park today,” he threatened, berating himself internally for his screwy sense of parenting skills.

With a sigh Olivia relented, returning her attention back to her bowl of cereal, “Is it buying food day?” the girl wondered, loving trips to the grocery store because they usually resulted in treats.

Groceries, he thought with a grimace. Holly always had an ongoing list and Fridays he went to the store to restock everything they needed. It was Thursday, laundry day. The week was scheduled, snack and nap times were built in around his expected activities, but he didn’t suppose it could hurt to switch things around just the one time, “Yeah we can do that today. We’ll go to the store on our way back from the park. How does that sound?”

“You’re my favourite Daddy,” she grinned, swinging her legs back and forth in that cute little girl fashion.

Nick chuckled, “I’m your only Daddy,” he pointed out in barely enough time before she had gone off telling him a story about a day in her life that had never happened, but seemed exciting to her none the less.

~*~

The park was busy when they got there. Women with strollers were spread around the grass, chatting amongst themselves as their children play nearby. Nick was envious of them for many reasons. They were happy, they had friends, they had fit into a social mould that was acceptable for them, but most of all their children would sit in a stroller.

Olivia was against strollers. A good shadow must always be close, always touching. Due to those reasons she couldn’t go in a stroller. She had to be touching her Daddy or she wouldn’t really be his shadow. So everywhere they went he carried her, and at twenty eight and a half pounds she was becoming progressively heavier to carry. He often tried to think of other things as his arm got tired, but usually his brain ended up torturing him with comparisons. Three sacks of potatoes, a large frozen turkey, a cinder block, the amount of cheese an average American consumes in a year, a small microwave, the brains of two sperm whales, or his daughter cradled up against his hip all relative in weight. He could count himself so lucky to be not only getting in his cardio chasing her around, but also his resistance training every time she leaped into his arms. It wasn’t that he was a weak man by any means, but he wasn’t a body builder and dead weight was heavy after a few blocks.

He could feel eyes on him as he set Olivia down on the ground as he usually did when they came to the park. It was one strange thing about the mothers; it was almost like they were threatened by him. Not that they thought he would harm them but they weren’t sure how to act around him. Normally when the park was full of other stay at home moms they were free to wear their grubby sweats, and go make up free. Maybe they would even abstain from brushing their hair in the morning. For the past month though they had been forced to dress up, wear makeup, and seem presentable because now there was a man in their territory and they couldn’t very well let him believe they didn’t spend every day looking marvellous.

Nick could not have cared less what the women in the park were wearing. He didn’t have eyes for them or for anyone really. He didn’t dress up; he was wearing a pair of old ratty jeans, flip flops and a blue button up shirt – his normal everyday wear. At first he didn’t realize they had been going out of their way for him but day by day the women seemed to look nicer, and he started to catch on. They never spoke to him though. They kept their distance and did not even provide him with a wave, or a hello, despite his friendly smiles in their direction. That’s how he knew they felt threatened.

“Do you want to go on the slide?” he asked her as she led him over to the playground by the hand, getting into the bizarre habit of always trying to pull him in various directions as if she were running the show.

“Yup, c’mon!” she instructed him and Nick sighed. He had been trying to break off this attachment she had to him. She treated him more as if he were her friend and playmate than if he were her father. She needed to play with children her own age but she had absolutely no interest in them. Everything she did she wanted to do with him.

“How about you go up on your own and I’ll catch you at the bottom?” he suggested, not wanting to deal with the always embarrassing task of getting his long body onto the small playground equipment without falling off or breaking anything.

The pout was distinctive, “No Daddy, come with me!”

He eyed the tall wooden play structure again, spotting a little boy running across the bridge gleefully, “That little boy up there is doing it all by himself and I think he’s younger than you! He’s all alone; maybe you can go play with him?”

Pout mutated into full on chin quiver, “I don’t like him Daddy he’s not my friend!”

“You’ve never met him,” Nick reasoned, knowing she probably wouldn’t see it quite the way he did.

“I hate him!” she screamed and Nick picked her up, turning his back to the playground mothers who were probably eyeing them wearily wondering what this man had done to send his daughter into a fit of tears.

“Do you want to go home?” he asked her quietly with a hint of a sigh, knowing that home meant a walk back to the car, a missed trip to the store, and less time to do laundry now that they were out.

She sniffled and rubbed her face against his shoulder (one of the prime reasons for his less than stunning attire), “No I wanna play with you,” she whined and Nick finally relented.

“Let’s go on the swings,” he suggested, carrying her over just as the little boy from the wooden castle reached them.

“Up,” the boy said to Nick, confidently reaching his arms in the air.

Nick couldn’t help but chuckle at the boy’s daringness. He got Olivia into the swing then helped the little boy into the other one, “What’s your name?” Nick asked.

“Benji,” the boy answered, obviously having no trouble talking to strangers.

“This is Olivia,” Nick tried to introduce and the little girl looked over shyly, muttering a tiny hello.

“Hi Olivia, I’m three!” Benji announced robustly in his own baby talk while Nick began to push both youngsters on the swings.

“Olivia is four,” Nick answered for her when it seemed like she wasn’t going to reply since Mittens was firmly pushed against her face.

“I am so sorry!” a feminine voice suddenly spoke and Nick’s head popped up, surprised to see a woman rushing towards them, “I didn’t realize he had come over here. I thought he was still at the slide. Thank you so much,” she breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of her son, and then moved behind him and next to Nick to take over pushing the swing.

“It’s no problem,” Nick assured her, “I was a little surprised at how eager he was to talk to strangers though,” he admitted.

