“The principal ran straight into the flagpole because he was staring at Mom. He had a big bump on his forehead all day.” Maddie wrinkled her nose.

Clearly Vaughan needed to accompany Kelly the next time she went to school.

“Your mother is impossible not to look at.” The first time he’d seen her had been at some ridiculous Manhattan shindig. Rock stars and models milling around, drinks in hand, and there she’d been, in this dress—a shining, shimmering gold thing—skimming her body, the material catching the light as she moved. That night she’d looked like an avenging angel; her hair had been slicked back, away from her face. No jewelry, just all that skin, that body and the golden dress.

“I saw your mom across the room at a party. I wanted to know who she was but didn’t get the chance to meet her that night. And then I saw her in a magazine on the airplane coming home from the East Coast. She was in this dress that looked like a flower.” He could still remember that shot. “I arranged through a mutual friend to get an okay to call her and introduce myself.”

Kensey and Maddie’s attention had locked on, not often getting those details. Neither of them were old enough to remember their parents being together. Another mistake he needed to make up for.

“Where did you go on your first date?” Kensey asked.

“He bought me street meat and we went to a movie afterward,” Kelly answered, a smile in her tone.

“I’m still not entirely sure what Lost in Translation was about,” Vaughan admitted.

“Daddy, you bought your date a hot dog?” Maddie shook her head.

Vaughan thought back to that night. “I know! But luckily, she forgave that error. It was late. Your uncles and I were in New York making a music video.”

“I was flying to London that following morning for fashion week.”

He’d followed her, but that part of the story wasn’t necessarily something he’d share with the girls. Not without some heavy editing.

“I called her and she came down to where we’d been filming. I offered her something way better than meat stewing in water in a cart all day.” She’d shown up from a shoot of her own. Effortlessly beautiful and glamorous. At home in New York on her own in ways he still hadn’t managed when staying in Manhattan.

He’d expected her to be fussy but found her to be incredibly down-to-earth, even as she managed to dominate the world she worked in. Intense and ambitious even as she could be obsessive and melancholy about her place in the world apart from what she looked like.

“Don’t impugn street meat that way.” Kelly laughed. “There are days when I’d like nothing more than to get a dog on the way home from work. Don’t worry, girls, he took me to nice places, too.”

They’d gone to a movie because he hadn’t wanted her to think all he wanted was to get her naked. When, in truth, there was little else he could think about as they sat, side by side in a movie theater at nearly midnight.

He’d started to kiss her in the cab, on the way to her apartment and then there’d been little else but his hands and mouth on her, being inside her, over her, under her, laughing and coming harder than he ever had or had with anyone since.

“She got on a plane that next morning and I managed to make it a whole day before I was also on a plane to London.”

Maddie’s attention hadn’t wandered at all. “You chased her?”

“Your mom was a star when we met. She traveled more than I did. But I liked being around her a lot. Way more than not being around her so yes, I showed up at Heathrow, called her and found myself surrounded by the insanity of fashion week.”

They’d conceived Maddie in Paris and married a month later in a private ceremony at Kelly’s Manhattan town house.

“We seen pitchers of you two from back then. Uncle Paddy has lots and lots of pitchers at his house.” Kensey wiped her mouth on her napkin as she finished her dinner.

“Ugh, Kensey! We saw pictures. You drink from pitchers. You look at pictures,” Maddie said with a very big-sister attitude.

Kensey’s face was a near perfect imitation of one Kelly had used on Vaughan several times over the past week. Annoyed. Incredulous.

Kelly clapped her hands and the brewing spat dissipated as they turned to their mother. “Enough walking down memory lane for now.” Kelly stood and began to clear the plates. The girls jumped up to help.

“Tell us more,” Maddie begged as they began to put away leftovers.

“Like what?” Kelly asked. “When he called me the first time I thought he was actually your uncle Damien. I said no, but I was sad because I thought his brother was actually pretty cute.”

Kensey giggled behind her hands.

“I realized she thought I was the wrong brother right as I was hanging up. I clarified which brother I was and then she said I could call her the next time I was in New York.”

“Tough luck for Uncle Damien, I guess.”

Vaughan agreed. He kissed Maddie’s head as he brought the last of the dishes over from the table. “I’m going to take the trash out when you’re done in here.”

Kelly looked up from where she stood at the sink. “Okay, thanks. Can you move the clothes from the washing machine to the dryer, please?”

He realized he was actually excited to be asked. “You got it.”

* * *

BY THE TIME he came back downstairs, the girls met him as they came up.

“Don’t forget to brush your teeth before your showers,” Kelly called out.