Role Model

"Who is this?" Katie asked, her dark hair tousled cutely around her face in a robe modeled off her mother's favorite.

"This ... this is Kelly. She's daddy's friend," Antoine said.

"Friend ... like girlfriend?" Katie asked, trying to get to the root of what Antoine was clumsily communicating.

"Yes," Kelly said, giving her a bright megawatt smile.

"You're so pretty!" Katie said enthusiastically. "I want to be beautiful like you one day." She started to play with Kelly's platinum blonde hair.

"Well, we can certainly look at that," Kelly said. "I love to look pretty, and I bet I could help."