Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 155037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 517(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 517(@300wpm)
“Tinkerbelle, what have I told you about climbing up here on your own!”
“I’m seven now. I can do it myself.”
“You could hurt yourself. Don’t come in here again without me.” He sat in front of her. “What’s wrong?”
“How’d you know I was here?” she asked.
Lachie shrugged. “Dunno. I always feel something strange in here when you’re upset.” He rubbed his chest.
“Really? Me too! I thought it was ‘cause I eat too fast. That’s what Judy said. That I have to slow down and eat like a lady.”
“Why would you want to do that?” Lachie asked, looking bewildered.
“I know! And she says I’m messy and have no manners. And Daddy says I have to listen to her because she’s my new mom. But I don’t want a new one.” She sniffled and he moved to sit beside her, his arm over her shoulders. “I want my real mom.”
“Is that why you’re out here? Because of Judy?” he asked, snatching up a cookie.
“Sort of. They’re gonna have a baby to replace me.”
“What?” he snapped.
“Daddy said Judy is pregnant and that it’s a boy. Daddy always wanted a boy instead of a silly girl like me.”
“That can’t be true.”
“I heard them talking in their bedroom so they didn’t know I could hear them.”
“Were you under the bed again?” he asked.
“I like it under there. It feels safe. Daddy was saying how glad he was that the baby was a boy as he’d been dis . . . disa . . . not happy when he learned that I was a girl.”
“That jerk.”
She sucked in a breath. “You can’t swear.”
“Jerk isn’t swearing.”
“Uh-huh, totally is. Kiesha told me so.”
“What is Kiesha doing swearing in front of you?” he asked.
Silly Lachie. Kiesha did whatever she wanted, didn’t he know that? Well, unless Ed caught her. Then he might try to wallop her butt. Ed was mean. And he wasn’t even Kiesha’s dad. No one ever walloped Isa’s butt, thank goodness.
Judy had threatened to a few times, though.
She was so mean.
“I don’t want to stay there anymore, Lachie.” She leaned into him. “They don’t want me.”
“Well, I don’t know why they wouldn’t,” he said fiercely. “You’re awesome.”
She smiled up at him. Lachie wasn’t like most nine-year-olds. He was nothing like that meanie, Ted. Although he didn’t really come after her anymore since he was scared of Lachie.
But he picked on the other little kids and she had to stick up for them. Even if that meant Teddy stared at her like he hated her.
“Teddy was being a super jerk today.”
“Don’t say the word jerk,” Lachie said.
“You said it!” she protested.
“I’m allowed. I’m nine. You’re only seven.”
“That seems like a silly rule,” she told him.
“I don’t make them. But you can’t say jerk. Think about what Judy would say. Or your dad.”
Yeah, they wouldn’t be happy.
“Okay, I won’t say it.”
“Was Teddy mean to you?” he asked. “Why didn’t you come get me?”
“It wasn’t at school. He came over to our house to swim. He told me that my bathing suit looked like a baby’s.”
“You shouldn’t listen to him.”
“But it is kind of babyish. I told Judy that I want a plain bathing suit next time. No unicorns or fairies.”
“But you love unicorns and fairies.”
“I know,” she wailed. That was the problem. “They’re so cute and fun and . . . and magic.”
“So keep your bathing suit. And stop listening to that jerk.”
She really wished she could call him a jerk. But sometimes Lachie had very set ideas when it came to her and what she was or wasn’t allowed to do. And he was only nine!
“Tink? What do you say?”
“Yes, Lachie.”
He squeezed her tight. “Good girl. So, you ready to go home?”
“No. I’m going to stay out here all night.”
He hummed. “Gonna get cold.”
“I don’t mind the cold.”
“And really dark.”
“I have my flashlight.” She wasn’t silly.
“What are you going to do if you hear any scary noises?” he asked.
Probably cry.
But she knew better than to say that to him.
“Um, yell back!” she told him.
“And what about if your dad calls the police and they send out search parties?”
Now she was starting to feel bad.
“I don’t want to go back, Lachie. I want to live with you.”
“Yeah. I know. One day, we’ll live together, Tink.”
“Do you promise?” she asked in a small voice.
“I promise. It’s you and me against the world, Tinkerbelle.”
“Love you, Lachie.”
“Love you more.”
1
“Hey, Wildcard!”
Lachie turned to see Gilligan walking toward him, a huge smile on his face. He was Lachie’s best friend in their unit.
“Yo, Gilligan. What’s got you so excited?”
“We’re about to leave on a scouting mission. Finally, some fucking action.” Gilligan was full of energy. He hated sitting around like they’d been doing lately.
They were in the depths of the middle east. A peace treaty was being negotiated between two factions who had been at war for the last two years. Lachie’s unit was here to help keep the peace and watch for any uprisings.