Chapter 33

"Good morning, my little goddesses." As he says that Christopher is taking pictures of them as they wake up. It is way too adorable of a moment to pass up such an opportunity. "What do we want for breakfast today?"

"Pancakes!"

"Pancakes, what a surprise. Do you like pancakes, Hannah?" She nods and smiles sleepily but prettily. "Pancakes it is." As Christopher is going to the kitchen Hannah pulls him to a stop. "Yes?" says Christopher, kneeling before her. She doesn't say anything, she just hugs him hard. He looks over and sees Sarah smiling and he holds out his other arm to her. She comes over and joins the morning embrace. "Well." he says, patting their bottoms. "You girls are going to spoil me."

As they are eating breakfast the girls get right to business. "What are we going to work on today?" asks Hannah, with her mouth half full of pancakes.

"Hmm, I will definitely be done with Hannah's diving platform today, so I guess for today we'll work on our turns."

"Yeah," says Sarah, all excited.

They start eating faster. "Girls, it is only nine o'clock in the morning. Let's give it at least another hour to warm up outside, so you girls do whatever it is little girls do in the mornings and I will clean up, and then I have a few new notes to put down for my next novel. It appears another princess has shown up in the kingdom."

"I will wash the dishes." offers Hannah.

"You will?"

"Uh huh."

"I'll dry."

Christopher looks at these two beautiful little girls, and the only thing that outshines their pretty faces is their beautiful hearts. "Okay, I'll jot down a few things and then we'll get to work." As Christopher is heading over to the computer desk that is now along the stair's wall, he stops at the corner and watches the girls for a minutes as they get to work on the dishes still wearing their Harley shirts. He shakes his head and smiles.

"So much wonder, so much grace. From their beautiful hearts shines the ability to heal and erase moments better left behind. A smile here, a hug there. They are the true divinity in a world of beauty. Love and support them and they will shine. How wonderful it is when they share of themselves so openly, that you know everything is going to be just fine."

After Christopher writes a few notes for his next book, Christopher is flipping through the channels to see if an early baseball game is going to be on. Sarah comes up and stands in his way. She crosses her arms and taps her foot. "It's ten thirty now. It is warm enough to swim."

"Fine. Sarah, why don't you run over and check on Nana real quick before we begin."

"I'll go, too." Hannah is doing everything to be helpful to show her appreciation for being treated like family.

"She's fine," says Sarah after checking, as the girls start running upstairs to change.

"Put on your competition swimsuits for this practice." Christopher quickly looks over the rules to see what you can and can't do in the turns, and now he remembers why he didn't really want to get into any of this until after the first practice. "Oh well."

After they stretch, he gets in the water with them and goes on what he has seen in the Olympics. He tries about twenty of them on his own until he thinks he's got the gist of it, and then he grabs Sarah around the waist and puts her through the motions about ten times. Once it appears she's got it down he does the same with Hannah. Eventually the girls are working with each other, so Christopher gets out and goes and works on Hannah's dive platform.

In between each cut or assembly he has the girls expand their progress. "Okay, girls, now start at the far end, swim to the other end and do your turn and then swim back to the beginning. Do that for a while."

Just as he is putting the non-slip padding on the platform, Sarah says, "My legs are getting tired."

"Okay, take a ten minute break and then we'll start working on your leg conditioning." As Christopher is putting the dive platform on the deep side of the pool, he sees Hannah staring at him after she gets out of the pool. "Yes."

She smiles and shakes her head. "Nothing."

"Ah, I see." He walks over to her with his own smile and picks her up and hugs the stuffing out of her. Then he kisses her cheek and sets her back down. "You girls ready to start working again?" By way of answering him they jump into the pool. "Okay, face the edge and put your hands on the edge and start paddling. A little harder. Okay, now do that for another five minutes."

"Five minutes!"

"Okay, ten."

"Sarah!"

"Well!"

"No mater how much it burns, don't stop." As Christopher disappears into the house there are two cute little girls busting their cute little tushies. They give each other a comical look.

Christopher takes his time in the house, and by the time he comes back out the girls have their upper bodies up on the patio, but their little legs are kicking for all that they are worth. "Has it been five minutes yet? My tush is starting to hurt."

"Oh yeah, that was up a couple of minutes ago." They stop in unison and give him a dirty look.

They are trying to drag themselves out of the pool and Christopher can't help but laugh. With Christopher's help Sarah stands up rubbing her tush and legs. After he helps Hannah up, who also is rubbing her tush, he kneels in front of them and says, "You girls worked special hard today. You have earned a special present."

"Really, what is it?" asks Hannah, excitedly.

"I don't know. I will let you girls decide." They both hug him and he puts his hands on their bottoms and thighs and rubs them. The girls just melt into him, putting all their weight on him letting him rub their soreness out.

"No, don't stop."

"Sorry, I have a few more things to write down. Why don't you girls relax in the sun for a bit and figure it out."

"Can it be anything?"

"Pretty much."

The girls get all excited and start talking with each other, while Christopher goes back into the house. When he comes back out again the girls are laying on the recliners on their stomachs.

"Did you figure it out yet?"

"Guess what?"

"What?"

"Hannah has never been to the ocean and the beach."

"Okay, we will go to the beach then." Both of them are happy, but Hannah is really excited.

"Can we go tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow is the first day of practice. We will go Thursday."