<div class="floatleft">(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v2pH5SfaC70/XWUChtqFPEI/AAAAAAAAaQU/BjcSUAJshd8fVjYTLTUDSB2zmoMFQQySgCLcBGAs/s1600/18.%2BSydney%252C%2BAustralia.jpg)</div><br/><br/><strong>Name:</strong>Erin Sinclair<br/><strong>Date/Time:</strong>June 3, late morning<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Grocery store<br/><strong>Mood:</strong>tolerant to stunned. Just amazed.<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Babygirl<br/><hr/><hr/><br/>Smiling down at the girl, Mommy was almost just as excited about the upcoming celebration as her precious little daughter. "Yes! Soon! I can't wait, and it will be the best birthday ever! I know Daddy and I are super excited!" Taking Celeste's hands, Erin twirled the adorable sweetie, leaning into the hug, enthusiastically returning the kiss. Erin had screened the many applicants very carefully... A certain amount of financial support was part of the deal, but she fully knew that wasn't why Celeste was with her and Mar. It was about emotions, the healing of old wounds, the attention and care. Love, and parents who loved her enough to create rules, enforce the discipline and structure that darling babygirl had lacked. The pool and the college 'scholarship' were perks, and great ones. But they were just bonuses, and Celeste would have joined the couple if they lived in a trailer in the country. Because money couldn't buy the strict but loving parents the college girl needed.<br/><br/>Erin let out a started noise as the cold, hard metal of the cart intruded on her deliberations. Whirling around, the redhead scanned the aisle, fully ready to scold some mother for not watching her child, or smile and joke with some sweet old lady who needed a stronger glasses prescription. Instead, there was only.... Celeste, her own daughter.<br/><br/>Moving her gaze from the cart to the girl, Erin, Mommy, just seemed confused. She couldn't figure out what had just happened. Little Celeste just didn't seem to be acting like the bump had been an accident. Surely her daughter knew better? Surely? The older woman's gaze drifted down the cart again, lingering on the three ..  three!!! Boxes of forbidden treats, dumped casually on top like they belonged there. Then she lifted her steady, unwavering emerald gaze to stare directly into her little girl's lovely eyes. "Yes dear, what can I do for you?" She said, quietly, calmly. The stillness of a pond in winter, where temperatures could drop to lethal degrees in seconds, the footing was treacherous, and cutting winds could lash in from nowhere at any second. Celeste was in at least two kinds of trouble, but Mommy was going to give her a chance to come up with an extraordinary good explanation....  Or possibly dig herself deeper.