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Ha, did it.
“You’re very welcome, baby.” Squeezing my hand, he coughed and let out a slow breath, trying hard not to laugh.
If we managed to make it through the party and he didn’t snicker or cough every time I called him by his real name, I was going to eat one of those gaudy floral centerpieces.
That color orange was not natural.
Or attractive.
“I can’t believe you told her that you were going to try to get me a job.” I’d managed not to react when Gray had fed her that line of crap, but now I couldn’t stop laughing. “‘Useless rich is so last season.’ God. Gray, that was…”
I didn’t have the words for it.
But honestly, Grandmother had deserved it once she’d said that she hoped he’d helped me to see the error of my ways.
Yep, she’d bought Gray so he could drag me out of the artistic closet.
He managed not to laugh, but his grin was nearly at an evil Disney villain level. “I’d have behaved if she would’ve.”
I had the best defender Daddy ever.
“Because you’re a better grown-up.” Relief seemed to be rushing through me as we finally pulled out of Grandmother’s overpriced neighborhood, and it made me feel almost light-headed. “You even found me a cookie. Thank you for going with me.”
Daddy reached over and took my hand, lacing his fingers between mine. “All she had was squishy things or fishy things. I wasn’t going to let you suffer.”
He was amazing.
Daddy had known exactly who to smile at to get me cookies and he hadn’t made me eat anything gross just to be nice.
“Thank you for making sure I had nuggets before we went over, Daddy.” He’d been so smart. He’d even cut up veggies for me so I had lots of things to dunk and eat before we headed out. “Can I have a snack when we get home? Lunch seems very far away.”
Years and years ago.
I would’ve told him that, but I yawned, so it got stuck in my head.
Daddy chuckled, probably ‘cause he could read my mind. “Yes, how about we make you a real sandwich that doesn’t have tuna or anything else squishy or fishy?”
He was so smart.
“And we can cut it up and have our own tea party.” I was so awesome I fought off another yawn and won. “It’ll be much better than Grandmother’s.”
Because I’d give Daddy big hugs and he’d give me another cookie.
I’d been so good I deserved lots of cookies.
“I think that sounds like a wonderful plan.” His fingers stroked over mine, making the yawn want to win again, but I was awesome and fought it off. “Then we’ll relax for a bit before we figure out what we want to play later.”
Nodding, I looked down at our fingers. They looked so pretty wrapped up together that I stroked my finger over them trying to remember every detail. “We could watch a movie or play toys or we could have a bath together and I could let you play with the boats too. You liked the boats. You make good boat noises, Daddy.”
Daddy liked my compliment so much he sighed and got a silly smile. “I think that sounds like a lot of fun, cutie.”
“We’re lots of fun, Daddy. Not like the party people.” Just thinking about them made me want to groan. “They all talked about the same things over and over. Work and parties and then there were the nosy questions.”
Daddy chuckled. “But we made those fun.”
Okay, he was right.
“We were very creative.” And Daddy liked being devious. He was smart and brave and he saved me from everyone. “You made Grandmother nuts, but she couldn’t even say anything.”
She usually liked to say a lot.
“So no regrets about letting me loose on your family?” Daddy sounded almost worried, so I looked up and shook my head.
“No, Daddy. I liked it. Sometimes they’re…” I couldn’t find the words, so I looked down at our hands and found them there. “They’re nicer than my first dad’s family. They don’t scream or anything and no one ever tried to hit me. They even seem to mean well most of the time. Except cousin Alice. She’s a bitch.”
Daddy snorted. “I should probably tell you to use nice words, but she really is a bitch.”
“It was bound to happen. Statistics, you know. There’s too many of them for them all to be nice.” One was probably a serial killer too, but I hadn’t figured out who that was yet.
I was thinking it was the other cousin with the F name that was long and people made it short, and I just could never remember either name…but he always looked at me weird, so it could be him.
“I would have to agree.” Daddy squeezed my hand, making them look even nicer together. “But you’re alright with me…let’s call it reminding them of their manners?”
