Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“Is that so?” Pike arched a brow and shot Tulsi a look she felt all the way down to the tips of her toes.
Her mouth went dry as visions of all the naughty things she and Pike had done together cantered through her thoughts like a herd of runaway horses, shaking the ground beneath her. Thankfully, Clementine broke the charged silence before Tulsi’s knees could get too weak.
“Please, Mama,” she said, wadding the doll clothes as she clasped her fingers under her chin. “I promise to be so good everyone will think I’m an angel come down from heaven. Just please, please, please let me go to camp.”
“We’ll talk about this outside,” Tulsi said, circling one hand as she prepared to herd Clementine out the door, needing to get them both away from Pike ASAP.
“You’re going to say no!” Clem moaned, tears rising in her eyes. “I can tell you are!”
Tulsi sighed, realizing her attempts to take the conversation somewhere more private were futile. “If I say yes, you have to promise not to run off while you’re there. You stay with the counselors and the other girls in your cabin. Do you understand me?”
Clementine nodded vigorously.
“And it’s church camp, so no taking the name of the Lord in vain, and no ‘flipping,’” Tulsi added with a hard look. “Everyone will know what you’re really meaning to say and they will be shocked.”
“You say flipping,” Clem said, her bottom lip pushing out.
“I am a grown up!” Tulsi shook her head in frustration. “Honestly, Clementine, how many times do we need to have this conversation? You are six, not sixteen. If you can’t remember that, you’re going to be in trouble once school starts. Your teacher won’t put up with the attitude.”
“I know, I know. You’re right.” Clementine said, backtracking now that it was obvious Tulsi had started to lose her temper. “I’m sorry, Mama.” Clem ran across the room and threw her arms around Tulsi’s waist. “I’ll be good, cross my heart and hope to die. Just please let me go. It’s all I ever wanted in my whole entire life.”
Tulsi sighed as she smoothed her hand over Clem’s silky hair, her daughter’s hug melting her anger the way it always did. “All right, drama queen,” she said softly. “Let’s get going. Hopefully, the bus hasn’t left without you.”
“Can I bring Monster Princess’s clothes, too?” Clem asked, already shoving them into the open duffel near Tulsi’s hip. “I know they said no toys, but these aren’t toys, they’re accessories.”
“Fine. But we need to go with a capital G.” Tulsi turned to Pike, pulse pounding all over again as their eyes met. “Thanks for keeping an eye on her.”
“No problem,” he said, the warmth in his voice making her chest ache. “It was nice to meet the infamous Clementine. Mia’s told me so much about her.”
“Bye, Mr. Pike,” Clem called, waving as she pulled Tulsi toward the door. “We can hang out more when I get back from camp. We’ll play poker for candy so make sure you stock up.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it.” Pike grinned at Clementine before shifting his gaze to Tulsi, his smile remaining firmly in place. “See you around, Tuls. Don’t be a stranger.”
“Oh-okay,” Tulsi stammered.
She fought the urge to frown until she and Clem were back outside, but as soon as the shop’s front door closed behind them, her brows snapped together like opposite sides of a magnet. What the heck was that? That smile? That easy, breezy smile that made it seem like Tulsi was just an old friend Pike was glad to run into while he was back in town? What had happened to the pain and loathing from yesterday? Had she imagined it or read something personal into an unrelated foul mood?
Tulsi shook her head as she and Clem hustled down the sidewalk toward the bus. No, she hadn’t imagined it. Pike had practically glared a hole through her forehead. If looks could kill, she would have been lying beside the road, bleeding from multiple stare wounds.
So what had changed? What had happened between last night and this morning to banish the loathing in Pike’s eyes?
“I have to talk to Mia,” Tulsi mumbled, tugging her phone out of her jeans pocket.
“What?” Clementine panted, out of breath from taking two steps for every one of Tulsi’s.
“Nothing, baby.” Tulsi forced a smile as she tapped out a quick text to Mia asking her to give a call when she was up. “Just thinking out loud.”
“Grandpa says only crazy people do that,” Clem said.
Tulsi tucked her phone back into her pocket with a roll of her eyes. “Grandpa has a lot of big opinions. That doesn’t mean they’re the truth.”
Clementine nodded. “Opinions. Everyone’s got one.”
Tulsi laughed. “Yes, but don’t say that at camp, either.”
“Why?” Clementine asked. “It doesn’t have any bad words in it.”