Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
I grinned at her. “I think you mentioned needing a phone, but tell me, does an eight-year-old really need a phone?”
She nodded enthusiastically, as did my daughter.
“We really do.”
I rolled my eyes and looked down at TJ, who was sucking on his paci without a word of protest. The champ.
I sighed. “I’ll think about it.”
Reggie grinned. “In that case, yes, I forgive you.”
I wish it was going to be that easy to deal with her mother.
A mother who was staring at me over her shoulder like I’d just promised her daughter a one-way trip straight to hell.
Shit.
Deeper and deeper I went.
Her eyes fell to TJ who was happily chilling in my arms and then back to my face before she turned around and started washing the dishes again.
“You want some bacon and eggs?” I asked her.
That I could make fast, and I knew that she liked them.
Hannah shrugged.
“I managed to go get Bear’s Smokehouse bacon on the way home…”
Hannah’s shoulders slumped slightly.
“And I got buttermilk. I can make pancakes,” I continued.
Hannah sighed.
Still she didn’t speak.
So that was either one of two things. Yes or no.
I decided to go with yes and went about getting the electric skillet out and plugging it in before I got the bacon out.
I shifted TJ up to my shoulder and bounced him lightly as I used one hand to open the bacon and start setting it out on the quickly heating surface.
The bacon sizzled, filling the room with noise, as Reggie and Alex continued to talk about the benefits of having a phone as an eight-year-old.
They were on number seven, which was being able to call me or Hannah anytime they wanted—and yes this was number seven instead of number one—when Hannah shut off the sink, signaling the end of the dishes.
“You all right with him for a little while?”
I nodded, but needn’t have bothered. She was already walking out of the room by the time my head started to nod an affirmative.
“Can I have some bacon?”
I looked over to see both girls staring at me.
“Didn’t y’all just eat?” I queried, eyeing their trash.
Reggie nodded. “We did, but we’re still hungry.”
Of course, they were.
I added six more pieces of bacon to the skillet before transferring TJ over to the other arm.
He was heavy for two months old, but I guess that was my fault, too.
I was a big kid growing up, and it was more likely than not that TJ would be, too.
The paci came out of TJ’s mouth when I moved him, causing him to start winding up for a good scream. Luckily, I was able to bend down, pick it up, and pop it back into his mouth.
“Mommy doesn’t like when I give that to him when it hit the floor,” Reggie pointed out.
“What Mommy doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” I told her.
“I heard that.”
I winced and looked over my shoulder to see Hannah striding into the room.
She was now dressed in loose wide-legged pants, a gray ribbed tank top, and white socks.
She wasn’t wearing a bra, and I instantly felt my reaction to her in the way my jeans fit.
“Over easy or scrambled?” I asked her.
She didn’t answer. What she did do was take TJ out of my arms, and then go sit in the recliner on the other side of the counter in the living room, and pulled her shirt down to expose her breast.
I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, counting to ten.
Yeah, I’d fucked up. She was pissed. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out.
Fuck.
The silent treatment was answer enough.
Dinner went like this.
The girls spoke.
They ate my bacon.
Hannah ate her food in the living room—as far away from me as she could get.
I washed up, put the dishes in the dishwasher, and cleaned up my mess.
All the while she said not one single word to me.
Alex and Reggie chattered like nothing was wrong, and I guess, in their little world, that there wasn’t anything wrong. Which meant I was doing my job correctly as a parent, and so was Hannah.
That was something that Allegra never really got in control of.
If she was pissed, everyone within a square mile of her would fucking know it.
It was like a breath of fresh air not having Hannah light into me with the kids around.
“Daddy, can we get into your shower?”
I looked over at Hannah, who had her back to me.
She subtly nodded, and I looked back toward Alex.
“Yes, y’all can,” I said. “But make sure you hang your towels up, and if I find all those Barbie dolls in the shower again, you won’t take another one in there again, got it?”
Both girls nodded eagerly and ran toward Hannah’s bedroom.
“You want anything to drink?”
She shook her head no.
Goddammit.
“Daddy, I can’t get it hot!”
I sighed and made my way to the bathroom, turned it ‘hot’ for them, and sat down on the bed and waited for them to finish.