He forced himself to smile, and Natasha visibly brightened. Jeez, maybe there was something to this.
He scooped the little girl into his arms and awkwardly spun her around until she began to giggle, then collapsed with her onto the couch. “In fact,” he continued, “you are so amazingly excellent, I think you should probably get a medal. Don’t you?”
She nodded, her eyes wide. “What’s a medal?”
“It’s a very special pin that you get for doing something really great—like remembering my rules,” Frisco told her. He dumped her off his lap and onto the soft cushions of the couch. “Wait right here—I’ll get it.”
Mia was standing near the door, and as she watched, Frisco pushed himself off the couch and headed down the hall to his bedroom.
“Getting a medal is a really big deal.” Frisco raised his voice so they could hear him in the living room. “It requires a very special ceremony.”
Tasha was bouncing up and down on the couch, barely able to contain her excitement. Mia had to smile. It seemed that Frisco understood the concept of positive reinforcement.
“Here we go,” he said, coming back into the living room. He caught Mia’s eye and smiled. He looked like hell this morning. He looked more exhausted than she’d ever seen him. He’d clearly been sound asleep mere moments ago. But somehow he seemed more vibrant, his eyes more clear. And the smile that he’d sent her was remarkably sweet, almost shy.
Mia’s heart was in her throat as she watched him with his little niece.
“For the remarkable remembering of my rules and regs, including rule number one—‘Tell Frisco where you’re going before you leave the condo,’” he intoned, “I award Natasha Francisco this medal of honor.”
He pinned one of the colorful bars Mia had seen attached to his dress uniform onto Tasha’s pajama shirt.
“Now I salute you and you salute me,” he whispered to the little girl after he attached the pin.
He stood at sharp attention, and snapped a salute. Tasha imitated him remarkably well.
“The only time SEALs ever salute is when someone gets a medal,” Frisco said with another glance in Mia’s direction. He pulled Tasha back to the couch with him. “Here’s the deal,” he told her. “In order to keep this medal, you have to remember my rules all day today. Do you remember the rules?”
“Tell you when I want to go outside….”
“Even when I’m asleep. You have to wake me up, okay? And what else?”
“Stay here….”
“In the courtyard, right. And…?”
“No swimming without my buddy.”
“Absolutely, incredibly correct. Gimme a high five.”
Natasha giggled, slapping hands with her uncle.
“Here’s the rest of the deal,” he said. “Are you listening, Tash?”
She nodded.
“When you get enough of these medals, you know what happens?”
Tasha shook her head no.
“We trade this thing in,” Frisco told her, smacking the back of the couch they were sitting on with one hand, “for a certain pink sofa.”
Mia thought it was entirely possible that the little girl was going to explode with pleasure.
“You’re going to have to work really hard to follow the rules,” Frisco was telling her. “You’ve got to remember that the reason I want you to obey these rules is because I want you to be safe, and it really gets me upset when I don’t know for certain that you’re safe. You have to think about that and remember that, because I know you don’t want to make me feel upset, right?”
Tasha nodded. “Do you have to follow my rules?”
Frisco was surprised, but he hid it well. “What are your rules?”
“No more bad words,” the little girl said without hesitation.
Frisco glanced up at Mia again, chagrin in his eyes. “Okay,” he said, looking back at Tasha. “That’s a tough one, but I’ll try.”
“More playing with Mia,” Tasha suggested.
He laughed nervously. “I’m not sure we can make that a rule, Tash. I mean, things that concern you and me are fine, but…”
“I’d love to play with you,” Mia murmured.
Frisco glanced up at her. She couldn’t possibly have meant that the way it sounded. No, she was talking to Natasha. Still… He let his imagination run with the scenario. It was a very, very good one.
“But we don’t have to make a rule about it,” Mia added.
“Can you come to the beach with us for my swimming lesson?” Tasha asked her.
Mia hesitated, looking cautiously across the room at Frisco. “I don’t want to get in the way.”
“You’ve already got your bathing suit on,” he pointed out.
She seemed surprised that he’d noticed. “Well, yes, but…”
“Were you planning to go to a different beach?”
“No… I just don’t want to…you know…” She shrugged and smiled apologetically, nervously. “Interfere.”
“It wouldn’t be interfering,” Frisco told her. Man, he felt as nervous as she sounded. When had this gotten so hard? He used to be so good at this sort of thing. “Tasha wants you to come with us.” Perfect. Now he sounded as if he wanted her to come along as a playmate for his niece. That wasn’t it at all. “And I…I do, too,” he added.
Jeez, his heart was in his mouth. He swallowed, trying to make it go back where it belonged as Mia just gazed at him.
“Well, okay,” she finally said. “In that case, I’d love to come. If you want, I could pack a picnic lunch…?”
“Yeah!” Tasha squealed, hopping around the room. “A picnic! A picnic!”
Frisco felt himself smile. A picnic on the beach with Mia. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt such anticipation. And his anticipation was for more than his wanting to see what her bathing suit looked like, although he was feeling plenty of that, too. “I guess that’s a yes. But it shouldn’t be just up to you to bring the food.”
“I’ll make sandwiches,” Mia told him, opening the door. “You guys bring something to drink. Soda. Or beer if you want it.”
“No beer,” Frisco said.
She paused, looking back at him, her hand on the handle of the screen door.
“It’s another one of the rules I’m going to be following from now on,” he said quietly. Natasha had stopped dancing around the room. She was listening, her eyes wide. “No more drinking. Not even beer.”
Mia stepped away from the door, her eyes nearly as wide as Tasha’s. “Um, Tash, why don’t you go put on your bathing suit?”
Silently Tasha vanished down the hallway.
Frisco shook his head. “It’s not that big a deal.”
Mia clearly thought otherwise. She stepped closer to him, lowering her voice for privacy from Tasha’s sensitive ears. “You know, there are support groups all over town. You can find a meeting at virtually any time of