The woman nodded with a grimace, “Yeah he’s at this stage right now where he doesn’t care who he is talking to as long as they have ears. I’ve been trying to teach him stranger danger and all that but it’s just not sticking.”

“I’m kind of struggling with the opposite, she won’t talk to anyone that isn’t me,” Nick chuckled, finally taking a moment to look the woman over. She was the complete opposite of Holly. He could tell she was the type of person who was carefree and liberated, and only lived by her own rules of which there were probably few. She was a little taller than average, and her plain brown hair was definitely longer than average, pulled up into a tight ponytail to keep it away from her face. She wasn’t overly good looking (average again that department), but she had a nice smile, and pretty green eyes, and she was talking to him as if she actually cared what he had to say and that felt nice.

“I’m Alaina,” she introduced, boldly reaching across to shake his hand quickly.

“I’m Nick.”

~*~

After the usual struggle and the normal amount of sighing Nick finally clipped Olivia securely into the grocery cart and gave her the list to hold onto as if it were her one prized possession next to Mittens.

“We get food for Mittens?” Olivia asked as they walked past a display of cat treats and Nick shook his head.

“Nope, if it’s not on Mommy’s list we’re not allowed to get it,” he shrugged, knowing she would buy that answer for now.

“Can I have that?” she asked, beginning the usual grocery store trend of pointing to everything imaginable and demanding it be hers.

“Is it on the list?” he asked and Olivia’s attention immediately turned to the long slip of paper, skimming over it (despite the fact that it was upside down and she didn’t read).

“I think so Daddy,” she said confidently and Nick laughed, turning the paper back towards him.

Apples, oranges, bananas, all the things that Olivia liked for her snacks went into the cart and she watched with a keen interest. He continued through the produce section, checking things off the list as he went. A lot of these things he didn’t feel they really needed because there was some at the house but Holly always stressed that you could never be too sure. What if there was a huge power outage, or a storm, and then you ran out of these things that you needed? He of course thought that the obvious solution would be to eat something else; but she didn’t agree.

“I don’t like those,” Olivia announced as he put a container of raisins in the cart next to her.

“Yes you do,” Nick countered, once again referring to the list.

“No I don’t! Take them out now please!” she spoke as if the bright red tub was the most disgusting thing she’d ever laid her young eyes on.

“Olivia, you like raisins,” he stressed, not wanting to get into it with her in front of the jams and jellies.

She was doing it just to be difficult, he knew, but it still angered him slightly when she picked up the tub and dramatically threw it to the floor, crossing her arms tightly over her chest the second that it hit.

Rather than running to get it he stared her down, wondering what her next move would be and whether it would involve anymore embarrassment on his part.

“Oops, you dropped something,” he heard a laugh and was surprised to see Alaina standing next to him with her own cart and child holding out the offensive dried fruit, “Hello again Olivia!” she smiled and the girl leaned into her father to hide her from the strangers.

“Thank you,” Nick’s cheeks reddened with a blush and he quickly took the item from her, tossing it back into the cart, their father-daughter spat quickly forgotten “Funny seeing you here.”

“I know, I didn’t think anyone else ate food but us!” she teased and Benji laughed, obviously used to his mother’s sense of humour even if he didn’t entirely understand the joke.

“Ha ha,” Nick said dryly, the blush creeping into his neck.

Alaina smiled, “I’m a laugh a minute. So I meant to ask you earlier, I haven’t really seen you before. Are you new here?”

He nodded, “We are new to the neighbourhood but we’ve always lived here. Across town though.”

“Did you move for your job?” she asked curiously, having wanted to find out more about the mysterious father since she’d met him at the park. Many of the women had speculated about him for the weeks that he’d been coming, wondering if they were only there for the summer on vacation or if he was going to be a permanent fixture.

“My wife’s,” he replied with a strained smile, “She works for the same employer just out of a different office now, so we thought it would be more convenient if she didn’t have to spend most of her day travelling. This way she can get home and have dinner and spend time with Olivia before she’s in bed.”

“That is such a nice idea,” Alaina said with a smile that was far more genuine, “So what about you? What do you do?”

“I’m… a dad,” Nick spoke, saying the last two words quickly, as if he were trying to keep it a secret.

“That’s really great,” she told him, reaching out to touch his arm quickly, “Not a lot of men would be comfortable letting their wife work while they stayed home with the kids. I think it’s fantastic to see that.”

Nick’s eyebrows rose in surprise at her touch and he swore he could still feel her fingers burning into his skin. Clearing his throat his face relaxed, “Really?”

Alaina nodded, “Really, I think it’s one of the most difficult jobs anyone could have and being a man in a woman’s world just makes it that much harder for you, you’re brave.”

Brave, he thought, he tried to recall the last time anyone had told him he was brave; never, “What about you?” he asked.

“We have the same job just out of different offices,” Alaina joked, “But before I was a mother I was in politics, a campaign manager. As soon as Benji is in school I’ll be going back to it though.”

“I was…” he paused, thinking if that was the right term, “I am… a writer.”

“A writer?” her eyes glowed in a way he had never seen, “Anything I’ve read?”

The blush returned, “Um, I’ve never really been published. Mostly editorials in college newspapers and that, but I’m working on a novel.”

“Your life’s work?” she asked and he nodded.

“It’s been in the works for a few years,” he admitted and they slowly began moving down the aisle.

“Well, I’m about done,” she said and he swore he heard a tinge of sadness in her voice, “Will I see you at the park tomorrow?”

He paused, unsure of whether or not he should answer. He didn’t know why but he felt slightly guilty at making plans with this strange woman, “If you’re going at the same time as today… we’ll be there.”