Connor felt his entire body relax when Maddie accepted his cuddle and melted into his arms, he cuddled her tightly and nodded, trying to squash his chuckle when she answered his question "I get that, Maddie" Connor replied honestly, she was only eight years old, after all, getting into trouble was probably the worst outcome she could imagine without realizing that it wouldn't just go away "Well, next time-" Connor paused and thought carefully about how to word his sentence "Not that I expect there to be a next time" Connor finished firmly. he knew that it certainly wouldn't be the last time that they would have this discussion but he didn't want her to think he was condoning it either "If there is. I promise you i'll understand. You will be in trouble. However, you will be in a lot less trouble than you are now. Does that make sense?" Connor explained gently, he pushed Maddie away slightly to reassure her that he still loved her and everything would be okay, chuckling when she replied that she loved him too.
His face lit up when he heard her giggle and saw a smile spread across her face as he suggested ice cream, he stood up and cheered alongside her; earning him a smile from the staff at reception before taking her hand and heading towards his car. "A lot of chocolate?" Connor repeated questioningly, pretending to think about it seriously as he unlocked the car, threw his and Maddie's backpacks into the backseat and climbed in the front alongside Maddie, he ensured that she was buckled up safely before buckling up himself and putting his key in the ignition, carefully pulling out of the school carpark. He had dropped Maddie off at school earlier that morning and decided to leave his car there, walking up the hill to his own school as he often did; rather than trying to fight for a parking space at the high school. "You can have as much chocolate as you want, Maddie. As long as it's a bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce and not a bowl of chocolate sauce with some ice cream" Connor replied teasingly, he had a slight cheek to tease her because he was just as bad with caramel sauce but the ice cream parlour served the most amazing sauce and quite a good array of ice cream choices.
Connor watched Maddie fiddle with his radio out the corner of his eye, he quickly checked that she was still wearing her seatbelt before he chuckled as she started singing along to a pop song; it wasn't exactly his cup of tea and he couldn't wait to arrive at the ice cream parlour but he wasn't going to complain as she was behaving. They arrived at the ice cream parlour around ten minutes later, admittedly with a small headache and he quickly parked the car and hopped out "Maddie. Remember to wait for me" Connor said quickly, they had to head through the car park in order to get to the entrance and he didn't want her getting hurt by people speeding to get a parking space, he opened the back door and reached into his backpack to fish out his wallet before ensuring that Maddie was out of the car and locked it.
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