"Okay, okay, I'm off. Take care of Mina today."
"You know I will."
"I know." Annie leaned up against him for another quick kiss as he passed by her and into the bathroom. "I feel so energized today! Haven't felt this good in the morning in years."
Carl smiled down at her with a pre-coffee squint that he knew was only going to last a few more minutes before it became a post-coffee not-squint. "Look good too," he mumbled.
Annie gave him a happy, mesmerizing smile that left him a little disoriented as he watched her depart.
He gave it another few seconds before he walked into their shared bathroom, which his wife had just exited on her way downstairs to grab a quick breakfast before she drove to work. It would take him roughly a minute and twenty seconds to shower, followed by…
----------------------------------------
Followed by another three and a half minutes or so to dry off and do some basic combing and brushing. He snipped another gray hair out of his beard—not that he had anything against people who had or liked gray hair, of course, but he wasn't quite ready to start looking "distinguished" yet, and Annie had never signaled that she had any strong feeling on the matter which might have caused him to consider it further—threw on some house clothes—not that he had anything against people who did business casual while working from home in order to maintain the mindset that they were at work, of course, but he'd never needed to rely on such tricks to focus himself—and headed downstairs after grabbing his phone and glasses—not that he had anything against people who preferred contacts, of course, but he really just couldn't get a handle on the idea of putting things directly onto his eyeballs.
A quick glance at the doors along the way told him that all three of the girls were up, which…
Well, he hadn't adjusted as fast as he should've yesterday, but today he was firing on all rectangular prisms. He still had a few minutes before Bobby and Sammy went outside to catch their bus in front of the house, and—
"Aunt Becca, you're the best!" Sammy cheered.
"Thanks, Aunt Becca," Bobby said in a sleepy voice.
"Anything for my favorite nieces," Rebecca said.
Carl hustled into the kitchen, intent on finding out what was going on at such an early hour. What seemed to be going on at such an early hour was that Annie had already left, having likely grabbed one of her breakfast yogurts to eat once she got to her school, and the girls were sitting around the table in varying states of wakefulness with Rebecca, who was currently wearing, according to his expert judgment, the most corporate attire possible, including crisply pressed slacks, a tie over her dress shirt, not to mention a sharp-looking blazer hanging in the hallway nearby.
"Morning, Carl," she said as he walked at a speed that was neither fast nor slow—but was definitely not slow—to the coffee maker. "Let me know what you think of the coffee."
Carl paused for a microsecond as he was about to grab the mug he'd left out for himself the night prior, immediately resuming the act of pouring coffee into the mug and bringing it to his mouth.
The coffee was…
It was great coffee.
This coffee was…
Carl sighed. It was great coffee, but he'd already tried Vol's Super Coffee now on a number of occasions, and, if he was honest with himself, other coffee was feeling a little lacking now. It was disappointing to think about, and he really hoped the feeling wouldn't last long because he knew that what he was drinking now would probably have been the best coffee he'd ever tasted if it weren't for his friend's in-game coffee that defied the natural order of coffees.
Yes, if there was one area that Rebecca might possibly have the tiniest chance of maybe, at some point, conceivably surpassing her sister, it was coffee. Not in the drinking of it, or the appreciating of it, or the preparing of it, or even in being a connoisseur of it, but Rebecca had cultivated an incredible resourcefulness in her ability to procure new types of coffee that Carl had never heard of, all of which were amazing, and she always brought a couple types with her when she visited.
Annie's younger sister might be annoying, but she was still family, and she did make some small amount of effort to that end now and then.
"Really good," Carl said, looking down at his cup. He turned his head towards the table, giving the watching Rebecca a firm nod of approval. They might not agree on many things, but, thankfully, coffee was a topic that they'd never disagreed on. "Thanks for bringing it."
She smiled pleasantly at him, taking a sip from her own mug with an overt amount of carefulness not usually seen in her demeanor, likely to ensure that she didn't spill anything on what was probably a very expensive shirt, not to mention probably being the only one of its kind she'd brought. "I was just saying I'd take the girls to school on my way in to the city," she said.
Sammy flashed him a cute, approval-seeking look, Bobby shoveled another spoonful of sugary cereal into her mouth in her usual zombie-like state, and Mina sat between the two of them giving her own bowl a suspicious look as she chewed.
"That's pretty nice of you," Carl said. "Isn't it in the other direction though?"
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Rebecca took an idle bite of the apple she was eating and turned her smile on the girls. "Won't be back 'till later tonight, so we'll need to have our fun time now."
"'Kay," said Bobby, who wouldn't become fully awake at such an early hour for nearly anything.
"And Mina, we'll do something together tomorrow, okay?" Rebecca said to the household's newest addition.
Mina smiled winsomely back at her despite still seeming tired. "I'll await it eagerly," she said. "You look to be dressed quite formally today," she added after a moment.
