Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56560 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56560 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
I was totally screwed.
****
“Leander pointed out something I hadn’t thought about.” Cool and calm—it wouldn’t help the situation if I was as dramatic as he’d been. “Your family is Italian and they eat lots of noodles. Pasta. They eat pasta.”
Did grown-ups say noodles?
Did Italian grown-ups say noodles?
Daddy stood in the doorway blinking for a few seconds before he nodded. “Yes, I can see how that would be stressful from your point of view.”
I was really glad he wasn’t as stupid as his cousins.
“I think my family is just going to assume you’re playful and a bit interesting, though.” Daddy must’ve seen the skepticism on my face because he almost smiled. “I’m going to have Orlando tell his mother about how smart you are.”
Oh.
“Leander says really smart people see the world differently.” It almost sounded like a compliment but most of the time when he said that it was him muttering to himself and rolling his eyes. He and God kept having discussions about that too.
“I like how you see things and I think you’re cute.” Daddy shrugged. “But we’re going to use that logic to make my family ignore anything that might make them curious otherwise.”
Hmm.
“So I do something weird and one of your cousins is just going to shrug and say, ‘Huh, smart people are interesting,’ and we all move on with the conversation?” It might work.
Maybe.
“I’m going to try really hard to fit in and not be rude.” I’d end up being rude somehow but I was going to try.
Daddy gave me a sexy glare. “Come here.”
Yay.
I was all for snuggles or spanks or cuddles or attention.
It was a bit too close to the afternoon for me to be getting much done anyway. “Yes, Daddy.”
Bouncing up from my chair, I hurried around my desk and crashed into his chest. “We need a plan for when I call you Daddy instead of Enzo. I haven’t used that word enough.”
Daddy managed not to laugh but his chest jerked a few times and sent sparks through me.
Oops.
“You can’t laugh around them either. You know that, right?” I thought that rule would be very obvious but Daddy went very still. “You hadn’t thought about that part.”
“You need more comfy Daddy chairs around the house.” Daddy seemed to have decided to be stubborn and weird too because he ignored the new problem and picked me up like I was a pile of lumber. “Let’s go to the playroom.”
“Toys don’t fix everything, Daddy. Just most things.” And I wasn’t sure this was one of those things.
“Cuddles will fix the rest, though.” Daddy wasn’t even breathing hard when he reached the playroom, but he nodded toward the door. “I don’t have enough hands.”
Giggling, I was a good boy and opened the door. “There you go, Daddy.”
Ugh.
“Enzo.”
Yes, I could remember that.
Daddy snorted. “You’re never going to remember that.”
“It’d be nice if you lie to me about that. If you tell your brain positive things, it will be easier for it to remember to do positive things.” Scrunching my eyes closed, I took a deep breath as Daddy sat us down in his chair. “I’m going to remember to call Daddy Enzo. I’m going to remember his name is Enzo.”
He snickered.
The shiver he sent through me again didn’t help the situation. “That’s naughty.”
And he giggled.
“I know.” He was behaving badly, but he kissed my cheek. “You just look so cute, though.”
Curling into him, I sighed. “What will they say if I call you Daddy?”
“That you’re not as weird as this second cousin I have that spent most of his early teen years pretending to be a horse at every family event?” Daddy said that with such a relaxed tone it took me a few seconds to realize it wasn’t the answer I’d been expecting.
“Huh?” Sitting up, I frowned at him as he shrugged. “Really? But just like one of those kids who’s really into horses, right? I knew a girl like that who all she wanted to do was ride. I think horses might have one of those weird parasites that make you like them better. Like cats. But I just haven’t gotten around to learning how to study it.”
There just weren’t enough hours in the day sometimes.
Daddy blinked a few times. “That would actually make a lot of sense, but no. He didn’t ride and wasn’t pretending to be a jockey.”
Oh.
“What did the rest of the family do?” Had they been mean to him?
“Brought lots of carrots and apples to the family dinners and then worked the gossip grapevine to fix him up with a woman who wears a startling amount of leather. No one has asked what they do in their spare time but he’s not a pony at family dinner anymore.”
Because he was getting that need filled elsewhere.
“I’m a human even when I’m interesting.” So maybe they wouldn’t notice. “I like carrots and apples, though, so if they get confused, it’ll be fine.”