The school run

“Yes Sarah?” Henry called out, infinitely grateful to his daughter for breaking the tension which had existed between him and Natasha for the last few moments.

“Daddy I need your help!” Sarah explained as she appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, clutching her shoes in her hands.

“Right,” Henry slapped his hands against his knees and then got up from his chair to move over to where his daughter was waiting for him, placing one hand on her shoulder and leading her out into the hallway.

“So,” Natasha stood leaned against the kitchen doorframe, her arms crossed underneath her sizeable chest as she watched how Henry had Sarah’s left foot nestled in between his knees as he tied her shoelaces, “can I use your shower while you drop off Sarah at school?”

“Yes, sure,” Henry stopped to clear his throat before finally mustering enough courage to look straight at Natasha, “you know where the towels are.”

Her left shoe tied and ready as she sat on her small chair, Sarah pulled back that leg and offered up her right shoe for Henry to tie. Sarah usually wasn’t this silent, and it was certainly rare for her to be this enthusiastic to get to school, but now she seemed to Henry almost as though she was excited about something. Normally, he’d at least have time for his coffee before taking her to school.

“Bye Natasha!” Sarah scampered over to Natasha, who squatted down so that she could hug her goodbye, causing Henry to glance in another direction to avoid gawking at her when she sat like that, her position causing her panties to come into view again.

Blushing as she realized that Henry was careful not to look at her, Natasha focused on hugging Sarah, gently patting the little girl on the back before letting go off her.

“So…” Henry began, worrying that Natasha would leave in her resignation as soon as he got back from dropping Sarah off, “I’ll see you in a little while.”

“Yeah…” Natasha hoped that her cheeks didn’t look too red.

“Daddy, is Natasha my new mommy now?” Sarah suddenly asked from her place in the front passenger seat just as they cleared the last corner before coming in view of her school.

“What?” Henry asked, while doing his best to keep from driving straight into a nearby mailbox.

“Well, Rachel at school said that parents are grown-ups who sleep in the same bed.” Sarah gave her dad the reason for her question.

“It’s not quite that simple.” Henry replied, trying to come up with an explanation for how parenting worked that his daughter could understand, but the words failed him.

“Well, I think that I want Natasha to be new mommy.” Sarah said, appearing quite pompous, particularly since she titled her head back a bit and folded her arms across her stomach in an attempt to look more grown-up.

“Look, we’ll talk about this later.” Henry informed Sarah as he pulled up next to the curb in front of the school.

“Okay.” Sarah said, with a tone of voice which made it clear that the subject was still open for debate as far as she was concerned.

“I’ll see you later,” Henry couldn’t help but smile at his daughter’s serious expression, “have a good day in school.”

“Okay daddy,” Sarah flipped open the car door and climbed down onto the sidewalk, leaving Henry to watch as she hurried up to the school entrance and disappeared inside.

With that, Henry was left alone with his thoughts as he turned round and headed back home again.