On Christmas morning, Dakota woke to Zinny banging on what sounded like a saucepan outside their bedroom.
“Cam! Koko! It’s Christmas! Santa came and we need to open presents!”
Cam groaned. “We need to use a bulldozer to get her out of bed every other morning, but on Christmas, she’s up at the crack of dawn. I guess that means no morning glory,” he said, caressing Dakota’s breast and kissing the nape of her neck.
He was spooned up against her back. They woke up almost every morning like this. Likely as not, he had an erection and the sensation of it pressed against her usually got her all worked up and they ended up messing around in bed for another half hour. Today was going to be an exception.
“I don’t think it’s in the cards,” she said, stretching. “Maybe we can ‘take a nap’ later.”
“I’m holding you to that,” he said, tossing back the covers and getting out of bed.
He was so gorgeous. The sight of his naked body never failed to amaze her. All those perfectly sculpted muscles, the thick thighs and rock hard butt…how did she get so lucky?
Another bout of pot banging startled her.
“All right, all right,” Cam called. “Five minutes, Zinster.”
“Yippee!”
After they made themselves presentable, they gathered by the Christmas tree. By far, Zinny had the most presents. She received a few toys, some clothes and books, but her favorite present was an iPad.
“Don’t worry,” Cam told Dakota as Zinny ran around the room clutching the box to her chest. “There are restrictions we can install so she only sees stuff intended for kids. But I thought this was an easy way for her to get access to a lot more books. Plus, they’re all electronic, which means there’s no clutter.”
Dakota acted happy about this gift. In all honesty, it was extremely generous and if she had as much money as Cam did, she might splurge on items like this, too, and yet, she wished he’d consulted with her first about this. Zinny wasn’t old enough to be responsible for such an expensive device.
“Open this, Cam,” Zinny said, thrusting a box wrapped in green-and-red striped paper. “It’s from me.”
“You didn’t have to get me a gift,” he said.
“I wanted to.”
Cam unwrapped the box to find a black knitted beanie with red hearts. He turned to Dakota with an amused grin. “I love it, Zinster. Thank you. I needed a nice warm hat.”
“That’s what I thought because you’re always going where it’s cold. It’s has the Dragon colors and the hearts mean I love you.”
“I love you too, Zin Bin. I love this hat and I will wear it proudly on my road trips.”
“Now open Koko’s present to you,” Zinny said, fetching it and giving it to him.
Suddenly nervous, Dakota watched him tear off the ribbon and wrapping and open the box.
“What’s this?” he asked, holding it up.
“It’s a watch!” Zinny exclaimed. “Look at the pictures on it.”
“It’s Zeus and Gizzy,” Cam said, with a laugh. “This is great. I’m going to put it on right now.”
“I hope you like it,” Dakota said. She’d agonized over what to get him. He seemed to have everything he needed, so she’d had to think of something he didn’t need.
“Hey, looks pretty snazzy, right?” he asked, showing off his newly adorned wrist.
“I think so,” Zinny said.
“You really like it?” Dakota asked. “You’re not just saying that?"
“Are you kidding?” He leaned over and kissed her. “I love it. I love you, Dakota Kelly.”
Dakota stared at him. He’d never come out and said that he loved her before. The words washed over her as he kissed her again, tenderly. It seemed unbelievable. Only a few months ago she’d been doggedly working two jobs in order to get out from under Ellen’s thumb. Dating was the farthest thing from her mind. Now, the most wonderful man she’d ever met was telling her he loved her. He treated Zinny as if she was his own daughter and the three of them were living in the kind of house she’d never even dreamed of. On top of all that, he was the most generous and skilled lover she’d ever had.
She hadn’t thought it possible to feel so completely happy.
“I love you too,” she whispered back, her heart so full she thought she might not survive it.
Dakota saved the better present for last—a framed sixteen-by-twenty-four photograph of him and Zinny at the dance. Natalie was a fantastic photographer and she’d captured the two of them strutting down a double line of dads and daughters. Their faces were so full of joy and fun, you couldn’t look at the picture and not smile.
His voice was a little gruff when he said, “This is great, really, really great. Thank you.”
Then he gave her a kiss and a forehead-to-forehead tap that never failed to make her feel warm all over.
Cam went to the tree and retrieved a small flat box and handed it to Dakota. “Merry Christmas.”
The box didn’t weigh much and when she opened it, she saw why.
“What is it?” Zinny asked.
“It’s…two plane tickets to Las Vegas,” Dakota said, shocked and delighted. She’d never gotten an extravagant gift like this before. She realized it was a double standard—to disapprove of the iPad, but be thrilled about the plane tickets—but then again, Zinny was a child.
“While Zinny’s with her Nana,” Cam said, “you and I are going on a short little trip.”
“A trip? Really?” Dakota exclaimed, feeling extremely lucky.
Last Christmas had been much less cheerful. Ellen’s presents tended to be items that related to something she thought you needed to change. She got Dakota a car washing kit because in Ellen’s opinion, her car was always dirty. She got Zinny math workbooks and some dresses, an item of clothing Zinny didn’t wear as often as Ellen would have liked.
Dakota looked at the tickets again. “Wait a second. It says here the flight departs at four o’clock today.”
Cam grinned. “That’s right. I already made arrangements for Zinny to stay with Ellen for the duration, so you’d better pack right after brunch.”
For the umpteenth time, Dakota couldn’t believe how lucky she was. She had the most thoughtful and generous boyfriend ever. She had never even heard of anyone getting a surprise trip for Christmas. Feeling a little misty herself now, she threw her arms around Cam’s neck and hugged him tightly.
