Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 57034 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57034 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
I was starting to see a lot more vegetables in my future.
But it brought up something we’d talked about at dinner and I was big for the time being, so it was probably the right time to mention it. “I don’t mind that you’re rich, Daddy. You know that, right? I mean, it’s weird and your family is nuts. Oh, your great-aunt Ella said hi and she said you were named after her. Shoot. Getting distracted. Um, where was I?”
“I’m rich and my family is nuts.”
Yes, he was so helpful.
“Thank you.” Okay, back on track. “I don’t mind that you’re rich and have a stressful job. At some point I’m going to have job stress too.”
I was just at the point where I had money stress and those seemed to be mutually exclusive.
“Thank you for not minding the money. I can’t really help it.” He shrugged as we turned the corner to his street. “I’m the only one who can manage it without making stupid decisions, and well, you’ve talked to a lot of them so far and I’m sure you see why they aren’t to be trusted with financial decisions.”
He was rude but he was right.
We just weren’t going to tell anyone about the rude part.
“No, I think you handling it was the best decision and you can’t help being smart and functional.” I leaned into Daddy’s hand as he reached out to stroke my head. “Being poor isn’t helpful to anyone.”
Daddy pressed his lips together and was obviously trying not to laugh.
I sighed and shrugged. “It’s okay to giggle.”
Letting out a slow breath, Daddy managed not to laugh. “First of all, you’re very smart and functional too. We just need to help you figure out some new goals and how you’ll get there. You’re very good with stupid people and stressful people. You also seem to be very good at dealing with customers in general, so I think you’ve got a lot of job options you haven’t thought about.”
Before I could thank him, he squeezed my shoulder and kept going. “Secondly, while I promise not to take over your life in overly annoying ways, we’re going to come to some kind of agreement about the bus. You are on the bus for a ridiculous amount of time some days. It’d have taken you at least forty-five minutes to get home instead of ten minutes by car.”
He’d clearly found the bus app.
“Um, I don’t have a driver’s license, so it’s my only option? I take cabs and stuff like that sometimes but it’s a waste of money to do that all the time when the bus works.” I just had to plan better than car people.
Daddy gave a very rich-person kind of groan and rolled his shoulders as he muttered to himself. “He’s not going to let me get him a driver and those stupid driverless cars still require a driver.”
Well, at least he realized that part on his own?
“We’ll figure out some good options.” He ran his hand over my head one more time before reaching down to pat my thigh. “Yes, we’ll find some reasonable options too.”
So there were good ones and reasonable ones?
Couldn’t they be both?
Dally’s voice in the back of my head popped up and told me not to be stupid.
“Thank you, Daddy.” Yeah, I was going to see what he came up with before I tried to help and ended up with some kind of babysitter who could drive.
“You’re welcome.” Daddy was trying to have good manners but he was still letting out long sighs. “We’ll work it out.”
I was definitely going to end up with a babysitter.
Chapter 14
Elias
I just needed to keep him safe, well-fed, and to make sure he got enough sleep. It couldn’t be that hard.
Repeating my new mantra over and over as we headed inside hadn’t helped make it more believable, but I wasn’t scaring Milo, so I thought that was a good sign.
“How about I get my jammies on and we read a book?” Searching the house as we walked into the living room, he bounced on his feet, wiggling more as he frantically thought about ways to distract me. “We haven’t cuddled today. I haven’t gotten enough kisses.”
Before I could decide if I was going to laugh or roll my eyes, he tried again. “We could watch a movie? Have a date night? You could put on a show you like? Oh, we could find a documentary to watch together.”
“You are not staying up late, so no movies.” My firm tone had him smiling sweetly. “I can’t decide if you’re looking cute to manipulate me or if you’re glad you’ve distracted me.”
“Both.” His honest answer came with a cute cheek kiss. “But you’re cute when you take care of me.”
“Brat.” That got a giggle from him as he wrapped himself around me. “But my brat needs a keeper.”