Dr. Bryce Lahela looks a little out of place, sitting crisscross applesauce on a plush sky blue carpet in his white coat and surgical scrubs. He’s also much bigger than the small children he’s surrounded by. But it’s not an unfamiliar sight for the staff of the Edenbrook daycare center. Dr. Lahela tends to stop by a lot nowadays.
The kids all love him, as evident from their rapt attention as he reads aloud from ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’.
“On Thursday, he ate through four strawberries, but he was still hungry.” Bryce reads emphatically, holding the book out so his rapt audience can all see the illustrations.
Dr. Zaid Mirani enters the brightly painted room, nodding at the daycare center director. “Hey Claudia, I’m signing out Gabriella for the day.” He announces.
“You might have to wait a minute, she seems to be pretty entranced with storytime.” Claudia reveals.
Zaid looks around the corner, spotting Bryce amongst Edenbrook staff’s toddlers and babies. Zaid can’t help but roll his eyes. “Oh for crying out loud, again?!?” Last time Bryce did this, Zaid had to wait twenty whole minutes for him to finish the book since his daughter refused to leave without throwing a fit.
“On Saturday he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon.” Bryce reads with an incredulous tone.
Gabriella tskks, leaning over to whisper to Sienna and Danny’s 2 year old son. “So greedy.”
Zaid checks his watch. He really needs to get home to Ines and their newborn. He clears his throat, gesturing for Gabriella to come over. She shakes her head no, short pigtails swinging.
Zaid frowns, walking over now and interrupting Bryce mid sentence. “If you don’t mind Dr. Lahela, Gabriella is needed at home.”
“But she’s going to miss the moral of the story Zaid! You don’t want that, do you?” Bryce returns.
“Daddy! I want the moral!” His toddler insists.
“Princess, I’ll read the book to you at home.” Zaid insists.
Gabriella pouts. “But I want to hear Dr. Lahela read ittttttt.” She whines.
“You can’t deprive Gabriella of Dr. Lahela storytime Dr. Mirani! She’ll be left out of all the daycare water cooler talk!” Bryce insists, complete with charming smile that just irritates Zaid more if anything.
Zaid is about to retort, but he’s interrupted. “Bryce!” Casey calls out irritably. Zaid really enjoys watching the smile fall off Bryce’s face.
“Uh oh.” Bryce mutters, lifting his 6 month old daughter Kehlani from his lap up to his face to hide behind as Casey storms into the room from the hallway.
“She’s never going to get used to daycare if you keep doing this Bryce!” Casey insists. They just enrolled Kehlani two weeks ago, after Casey took four months of maternity leave, followed with Bryce taking two months of paternity leave.
“But if I don’t come by every couple of hours, she might forget who I am!” Bryce argues, ridiculously. You’d think he’d been on paternity leave for more like two years based on how ridiculously attached he got.
“Don’t you have surgeries to do?” Zaid cuts in.
“Yes, thank you Dr. Mirani! You have a job to do Bryce.” Casey adds.
“There’s no job more important than being Kehlani Lahela’s daddy.” Bryce retorts, pressing a kiss to the top of Kehlani’s dark curls.
“Well that’s cute and all, but it’s time to get back to the job you’re paid to do. Give me our baby.” Casey insists. She has a very hard time being stern with him when he says cute things like that, but her husband really needs to stop visiting the daycare center multiple times a day. For his sake as well as Kehlani’s.
Bryce sighs, getting to his feet and reluctantly handing Kehlani over to her mother. He bends down to press a kiss to his daughter’s forehead. “I’ll come back to finish the story later.” He mutters to Kehlani under his breath.
“I heard that Bryce.” Casey retorts.
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