Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 122966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
Basically, it was a weekend of never letting Grace out of my sight, because she wanted to touch everything and put it in her mouth.
When I crawled into our tent for the last night, I couldn’t fucking wait to go home. Darius and Ethan were the only ones who stayed up to drink and shoot the shit around the fire outside the cabin. The rest had retired. Mary, James, and the sisters were cozying it up indoors. Lias and Evelina were in their own tent. Ryan hadn’t been able to make it, but they were visiting us in Camassia in a couple weeks instead.
“Ba-ba-ba,” Grace said through a yawn.
“Yeah, everything is ba-ba,” I chuckled tiredly. “You know what would make Daddy happy? If you said Dada instead.”
“Ba-ba!” she laughed.
I shook my head in amusement and helped her into her pajamas. I’d already changed her diaper in the cabin, because fuck if I was doing it out here.
“You ready to sleep?” I dimmed the camping lantern I’d attached to the pole by our pillows.
“Uh-uh.” She shook her head and threw herself at me.
I grinned and kissed the side of her head. She was about as steady as Darius when he was drunk off his ass, but she was getting there. She’d be able to stand on her own without gripping my shoulders soon.
“Daddy’s sleepy, though.” I continued pressing kisses to her hair, to her cheeks, to her cute little nose. “Okay, so you’re just gonna use the air mattress as your personal bouncy castle?”
She was my little weirdo. She stood in between my legs and bounced on the mattress while simultaneously hugging my neck. And did she think I couldn’t hear her yawns just because I couldn’t see her face right now?
“Time to lie down, baby. Otherwise, we can’t have our sleepover.” I unlocked her arms from around me and brought her tiny hands to my lips. “Tomorrow, we’re gonna go in the car again.”
She loved riding in the car, for some reason.
“Mister?”
Grace gasped, her eyes lighting up, and I mirrored her expression.
“We know who that is,” I whispered. “It’s Pipsqueak.”
“Ba-ba!” She pointed at the closed entrance.
I chuckled and addressed Pipsqueak. “Yeah, hon? You can come in. But don’t let the bugs in with you.”
Because Grace would find a way to eat them.
Pipsqueak laughed softly and unzipped the entrance, then quickly crawled in and closed it again.
“Ba-ba-ba-ba!” Grace made a leap for Pipsqueak and crawled the last bit.
“Hi, sweetheart.” Pipsqueak sat down on the bottom corner of the air mattress that covered the whole floor, and she gave Grace all her attention. “Can’t you sleep either?”
Ah, maybe it was too hot again. Last night, Pipsqueak had visited under the guise of reading Grace a bedtime story, and then she’d confessed that she was callously using us for the cooler air. It’d made me laugh. Mostly because while the tent was perfectly chilly now, to the point where crawling into a big sleeping bag felt great, it turned into a sauna as soon as the sun rose.
Pipsqueak was in another one of my T-shirts, and it seemed to be the only thing she was wearing. Unless her shorts had disappeared somewhere under my shirt.
“How many of my tees have you stolen by now?” I asked, amused.
She didn’t miss a beat. “I haven’t stolen them. I’ve just permanently borrowed them, and in my defense, Darius barged into my room the other day and took his back. What’s a girl to do?”
Valid excuse to rob me, then.
I chuckled and got under the sleeping bag. I’d bought one of those double ones so Grace and I could share, but after discovering that she found it hilarious to crawl into the pit of it, I’d decided to leave it open. We had a sheet and two blankets too.
“Grace, come here so I can put on your beanie.” I dug it out from under her pillow, along with her pacifier. “You riding home with us tomorrow, hon?”
Pipsqueak hummed as Grace crawled over to me, gaze fixed on her pacifier. “Are you going to turn the entire journey into a history lesson and call it a ‘fun car game’ again?”
What the hell? “My quizzes are the highlight of every road trip,” I said defensively. “Lias and Evelina enjoyed it.”
“They endured it.” She widened her eyes at me. “Nobody but you and Darius and Dad gives a rat’s ass about the Treaty of Versailles. And whether or not the treaty was a failure.”
Fuck, she hit where it hurt.
I’d give her so much shit if she hadn’t just graduated from high school with excellent grades.
“It was a failure,” I muttered to myself and lay down.
Grace thought that was an invitation to climb up and sit on my stomach.
Pipsqueak snickered and snuck closer, and she stretched out alongside me and patted the empty spot between us. “Wanna come here and cuddle, Grace?”