Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Checking the rest of the kids, telling them they all passed, I ordered them to grab a blanket and a pillow and get back to their seats. The chairs were all recliners, and Bodhi and I got up and reclined them all, made sure everyone was situated, and if they needed to be propped up higher, we got them more pillows so they could see before we started the next movie. It was supposed to be Bambi. I gave that a hard no, and we ended up watching Zootopia, which I didn’t mind since it had a law-enforcement component. I had watched it with Lisa’s kids years ago.
“You’re really going to stay down here and watch this movie with the kids?” Angie seemed utterly stunned over this development.
“Yeah, why not?”
“But…” She pointed up. “Drinks and snacks and game night.”
Zach scoffed. “Not game night. That’s not gonna lure anyone away.”
She looked from me to Bodhi and back. “I just don’t want to take advantage.”
“Beat it,” I told her, and she grabbed hold of her husband’s hand and left.
“What’s wrong with you?” Bodhi asked once the movie started.
“Nothing. Be quiet. Backstory is important.”
Leaning sideways in his chair, he gestured to me. I met him halfway. “What?”
“Listen, Stella and her dad, that’s not your crap to fix, yeah?”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t know, not in your heart. I know you, and I know that look on your face, and I know what you’re thinking.”
“Lotta knowing in there.”
“Be serious.”
“I am.”
“I understand precisely what’s going on in your head.”
“You do not.”
He scoffed. “You’re thinking, I could fix this. How can I fix this?”
It was possible I was thinking about that. And about him because, of course, I always thought about him.
“He’s her dad,” Bodhi reminded me, shooting me a look meant to make me use my brain. “She won’t feel like this forever. She’s seven. It’s just, at the moment, her whole life was shaken in a horrible way for several days, and then you show up and voilà, all fixed up. I mean, c’mon, Jed. You saw her, you listened, give her a minute to work it all out.”
“I get it. You know I do.”
“You do and don’t, because you’re the king of downplaying the whole knight-in-shining-armor thing. I don’t understand why you do that, but you always do.”
“Watch the movie.”
“Really?” He shot me a look. “Orders?”
I groaned.
“To stop me from talking and making you feel uncomfortable?”
God, I hoped so. “Maybe just this once? As a favor?”
He was quiet for a moment, which was a surprise.
“I really missed being your partner,” he said but didn’t look at me, and I knew that because I checked to see if he was.
“Me too,” I murmured, not turning to him. “It’s not good without you.”
He grunted, smug and self-satisfied, and I would have hit him if I’d had the energy. When I was fading in and out, Bodhi said that, much like Judy Hopps, he too needed a pen and recording device all in one. He also liked the look of the carrot one she had.
“You’re a child,” I assured him. “You have your phone for that. You can write on it and record conversations.”
“Yeah, but the carrot has pizzazz.”
I glanced at Stella, who looked as concerned as I felt.
The movie went on, and I fell asleep. I woke up to parents coming down and picking up dead-to-the-world children out of chairs. Stella, of course, was not asleep, and when I turned to her, she smiled at me.
“Aren’t you tired?”
She squinted at me. “Why would I be tired?”
“Mark my words, one day you’ll really want to go to bed early and take naps.”
The look I got, like I was nuts, made me smile even though I was trying to glare at her.
“This was so wonderful of you both,” Giles’s wife, Shae, said, moving my attention from Stella as she picked up her middle daughter, Tilly. “It was so nice to not have to worry and know they’re safe.”
“Well, your kid is very sweet,” I told her. “Tilly made sure the blanket covered my feet so I wouldn’t be cold.”
Her tears came fast, because really, it had been a strange day for everyone. She bent down with Tilly in her arms and kissed my forehead. Giles was behind her, carrying his youngest girl, Bedelia, and the oldest, Katherine, who liked to be called Kat.
Giles said, “Jed, I—”
“Go to bed, man. Tomorrow will be a better day.”
After a moment, he nodded and left.
I turned to Bodhi. “For the record, I don’t golf.”
He was sort of half-awake, so he just stared at me a moment. “What?”
“Apparently everyone is going golfing tomorrow, and I don’t do that.”
“So? I don’t do that either.”
“But you always expect me to go with you when you do stupid stuff.”
“Like?”
I glared at him. “Oh, I dunno, the fuh—” There were kids too close that could hear, so I amended, “The time we had to take those two guys to Lexington, Kentucky, and you thought it would be a great idea to go to Mammoth Cave after.”