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I wonder how she felt whenever Ken wanted her on his face.
Ouch.
I gently nudged the bitch doll to the side and finished my journey up the stairs and into Ellie’s room.
Making sure there were no offending Barbies on the floor in here, I put my bag down, and got to work.
***
“But I wanna jooooosh!”
I startled, turning toward the door.
“Get inside, please,” Brantley’s voice echoed up the stairs.
“I. Wanna. Joosh!”
“Elijah Cooper, get inside right this second.”
“No!”
Wide-eyed, I scraped a piece of wallpaper off.
“Fine, then you can stand outside on the front steps and everyone will see how silly you are.”
The door shut.
My jaw dropped and I looked Ellie’s bedroom door.
Did he just shut him outside?
Banging against something downstairs confirmed that to be true.
“Dad! Daddy! Daddy, pwease let me in!” Eli’s voice grew thicker. “Daddy!”
The door opened. “Are you going to come in nicely now?”
I didn’t hear his response, but I heard Brantley say, a lot quieter, “Now, ask nicely for a juice and I’ll get you on.”
I heard nothing more, so I went back to scraping the paper off the wall.
“Is that Kawi’s car outside?” Ellie’s little voice asked.
“Yes.” The sound of cupboards opening and closing accompanied Brantley’s voice. “She’s in your room right now.”
She gasped. “Can I go say hi?”
Hesitation, and then, “No, let her work.”
“I wanna say hiiiiii.”
“I want to put the groceries away, but sometimes it sucks, okay? I’m sure she’ll come down and say hi soon.”
“I wanna say hi now.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. Ugh—I didn’t like kids. I never had, even when I was a kid. But here I was, contemplating going down there right now, because her little, lispy voice was making me want to.
“Ellie…”
I put down my scraper on the windowsill and turned to go downstairs. Honestly, I needed some water anyway, so it killed two birds with one stone.
“Daddy…”
“Hey,” I said, stepping slowly into the kitchen. “Do you mind if I get some water?”
Brantley turned to look at me. Relief flitted across his face, mixed with the hint of happiness. “Hi—of course. There are some bottles in the fridge. Did we disturb you?”
“Not at all,” I half-lied. “Thanks.” I grabbed a bottle and looked at Ellie, smiling. “Hey, Ellie. Hey, Eli.”
Eli’s eyes widened. “Hi.” He looked away, at the floor.
“Hi, Kawi!” Ellie bounced on the balls of her feet. “Are you doing my bedwoom?”
“I’m pulling all the horrible paper off the walls.” I uncapped the water. “Do you wanna come see?”
Eli narrowed his eyes and answered before she could. “Did you do my woom?”
“Not yet. One room at a time.”
“Why you do Ewwie’s first?”
“Eenie meenie miny mo,” I answered, keeping my expression straight. “Next time, I’ll do yours first, okay?”
He side-eyed me, putting the straw of his juicebox in his mouth and sucking on the apple juice instead of answering me.
Ellie rolled her eyes. “He’s so gwumpy. Can I see my woom?”
Their inability to say ‘r’ correctly was nothing less than completely adorable.
Just like the dimple that indented her right cheek when she grinned hopefully at me.
I glanced at Brantley.
He shrugged a shoulder. “As long as it’s not dangerous.”
“Nothing can be more dangerous than my shock when I stomped on Barbie’s face this morning.”
“Welcome to my life.” He smirked, his turquoise eyes glinting enticingly.
Lord, I hoped it wasn’t.
“Come on, Ellie.” I motioned for her to follow me. “Just look, okay? Don’t touch.”
“Okay, Kawi. No touching.”
“That’s right.” I fought the smile as her tiny stomps followed me up the stairs. “See? It’s not great. Just the paper from the walls.”
She sighed heavily. “I fort you might be done.”
I laughed. “No, not yet. It’s going to take a couple of weeks.”
“How many sweeps is that?”
“Sweeps?”
“Yeah. Sweeps.” She put her hands together between her shoulder and head and fake-snored.
“Ahhh. Sleeps.” I nodded, picking my scraper up in my right hand and my sponge from my bucket in the left. I squeezed. “I’m not sure. Sometimes it doesn’t go right so it takes a bit longer. Can I tell you when I’m nearly done?”
She blinked at me. “’Kay, but not too wong, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Are you doing my woom first?”
“I’m doing both yours and Eli’s at the same time.”
She wrinkled up her face, causing her nose to crinkle in the most adorable way. “I want mine first.”
I pressed my sponge against the wall and put it back in the bucket before I scraped the paper. “Sorry, Ellie. It’s fair if I do them at the same time. Besides, I need to let your walls dry before I can get them ready to paint. It’s a lot of work, so it’s easier if I share it.”
She sniffed. “What are you doing wight now?”
“Getting rid of this old paper. See?” I pulled the scraper away and took the edge of the damp paper between my fingers. I pulled it down, tearing it away from the wall and dumping it onto the floor.
