Morningside Cuesta daddy lessons

"Who's hidin'?" he asked, rolling to his paws and mouthing at one of her dark, velvety ears. His own ears flickered forward and then back as he contemplated her words. Perhaps he had been a bit distant with his own children, when they were young. But things would be different now; better than before. Day swallowed back a knot that tried to rise up in his throat, determined to keep his good mood.

"We're gonna smother 'em silly," he said firmly. "These kids are gonna have so much love they won't know what to do with it. Dawn, too. This time, we're gonna do it right. Right?"

He gazed at her, impoloring, needing to know that this was the way things would be. He didn't necessarily want to spoil them, but he wanted them to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that their parents loved them. He didn't want more sons running off all alone.