"Big meeting in the city," Rebecca said, grabbing at a possibly-real piece of lint off the cuff of her sleeve. "I can either go dressed as eye candy, or I can be in charge. I like being in charge." She winked at the girl.
"You've the look of a true figure of authority," Mina said.
"I wish I had your accent though," Rebecca said. She stared at the eighteen year-old with interest.
"Her accent's super awesome," Bobby said, sounding adorably amazed despite how tired she also looked, which probably meant she'd been up late playing New Era when she should've been sleeping—something he'd have to talk to her about at some point before she got in Big Trouble.
Mina blushed a little. "It's nothing so incredible." She took another scoop of cereal.
By now, Carl had wrangled his granola, and yogurt, and coffee—the first two in a bowl together and the third one in a mug—into a format which could be transported over to one of the two empty seats at the table, and he plonked himself down between Bobby and Rebecca. "It's called Received Pronunciation," he said before he took the first bite of his breakfast, having put in the time to do a little reading up with his phone the night before while he watched basketball with the kids and ate Rocky Road ice cream.
"Hm," Rebecca said with a frown showing. "The name's not as sexy as the accent."
"What's Received Pronunciation mean?" Bobby asked around the final bite of her cereal.
"Means it's pronunciation you get taught," Carl said. "Don't talk with your mouth full, pumpkin."
"'Kay," Bobby said out of the corner of her mouth while she chewed.
"You're so gross," Sammy said.
Bobby made a face at her, prompting a retaliatory face-making.
"Okay, ladies, I think that's the cue to take our leave," Rebecca said with a decent-ish impression of Mina's accent as she rose from her chair. She turned to look at Carl on her way to deposit her apple core in the trash under and her mug inside the sink. "What do you think?"
Carl brought his hand up and tipped it from side to side while he chewed.
"I believe he means to say that it was marvelous for a first attempt," Mina said.
Rebecca pouted a little when she returned to stand by her seat at the table.
Mina giggled cutely. "I'm sorry," she said as she covered her mouth while she continued to giggle. "The incongruity between your outfit and your expression is…"
Sammy started next. "It is a kinda funny combo," she said between laughs.
Rebecca deepened her pout until it became a caricature. "Maybe I should just stay like this? What do you think? Giving a big presentation to a room full of suits with this expression? Hi, my name is Rebecca Stone, let's talk about our Q1 goals."
Carl chuckled a little at her efforts, and Sammy progressed to full-on belly laughing while Mina's giggles intensified. Bobby cracked a smile, which was about all she was likely to do this early; Sammy was usually around the same level of zombie-ness, but it was clear that having Aunt Becca around was motivating her to wake up a bit faster.
"But seriously, we should get going," Rebecca said, letting her face go back to normal. She picked up the briefcase next to her chair and gestured towards the front door with her other hand.
"Fiine," said Bobby. She finished off the remainder of the milk in her bowl, pushed herself to her feet, and trudged over to the sink with it, followed closely by Sammy.
"See ya later, Mina," Sammy said on her way back. She detoured over to the table from her path towards the front door to stop by the older girl's chair and leaned down to give her a hug.
Mina froze for a moment, then reached up to return the gesture, adding a beaming smile on top.
When Sammy moved on to pay the hug toll at the dad tollbooth, Bobby came in with a quick hug for the older girl next, whispering something into her ear that made them both giggle a little before paying her own hug toll and continuing out to the front hallway behind her tallest sister.
Carl sighed contentedly. Sammy and Bobby really were the best.
"Alright, wish me luck," Rebecca said as she followed them with a wave over her shoulder and snagged her jacket off the hanger on the way.
"I wish you luck, Rebecca," Mina called after her.
"Call me Becca," Rebecca called back. "Have fun today!"
"I'll give it my all," Mina said. She poured herself a little more cereal from the box, again staring at it for a second or two before taking a bite.
There was a brief ruckus from the direction of the front door, then the door opened and closed, and the house was quiet.
Mina crunched on her frosted pops or whatever they were, looking to be enjoying them immensely, which made a lot of sense when Carl considered that she'd probably never had this kind of indulgence from her parents growing up with how she'd been treated.
"Anything I can get you?" he asked.
The girl shook her head, pressing a hand to her mouth while she chewed. "No, this was…" she began once she'd finished, stopping to stare off into nowhere. She sighed, and a happy smile spread across her whole face. "This was quite a nice manner in which to begin my day," she murmured.
The thing about Mina was that she was just way too freaking cute, especially when she smiled like this.
If there was one thing that Carl enjoyed more than nearly anything else in life, it was making his daughters smile. "What about some tea?" he asked, having a certain hunch.
"W-well, I'd not want to impose," Mina said, her eyes sliding away from his and her eyebrows raising a little like he'd noticed they tended to do when she got excited about something.
"Nah, I always drink a cup of tea in the morning to go with my coffee," Carl lied.
She grinned at him, looking even happier than she had.
Yes, for the happiness of his daughters, Carl Weathers would even drink a cup of tea.
In the morning.