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She stared at me for a long moment.
“What? What did I say?”
“Duke and Savage do everything in their power to protect you. You don’t think she sees that, too?”
I slowly lifted my vanilla latte to my lips. “Forget the bakery, Brooklyn. You should just charge three hundred an hour for therapy sessions. You’d make a killing.”
Chapter14
Waverly slid intothe passenger seat and settled a Charlie’s Motorcycle Repair shop plastic bag on her lap and closed the door.
“What do you have there?” I asked her.
“I got you a present,” she said.
“Me? Really?”
She nodded and handed me the bag. I peeked into it and reached in to pull out a black tank top that had the Blue Angels skull logo stamped on the front.
“This is cool, thanks.” I reached out to give her a one-armed hug.
“There’s another tank in there for me. We’ll have matching ones.”
My conversation with Brooklyn flooded back to me. I heard Waverly’s pronouncement with a new understanding.
“I was thinking we could wear them to the barbecue on Friday,” she said feigning nonchalance. “Or not. Whatever.”
“I think that would be fun. You sure you don’t mind dressing like your annoying older sister?”
She grinned. “She is pretty annoying, but she’s kind of cool too.”
“Ingrate,” I teased, tugging on the end of her red ponytail.
Waverly buckled herself in and then I put the car into gear.
“So, can I ask you something?” Waverly ventured.
“Uh oh. I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“No, I think you will.” She bit her lip. “Dylan signed up to take a CPR class. He said there’s still a spot open and that if I wanted to, we could take the class together.”
“CPR class?” I repeated.
“Yeah. I had this thought, now hear me out. Darcy said her babysitter is going off to college next year and that they need a new one. Well, her kids like me and I like them, and I want to be prepared in case anything happens, you know? And I was thinking, I could become CPR certified and I could start babysitting for people. I mean, Lily’s six and takes ballet with a ton of other six-year-olds, so you know that’s good word of mouth.”
“You want to get CPR certified so you can startbabysitting?”
“Well, yeah. I need to earn some money. I want to buy a car. And it’s not cheap. Plus, I like working. I like feeling productive. I like working for what I want.”
“Waverly…”
“I know what you’re going to say,” she said with a sigh. “You think I should stay a kid as long as possible. But I don’t want to stay a kid. Don’t you get it? It’s not fair that you’ve had to shoulder all this.”
“Shoulder all what?” I asked evasively.
“The financial burden of taking care of me. It shouldn’t be that way. We should take care of each other. I’m not a kid anymore. I see how hard you work, Willa. I want to help. It’s in your best interest to just say yes now.”
“It is?” I asked in amusement.
