“Would you really have made him watch Disney movies?”I asked.
“Nah.Princess movies are too pink and girly.”
“I like pink.”
“You do?”She paused for a moment.“I guess pink isn’t so bad.”
“You’re allowed to change what you like, you know.Pink.Dresses.Going by your full name.”
She looked at me and stated, “Pink’s okay.And so are dresses every now and then.But if you start calling me Lenora, I’m going to eat the sour cream donut that Archer brings you.”
“How do you know he’s bringing me that kind of donut?”I asked in amusement.
“Because we weren’t just talking about my family tree while we were doing the project.We talked about you too.”
My heart began to beat a frantic staccato.“Why?”
She shrugged.“Archer was curious about you.And so he asked me some stuff.”
“Like what?”
“Favorite donut, favorite color, how you take your coffee.He’s never around in the morning when you’re drinking it.Now are we gonna stand here talking or are we going to get into our jammies and get the movie ready?”
ChapterNineteen
The House
“Hobbits are awesome.”Archer pitched his voice low so as not to wake a sleeping Lenni.She was on one end of the couch, opposite of Archer, and was coiled around Mildred.
We’d made it to the second movie before she’d conked out.
Archer tucked the end of the blanket around Lenni’s sock-clad foot before returning his attention back to me.
“I don’t know how you do it,” he said.
“Do what?”I swiveled my body around, so my legs were no longer hanging off the arm of the chair and I met Archer’s gaze.
“Get through to her,” he said.“She refused to talk to me.I couldn’t even get her to answer her door when I knocked.The teen years are gonna be a hoot.”
“You definitely have your work cut out for you.”
“You’re not even going to sugarcoat it, are you?”
“Nope.The teen years are hard.And emotionally scarring.”
“For the child or the parent?”
“Both,” I admitted with a wry smile.
“What were your teenage years like?”he asked, curiosity brimming in his brown eyes.
“A roller coaster.”
“Well, obviously.”
“Not obviously.What wereyourteenage years like?”I demanded.“You and Brooks get yourselves into mounds of trouble?”
“I got into trouble,” he corrected.“Brooks was always the one pulling me out of it.”
