Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 155903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Reuben chuckled. “I think we’re in the right place now.”
“Look, Daddy! That one looks like me.” She did. She had big blue eyes and curly dark-brown hair.
“She’s cute and apparently her name is Petal,” he told her.
It was?
Oh, she was perfect.
Clasping her hands together, Faith turned to look at Reuben. “May I have her, Daddy?”
“You certainly may.” He grabbed Petal off the shelf. She was still in her packaging so Faith couldn’t really hug her. But she put her carefully into the cart.
Reuben turned back to look at the accessories as two people joined entered the aisle. One of them was a small woman with her hair up in a ponytail. The man towered over her. He was slim but muscular.
He was wearing a pair of blue denim shorts and a white T-shirt. And he was wearing a harness.
“Mommy, I don’t want to look at dolls. I want to go to the Lego aisle,” he complained as the woman stopped.
Oh wow.
So he was a Little? Faith had never actually met another Little. Well, other than Cat, of course. And she’d talked to Juliet on the phone once. But she didn’t really think that counted.
“No, we have to buy something for Eliza’s birthday,” the woman said sternly.
“I don’t want to go to Eliza’s birthday. She’s mean.” He pouted.
“Charlie,” his Mommy warned. “Behave yourself and help me pick something out.”
Charlie huffed out a sigh and turned away.
“Charlie, which doll?” she asked.
He shook his head.
“Charlie, stop sulking and help me.”
“No!” Charlie added a stomp of his foot and poked his tongue out at his Mommy.
As Faith watched in shock, his Mommy wrapped one arm around his waist and gave him several hard smacks on his ass.
“Ow! Mommy! No!” Charlie danced away, rubbing his bottom.
“Keep misbehaving and I’ll go borrow Edward’s paddle.”
That seemed to get through to Charlie who nodded and moved close to hug the smaller woman.
“I’m sorry, Mommy. I will be better.”
Yikes.
Edward had a paddle? And why did watching what had just happened fascinate her so much? Shouldn’t she be horrified or something?
Charlie hadn’t even seemed to care that she’d watched him get his butt smacked.
They moved away, and Reuben leaned down to kiss her cheek. “If you ever stomped your foot at me like that, you’d be straight over my knee.”
Good to know.
They continued to shop.
“Daddy, you’re buying way too much stuff,” she told him as he added some clay to the cart.
“We have a whole room to fill. And I think I’ll be the judge of when we’ve bought too much.”
She tried to keep her grumbling to herself. But they already had Petal, an entire wardrobe of clothes for her, a cot, stroller, and highchair. Then there was a tea set and some toy food as well.
They really didn’t need anything more.
And she intended to stop him from putting anything else in the cart . . . that was until they turned down the next aisle.
“Squishies! There are squishies, Daddy! Corn and camellias!”
“So there are.”
“Can I get one, please, Daddy?” She turned to him, her hands pressed together in the prayer position.
“Hmm, I’m not sure. I thought you said we already had too much in the cart?”
“I’ll put some back, Daddy. Promise.” She nodded. “I’ll put it all back for that giant squishy.” She pointed at the huge squishy on the bottom shelf. It was an enormous butterfly.
And. She. Loved. It.
“That one?” Reuben stared at the butterfly. “It’s huge.”
She skipped over, touching the big butterfly. It had the cutest face and it was begging her to take her home.
“I’m going to name her Flutter. You want to come with me, don’t you, Flutter?” she said, hugging the butterfly.
“You really love it, huh?” Reuben said.
She winced. Shoot. What was she doing? Of course he didn’t want to buy this squishy. It was ridiculously big. And probably really expensive.
“Um, actually, Daddy. I think it’s too big. I don’t really want a squishy this big. Oh, look, this one is really nice.” She pointed over at a hedgehog squishy. She did love hedgehogs.
“I think I’ll call him Piggy.”
“Piggy?” Reuben asked.
“Hedgehog. Hog. Pig. Piggy.”
“I’m shocked I didn’t get the correlation without you explaining it,” he said dryly.
She patted his arm. “Don’t beat yourself up, Daddy. You don’t have to be as smart as me.”
“Whew.” He wiped his forehead with the back of his head. “That would be a hard ask. Come here.”
Faith eyed him.
Reuben didn’t look or sound upset. But an alarm was going off in her head, telling her that she didn’t want to go to him. That it was best to stay away.
“I need to have a look around.” She took a step back.
“Nope. You need to come here.” He crooked a finger at her.
She shook her head and walked back again.
He put a stop to that, though, by holding up the wrist cuff. “You have until I count to three to get your cute butt over here or this is going on.”