Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 57188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Layla gasped. “You said a bad word.”
“I know,” I sighed and offered up a sheepish smile. “I meant it but I’m sorry you had to hear it.”
She shrugged. “Mom and Dad said bad words all the time but Mom said I couldn’t say them until I turned sixteen.” Her silver-blue eyes took on a faraway expression for a minute before she dropped it and replaced it with a frown. “Did I do something to make you mad, Uncle Brady?”
“Of course not, kiddo. You’re the best.” Toni’s words came back to me and my jaw clenched. She was right. Again. “Look Layla, even when do make me mad and act like a brat, you’re not going anywhere. Except maybe to your room. We’re a family and that means we’re stuck with each other even when you make me mad and even when I make you mad. Got it?”
“Yeah,” she smiled. “I got it, Uncle Brady.” She continued to smile as she returned to her dinner but her fingers twitched the way Marnie’s used to when she was gearing up to ask for a favor.
A favor. I hated that fucking word. “Talk to me, kiddo. What’s up?”
Layla nibbled her bottom lip and sighed. “I want to learn to play guitar. I’m already learning but it’s time for me to have a guitar of my own.”
I smiled at the way she said it, as if it was a direct quote from someone else. “You want guitar lessons too?”
Her eyes darted left and then right before she found her courage and sat taller, confident as she answered. “I do. I’ll be good and eat all my veggies and whatever else I need to do.”
“You don’t need to do anything extra, Layla. All I ask is that you give lessons a fair shot. If it gets too hard, don’t just quit, okay?”
“I won’t. I promise.”
“Then yes, we’ll get you a guitar of your very own.”
Her smile lit up spectacularly and in that moment she looked just like my sister. “Thank you, Uncle Brady! Thank you so much.” She darted from her chair and ran around the table, slamming into me with a hug and a dozen kisses all over my face. “I love you and not just because you’re getting me a guitar.”
I laughed and hugged her back. “I love you too, Layla, and not just because you said you love me first.”
She giggled and squeezed me a little tighter. “Toni said you loved me but you didn’t know how to show it yet.”
Toni. Was there anything the woman didn’t do well? “She was right.” Again.
After dinner, I settled Layla in bed with a story and cleaned the kitchen but none of it was enough to burn off the nervous energy that made sleep impossible. I couldn’t stop thinking about Toni, wondering what she was doing and thinking. I wondered what she was feeling. Had she thought about me at all?
Did she miss me?
I knocked on her door quietly, leaning close but there was no answer. I frowned and even though it was a gross breach of privacy, I pushed open the door to make sure she hadn’t just left.
She hadn’t.
She was curled up on the bed, still dressed, deep asleep.
Tomorrow. I would try again tomorrow and I wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Chapter 26
Toni
Iwoke up an hour early, or rather my body woke me up an hour before my alarm clock was scheduled to go off as my stomach tried to kick its way out of my midsection. My body was coated in a thin sheen of sweat and every time I tried to sit up, my stomach lurched did a high-kick and then a back flip before it lurched again. Moisture coated the inside of my mouth and I tried to swallow to get rid of the taste of nausea. “Mistake,” I shouted to myself and jumped from the bed, making a beeline to my bathroom.
A few minutes of heaving later and I didn’t feel better exactly but I no longer felt like I was going to be sick. It was just a general feeling of pure crap so I washed my face, put my hair up in a bun and tried to get dressed for the day. Try being the operative word since my stomach did another twirl and dance before I found myself bent over the toilet once again. After the third visit to the toilet I was really tempted to tell Brady that I couldn’t work today but I knew more accusations would fly so I dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, grabbed a bottle of sparkling water and went in search of my charge.
“Good morning, Toni!” Layla bounced in her chair with a welcoming smile.
“Good morning. Did you sleep well?’
She nodded. “I had a dream about my mom and me and I wasn’t sad about it.”