Second Chance Addison

As soon as Chance opened his apartment door, Genevieve darted inside to take a look and explore. And explore she did. He was starting to get dizzy from watching her run around in circles.

"Alright, let's get you two ladies situated." Chance scooped up Genevieve and her bag and led Fait over to one of the two guest rooms.

He had already discussed the sleeping arrangements with Fait while they were in the car. They agreed that Genevieve and Fait should share a room and he would stay in his own room.

"I'll let you two look around a minute, fight over pillows and such, while I go start dinner."

Fait watched his departing figure in shock. 'He cooks! And he's gonna cook for us!?' Before she could fully recover, Genevieve tugged on Fait's shirt.

"Hmm, what is it?"

"Uncle Addy isn't gonna stay with us?"

"No sweetie, he has his own bed to sleep in. We are just borrowing this one for tonight."

"But then he'll be all alone." she scrunched her little face in worry.

'Isn't that normal?' She wasn't sure how to explain her way out of this. How about a little white lie? "But Genny, he is a grown up. Grown ups like to be alone."

"Nuh-uh! Papa hates to be alone! He gets really sad when Mama goes on trips without him. Then I sneak into their room and snuggle with him and he hugs me like this," She grabbed a pillow off the bed to demonstrate.

"That's because your papa loves you and your mama more than anything else. Uncle Addy doesn't have someone like that."

"Why not?"

"Because..."

While Genevieve was mercilessly bombarding Fait with questions about Chance's love life, he was steadily moving about the kitchen.

When he moved out on his own for the first time, he couldn't even boil water to make tea. After years of practice, he was able to cook decent enough food that he wouldn't starve or accidentally poison himself to death. Still, it had been a long time since he last cooked a full meal. And it had been even longer since he had cooked for other people.

To keep it simple he opted to pan fry some chicken with some simple spices in olive oil, bake a few potatoes in the oven, and steam some broccoli. While there were a lot of moving parts, each one really could take care of itself and didn't need much intervention from him.

He quickly finished the chicken and the broccoli and divided it onto plates. As he was cutting Genevieve's portion into smaller bites, the oven beeped to signal that the potatoes were done. He split open a small one for Genevieve and added it to her plate.

The girls reappeared right as Chance was setting the table.

"Shall we?" He pulled out a chair for Fait and helped little Genevieve get into her own seat. She was just slightly too small to comfortably reach her plate.

"Excuse me for a second." Chance went over to the sofa and grabbed a throw pillow. He picked up Genevieve, placed the pillow on the chair, and then set her on top the pillow.

"Better?" She nodded and reached for her fork.

Fait just watched wide-eyed from her seat. Between the thing she just witnessed with the pillow and the plate of food cut into child safe bites, she couldn't decide which part was the most surprising.

'Why am I here again?' Clearly Chance knew enough about children to watch the girl by himself. Then she remembered that it came down to trust. The Griffins could rest easy and know that Genevieve would be safe with her.

"Is something wrong?"

It took Fait a solid minute to realize Chance was trying to ask her something.

"Hmm?"

"Is something wrong? You haven't touched your food." He was using the same soft tone he usually directed at Genevieve.

"Oh, ah, no. I was just thinking..." She tried to quickly come up with something a little less embarrassing than 'about how you are so good with children.'

"Sorry, I was just thinking about the meeting next Tuesday. I think I forgot to include something on the agenda." She silently hoped he wouldn't ask anymore questions.

"Oh, I see. Is it urgent?"

"No, it can wait until Monday." She turned to Genevieve for help. The little girl winked back at her, causing Chance's eyebrows to raise just a bit.

"Uncle Addy, are you all better now?"

"I didn't know I was sick. What do you mean?'

"When you stayed at my house, Papa told me it was because you were having a hard time. I asked him what that means and he said you weren't doing very well."

"Well then, I suppose yes. I am doing much better now thanks to your Papa and Aunt Fay." Every time this little girl opened her little mouth, the words that followed were so thoughtful. How could she only be five?

He loved her like she was his own daughter and he wanted to give her the world. Keeping his promises to her was the very least he could do.