Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 43920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
“Well, after the holidays, I can send Cami with a signed CD or the album notes from—”
“Oh yes!” she said excitedly. “The album notes from Gasoline, please.”
“Consider it done.”
She was beaming at him and then turned to me and grimaced. “Mr. Gardner, I understand you usually walk Cami home from school, but did you by any chance bring a car today for the cage?”
That fast, she lost me. “The cage?”
Dawson snickered, because he heard the surprise in my voice clear as day.
She pointed across the room at the large cage where a very cute white rabbit was sitting, looking back at me.
I leaned sideways, around Dawson, who was biting his bottom lip so he wouldn’t laugh, and shot Cami a look.
“What’s wrong?” she called over, sounding really guilty even as she tried to scowl me into submission. “Mom said it was fine.”
No way in hell had Georgine Joseph signed on to babysit the class rabbit during Christmas vacation.
“His name’s Otto. Isn’t that awesome? It spells the same backward or forward.” She was making conversation now, rambling.
“Don’t try and distract me,” I warned her, and mouthed the word liar just in case there was any doubt I knew the score.
She made a cutting motion with her right hand for me to zip it.
I crossed my arms, because I was not taking this crap from a six-year-old, and yes, I was, in fact, arguing with said six-year-old, but her mother would freak when she saw the rabbit.
Cami did me dirty then, because she darted across the room, stood right in front of Dawson, not me, quickly figuring out that he was the weak link, and hit him with the pleading Bambi eyes. It wasn’t fair.
“Aww, Chris,” he said, his eyes looking just as pleading as hers. I couldn’t possibly be expected to say no to both of them.
“We can drive you,” Mr. Amsel suggested. “It wouldn’t be any problem.”
“Oh yes, please,” Nicole said, taking hold of my wrist since my arms were crossed over my chest as I was figuring out what to do. “Really. It would be our pleasure.”
What was I supposed to say when everyone, even the adults, were so hopeful?
“Cami, where are your mother’s platters? She’ll murder us both if those don’t come home.”
“I already put them in a bag,” she announced, smiling big.
“Your mother is going to lose her mind,” I said under my breath.
“Not if you tell her it was your idea.”
I just shook my head.
I could not have carried the rabbit cage, the food, the bedding, and all of Cami’s gifts by myself. And really, the walk was nice, as was the conversation, but taking two flights of old, steep stairs down to the door that led outside toward another long schlep to the parking lot was not nearly as nice. But this was the reason I ran every morning and lifted weights three days a week, so my muscles would look good cording as I carried Otto. For his part, he sat there in his cage on the other side and just stared at me like he was planning something.
“He likes you,” Cami declared.
“He’s plotting my death, I can tell.”
“No he’s not. He likes you, I promise,” Prue seconded Cami. “Usually he tries to bite our fingers when we stick them through the spaces in the cage. How you’re carrying it, he should be trying to gnaw them off.”
This news was late in coming.
“Sometimes Mrs. G has to give him some drops to calm him down,” Prue informed me.
I glanced at Dawson, whose inelegant snort made me smile despite not wanting to encourage him. “Psycho rabbit,” he teased me under his breath. “Best watch yourself.”
“We could trade,” I offered.
“No, I like watching you carry stuff,” he said, and the way he looked at me made my face heat. I couldn’t help it; it was a lusty, filthy, flirty look I was on the receiving end of. My mouth went dry.
“Stop,” I warned him. “You’ll make me trip.”
“We don’t want that,” he teased, insufferably pleased with himself. “Watch your step,” he reminded me.
“Call me Luke,” Mr. Amsel announced suddenly. “I just realized I never told you my first name.”
“Like he needs it,” Dawson muttered.
“Pardon me?” Luke asked.
“Nothing,” Dawson answered with a fake smile before shooting me a look.
“Stop,” I ordered.
“What?” he asked innocently.
“So what are your plans for the holidays?” Nicole asked Cami as we made our way to the parking lot with many other people carrying the same things we were save for the class pet.
“On Christmas morning, me and Mama open our gifts together, just the two of us, and then we get ready and drive to my granma’s house. Our whole family meets there, and my aunt Danita always says it’s a zoo.”
Nicole chuckled. “It sounds lovely.”
“Now, on Christmas Eve,” Cami began, walking right beside me, “we have a party at the place where my mom, my uncle Chris, my aunt Darcy, my aunt Xola, and Conner all work. It’s really fun, and we eat all kinds of junk that makes my mama crazy because she’s a chef.”