Threaten teenage boy with gun.
Show daughter how a boy is supposed to hold her when they dance.
Dance lessons with teen daughter.
Clean bigger gun and knife to threaten teenage boy.
Movie night.
Set time with the girls on Saturdays.
Write financial plan, include stocks, bonds, index funds and a few blue chips.
Talk to Willow about setting an allowance for the girls.
Talk to Willow about her monthly allowance for the house and personal accounts.
Debit card for Willow’s crafting.
Swimsuits for the girls and Willow. Get those on the way.
Remind Willow to pack dresses for the girls. White gloves for tea? Straw hats?
He growled over the list that kept growing each time one of them walked into his office. Hell, if he were planning an assassination, he would have forgotten by now who the fuck he was going to go kill and why. Tapping the computer screen, it came to life and slowly, and he began to make a list of the manufacturers he used in weaponry, tactical gear, and special requirements in luggage. Next, he logged into his personal trading account and began to track the average highs and lows of each stock he’d picked for the Technicians. Quickly, he created a portfolio, adding in the trading symbols, plus a few blue chips, and was pleased.
“Daddy?” he heard a small voice say.
“Yes, Pooh Bear,” he replied, still making notes and adding to the portfolio. She said nothing, which made him look up. “Everything okay?”
“No, Daddy, it is not. My world has been turned upside down,” she said with her bottom lip poked out.
This got his attention, and he saved the document and closed the laptop to give her his full consideration. He wasn’t certain what could have happened since she hadn’t left the house. Instead of prodding her, he allowed the air between them to settle, giving her issue a moment to lighten its load on her shoulders.
“I just found out from Jamal that he has this thing called a tablet that holds hundreds of books,” she told him, almost sobbing. “Hundreds of books, Daddy, on an electronic bookshelf. He also told me about this kid named Harry Potter, and that he, Jamal that is, was a pothead. I want to be a pothead too.”
“A Potterhead, honey. They are called Potterheads since they know all things Harry Potter,” he told her.
“I have missed way too much. Evidently this Harry kid has made like seven movies about his time at this school in England where he’s a wizard and he’s got a best friend who is a witch named Hermany,” she told him.
“Her name is Hermione Granger,” he gently corrected.
“Daddy! You know these kids too? When were you going to tell me? I need to read this Harry Potter, plus I was trying to pack my suitcase for the trip next week, and my unicorn case will only let me carry so many books. If I had a tablet, then I could always have 100 books with me at any given time,” she said with tears in her eyes. “Do I need an allowance too in order to buy all of these books for the tablet I pray you will get for me so I can be a Potterhead. I need to meet this Harry.”
“Jesus, take my wallet,” he said, exhaling. He sat for a minute, hands interlaced, staring at the wall. Thinking hard about the books in the library which were all classics of the ilk of Twain, Shakespeare, and Melville. Then he thought of his niece Cady. The items she had as a kid were still in the house in a few boxes. Raphael tapped into his memory banks, trying to think of where his mother put a certain book box which belonged to Cady.
“Wait here, Pooh Bear,” he said, rising. He left her in his office sitting in the large chair, feeling forlorn that she had yet to make the acquaintance of the world’s second most famous wizard, falling right after Merlin. The box he sought was in the storeroom off the garage with his niece’s name on it in bold block letters. He opened the box to make sure it was the right one. Satisfied, he returned to his office.
Karli’s eyes were wide when he opened the flowered cardboard container to reveal the entire box set in hard back of the Harry Potter series. The container also held a wand in an Oleander’s box, a neck scarf for Gryffindor, a flying gold orb that he thought was a Snitch, and a wizarding robe.
“My niece Cady was a big Potterhead,” he said, showing her the contents.
Karli reached inside and pulled out a flat plastic case. “Daddy, what are these?”
“Those are the DVDs of the movies,” he said.
“Oh my gosh, golly, gabs. An entire movie, is on this little circle,” Karli chimed, touching all the items. “I will take special care of these things belonging to your niece.”
“They are yours now,” he told her, thinking of an idea. “I tell you what Pooh Bear. Each time you finish a book, you and I will set a special time to watch the movie afterwards and you can tell me which was better, the book or the movie.”
“Daddy, have you read the books too?”
“I think this Muggle read the first three, but I will get me a set of the books and we will read together,” he told her.
Karli jumped to her feet, flinging her body at him and knocking him onto the floor on his back. She kissed his cheeks and squeezed him tightly, laughing happily. Her cheeks were damp with tears as her face rested against his.
“You’re the best Daddy ever,” she said. “I love you more and more each day.”
“Okay. Okay. Enough mush. Take this stuff to your room, but that robe and other stuff will need to be washed before you wear any of it, okay?”
“Sure thing, Daddy,” she said, lifting the box but planning to take it outside to show Jamal that she was cool and going to be a Potterhead too. Her fingers itched to crack open the spines and turn the sheets where the scent of vanilla pressed into the pages wafted up to her tiny nose. She left him alone to continue his work, pleased that he was her Daddy.
Raphael, now behind the desk again, sat still staring at the wall. Once more he would need to update his list with more items.
Clean the gun.
Threaten teenage boy with gun.
Show daughter how a boy is supposed to hold her when they dance.
Dance lessons with teen daughter.
Clean bigger gun and knife to threaten teenage boy.
Movie night.
Set time with the girls on Saturdays.
Write financial plan, include stocks, bonds, index funds and a few blue chips.
Talk to Willow about setting an allowance for the girls.
Talk to Willow about her monthly allowance for the house and personal accounts.
Debit card for Willow’s crafting.
Swimsuits for the girls and Willow. Get those on the way.
Remind Willow to pack dresses for the girls. White gloves for tea? Straw hats?
A tablet for Karli.
Create online account with child parameters for Karli to buy 100 books.
Two things had become abundantly clear in the last couple of hours. His father was a bloody saint to deal with both him, his sister, and their mother and run a successful practice. He’d been a father for a week and now his oldest daughter was going on a first date tonight. He was seriously considering calling Mr. Merge to develop a potion to keep that Skylar kid from getting a boner until he turned 21.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to handle one from the womb until college. A baby. I don’t know about that,” he said, coming out of the office and seeing the gifts his wife was making for the other wives. He watched Willow work and immediately felt a familiar tug at his midsection. A carbon copy of her in a boy child, but a wood crafter, or a fisher, he thought, would be pretty amazing.