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“You need a special seat, little lady?” I ask, opening the rear passenger door.
“Mommy calls me little slugger, and you can too. She says I’ll need one until I can drive.” She rolls her light-brown eyes with little gold flecks in them.
“Gotta make sure you’re safe.”
Her jaw drops, and she gasps, “That’s what Mommy says.”
“All right”—Whit hip-checks me to make room for the pink booster seat—“we need to get a move on, or we’ll be late.”
I step to the front and open her door. “You think Mom needs a special seat?”
Nora laughs. “No, she’s super tall.”
“All right then, let’s get at it.”
Once Whit’s buckled in, I look in the rearview and see Nora smiling at me. “You ready for waffles, little slugger?”
She gives me two thumbs-up and a huge smile. “Ready!”
Pulling out, I ask. “You ever had Miss Nancy’s waffles?”
She shakes her head, little ponytail puffs moving side to side. “Nope.”
I look at Whit and give her a you haven’t taken Nora to Nancy’s look because, yeah, that’s shocking.
“Nora’s not a morning person,” Whit explains.
“My bed is just so comfy, and all my stuffies want me to stay with them.”
“Stuffies?” I ask.
“My friends.”
“Stuffed animals,” Whit whispers.
“Can’t your stuffies keep each other company while you’re at school?” I ask.
“They’ll miss me.”
“What about your school friends? Don’t they miss you?”
“School’s for learning, right, Mommy?” she asks Whit.
Whit gives me a look of warning and answers, “It sure is.” Whit turns in her seat and smiles at Nora. “I’d much rather stay home with you and your stuffies, but we girls have jobs to do, and school’s your job, right?”
“Yep, it’s my job.” Nora grins back and then looks at me. “You got a job, right?”
“Sure do.”
“You play baseball and have a job?” she asks.
“Baseball is my job,” I explain. “But before that, I went to school at the Walton middle and high school with your mom.”
“That’s the big school right next to my school right?”
“Sure is.” I answer.
Were you friends?” she asks.