Forty minutes later, Cam returned from the fake errand they’d concocted so Zinny wouldn’t suspect anything while he fetched JK0727. Dakota had Zeus and Gizmo outside and breakfast on the table and as soon as she heard the garage door open, she yelled, “Zinny, Cam’s back. Time to eat!”
“Finally,” Zinny said, coming back into the kitchen, her iPad clutched to her chest.
Cam came in carrying the dog crate wrapped loosely in brown paper with a hole cut out for the handle, but Zinny was so busy spearing pancakes and putting them on her plate that she didn’t even notice.
“Koko, I need syrup.”
“You know where the syrup is, young lady,” Dakota said.
Zinny sighed, but got off her chair and went to the pantry. She must have been starving because she still wasn’t noticing the box. Dakota gave Cam a worried look, but he gave her a nod to signify he had everything under control.
“Hey, Zin, before you start, I need you to take care of something for me.”
With a much put upon sigh, Zinny said, “What?” She stood there with the syrup bottle in one hand and looked extremely exasperated.
Cam gave the box a small shove. The sound of the dog’s scrabbling claws could be heard and Zinny froze. A mewling sound made her drop the bottle of syrup. Luckily it was made of plastic. Both hands flew to her mouth.
Calmly, Cam set the crate on the floor as Dakota fumbled to get out her phone.
“Go ahead and open it, Zin Bin,” Cam said.
“Zinny, you know what that is?” Dakota asked, zooming in on Zinny’s face.
Wordlessly, the little girl nodded as she got down on her knees and tore the paper off with visibly shaking hands. When she opened the crate, JK0727 bounded forward right into Zinny’s arms. All Zinny could do was sit there, hugging the dog, her face buried in her silky soft fur. Dakota wasn’t even sure she was breathing.
When Zinny finally raised her head, she took a ragged breath and tried to talk but only some of it was intelligible. Tears were streaming down her face. Dakota exchanged a glance with Cam, who was grinning widely.
“I’m sorry. Was that English?” he asked.
“Is it mine?” Zinny managed to say. “Do I get to keep it?”
“Yes, she’s yours, sweetie. Merry Christmas.”
Dakota continued filming as Zinny continued hugging and petting and kissing her dog and repeating over and over, “Oh my gosh. She’s mine. It’s a girl dog and she’s really mine. Thank you thank you thank you.”
Cam came over and put his arm around Dakota’s waist as she stopped filming.
“Honey, did you see your dog has an owie?” Dakota asked.
Zinny nodded. “What happened to her?”
“The people at the animal shelter didn’t know, but she seems okay with it. You just have to be careful about coming at her from that side because it startles her.”
“Okay,” she said gravely. Then she covered her own eye and looked around then nodded. “My poor doggie.”
“What are you going to name her?” Cam asked.
“Mommy was named after a flower and so am I. So I want to name her after a flower.”
“Good choice,” Cam said. “How about Jasmine? You could call her Jazz for short.”
Zinny shook her head. “No, Jasmine is not my favorite Disney princess. Are there flowers named Ariel?”
“No, honey,” Dakota said. “But there are magnolias, lilies, tulips…”
“Tulip. I like Tulip.” She looked her dog in the face and asked, “Do you want to be named Tulip, little doggie?”
The dog, of course, didn’t say anything, but Zinny acted as if she had answered in the affirmative.
As they finally started eating, Cam talked about the responsibility she was taking upon herself—walking the dog, feeding her, making sure she didn’t get into trouble, picking up after her. In between bites of pancake and sausage and eggs, Zinny assured them she would do all of it.
“And since you’re going to be feeding Tulip every day, I have a proposition for you,” Cam said. “If you feed all three of the dogs and pick up all of the poop in the yard, I will give you an allowance of two dollars a day.”
Dakota cleared her throat as she put her fork down. “Ah, Cam, can I talk to you in the other room for a sec?”
“Uh oh. You’re in trouble,” Zinny said.
They went into the den where Dakota faced him, more than a little irritated. “What was that?” she asked, waving a hand toward the kitchen.
“That was a great idea I had on the fly. Remember how we talked about her taking responsibility?”
“I do remember that. What I don’t remember is the allowance thing.” She closed the door. “Cam, she’s six. She doesn’t need spending money.”
“But this will teach her that if you work hard, you can earn money, which is a valuable life lesson.”
“Also, I’m not crazy about her having to pick up the dog crap.”
“Relax. We’ll get her one of those pooper scooper things and she won’t even get her hands dirty.”
“Don’t you have a service for that?”
“I do and we’ll keep them on until we’re sure she’s got the hang of it and is following through. I’m not paying her unless she actually does the work.”
“Again, she doesn’t need the money.”
“She will when she wants to go to college. I want her to sock half her money away in savings. We’ll set up an account for her.”
Even though this sounded good to her, she found herself resisting.
“Okay, just hold on a sec. You need to back off and let me make the decisions, okay? It’s like the dog thing but in reverse. We need to talk about this kind of thing together.”
“What do you call this? This is talking.”
A headache started to form behind her eyes. What started out as one of the best days of her life was turning out to be a big mess.
“No, this isn’t talking. This is you running rough shod and issuing all kinds of orders—”
“They’re suggestions.”
“—about a kid who isn’t even yours.”
That shut him up. He stared at her, shock and hurt in his eyes. Part of her wanted to apologize, but he was finally really listening to her.
“Zinny’s my responsibility, okay? I’m the one who is ultimately accountable for her upbringing and I take that responsibility very seriously. You can’t just go around establishing precedent without me.”
He cleared his throat. “Okay then,” he said. “I guess I know my place now.”
“Come on, Cam,” she said as he shouldered past her. “Don’t be like that. I’m sorry.”
She reached out and touched his arm but he shrugged her off.
Damn.