“Looks like he’s wearing more than he’s eaten.”
HIT ME LIKE A RAY OF SUN
Christopher Tyler & Élodie Carrière-Ash
The house smelled of freshly baked bread when he stepped through the door and the comforting, familiar scent along with the equally soothing and recognisable sound of chatter, low and light -- albeit one-sided -- was enough to drive a smile over his face. With his jacket shrugged off and hung on the rack by the door he headed on through into the kitchen where he found exactly what he had been expecting. “Looks like he’s wearing more than he’s eaten.”
“He’s doing just fine, aren’t you, sweetie?” Élodie smiled, affectionately, and dug around on the plate of food for another tempting mouthful. “You had a good day?”
“Better now that I’m home.” Walking closer to the table after taking a bottle of water from the refrigerator he pressed a kiss to the top of his wife’s head. “You miss me, kiddo?” Reaching past Elle he ruffled the hair of the small child in his high chair. He had started babbling happily to himself and was sucking on his fingers, reaching with his other hand for the plate his mother held in her grasp.
“We missed Daddy, didn’t we?” Elle cooed, setting down the plastic spoon -- or was it a fork? Chris had never been able to figure it out -- in order to reach forward and use their son’s bib to wipe some of the mushy food smeared over his chin.
“Just like he missed his mouth.”
“Quiet,” she warned with a smile on her face. “Owen knows what he’s doing. Don’t you, sweetie? Yes you do.” Chris chuckled, one hand settled on the back of Elle’s chair, watching as their little boy waved his arms around before a look of deep concentration came over his face. As they looked on, Owen reached towards the plate, green eyes seeming to narrow, focusing, taking particular care with his aim. With an almost amusing air of deliberateness and precision, he picked something out of the soft mess on the plate and held it up for his parents to see, eyes bright with triumph. A small piece of carrot. Even as they watched, the orange segment smeared all over his small, chubby fingers as he held his prize a little too tightly.
“See?” Elle said, practically beaming with pride, looking back at her husband with a broad, happy smile. “He knows exactly what he’s doing.”