“Daddy already brushed all the knots out of my hair before you got here.”
“That’s a good first step. Why don’t you sit right here on this stool so I can get behind you and your father can get behind me. It might be easier if he watches me do it.”
Adele climbed on the stool, Ava standing behind her, Seth moving closer. Ava turned her head and grinned at him and nodded him closer. Close enough he could smell the scent of her shampoo.
“I don’t want to crowd you,” he said.
“You aren’t. So you should begin by grabbing some of her long bangs and pulling them back. You can start the braid on the top or in the back of her head.”
He looked at Ava’s braid and saw it was started more in the back. “Like yours for now. That’s less I’ve got to do.”
She laughed low in her throat and he felt a churning of arousal in his gut. “I should ask if you even know how to do a regular braid. If you can’t we need to start there.”
“I do,” he said.
“Okay then. So start like that, dividing it into three sections. When you bring one section over to the right, you add hair from that side, then cross that new pile of hair over to the left. Then add from the left and cross that pile to the right. You continue on and on while you make your way down her head.”
He watched her movements and realized it was much easier to do it this way than on the video and thought he figured it out. “That looks looser.”
“Because I’m doing it that way. But you can make it tight and the tighter you do it the more it will stay. She’s got very soft fine hair, so it won’t stay in loose, but I wanted to show you and have you do it next while I watch.”
“Don’t laugh,” he said to her.
“I won’t.” She undid Adele’s hair and then stepped to the side. “Your turn. I’ll stand here to watch since if I get behind you, I won’t be able to see. You’re probably close to a foot taller than me.”
He wasn’t so sure about that, but maybe his six foot three inches were. Ava was taller than Ellen had been and Ellen was five foot three. There he went again, making comparisons when there shouldn’t be any to make.
“Not quite,” he said. “Tell me if I’m hurting you, Adele.”
“You won’t. You never do,” his daughter said.
“Give it a try,” Ava said. He grabbed the front of Adele’s hair and parted to start a normal braid and then hesitated for a moment. “Put both of those pieces in your right hand,” Ava said, reaching forward and laying her hands on his to guide them.
Yeah, his heart was racing more than he thought it was possible over such an innocent touch. “Like this?”
“Exactly,” she said, the two of them braiding Adele’s hair until Ava dropped her hands down and let him finish it on his own. It was almost an automatic movement at that point until he ran out of hair.
“Now just finish it like a regular braid?” he asked.
“Yep. It might be uneven but don’t worry. Once you run out of hair on one of the strands, just tie it off and it will be fine.”
He did what she said and then stood back to look. “Wow. That’s better than I thought it’d be for the first try.”
“Let me see,” Adele said. “Take a picture, Daddy, and show me.” He pulled his phone off the counter, snapped a picture and then handed it to his daughter. “That’s great. Yay!”
“What are you doing?” he asked when Adele reached around and pulled the band out and her hair all fell away.
“Practice makes perfect you always say. Do it again.”
His shoulders dropped and Ava let out a little giggle next to him. It was always lovely having his words thrown back in his face by his six-year-old daughter.
Ava found Seth and Adele just adorable.
She’d been around a lot of fathers in her short career. Caring ones, distant ones, nervous ones, loving ones, negative ones. Seth seemed to have all the positive traits a father could. Patience, understanding, caring, loving and determination.
He had a great sense of humor and even showed signs of embarrassment over his daughter’s words and actions, but he didn’t discipline her. He didn’t even correct her. Not that Adele’s behavior was horrible by any means and she’d seen plenty of older siblings in her office running around the waiting room making nuisances of themselves.
“I think Adele is right,” she said. “Practice makes perfect. Try doing it a little tighter this time. And a secret to keeping it in all day, braid her hair wet.”
Seth turned and frowned at her. “Won’t it be frizzy when it’s out though?”
“Not always. Maybe if you did tiny little braids all over her head.”
“Like women in Jamaica?” Adele jumped in.
Ava snorted trying to keep the laughter in. “Yes. But that isn’t the fashion statement I think your father is trying to accomplish.”
“My mom did her hair like on their honeymoon. Daddy showed me the pictures. He shows me pictures all the time of my mom so I don’t forget her.”
And a flood of sympathy poured through her. She wanted to know what happened but knew that wasn’t something that should be talked about in front of the child. At least it wouldn’t come from her questioning lips.
“I think that’s very sweet of your father to do that.”
“It is. I don’t want to forget my mother, but I was only three and don’t remember much. Is that bad?”
Ava glanced over at Seth to see some sadness in his eyes and wondered now if this was a mistake to come here. She’d been hoping they could get to know each other more, but maybe it wasn’t the time. She had a mess to
