Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“They don’t offer Spanish?” Even he knew a little Spanish. He could order a beer and ask for directions, though he often didn’t understand the directions. He wasn’t good with directions.
“Nope. It’s only French because that’s the only language worth knowing to the people at Hanover.” Lou closed her book. “Of course my grandfather tells me the only other language I need is math. What if I don’t like math?”
“Do you like math?” He was pretty sure she did.
“Yes, but that’s not the point. What if I don’t want to major in math? What if I want to be a spy?”
“There are many different types of spies. I bet some of them need math.” Boomer checked his water, and it was properly boiling. He grabbed the spaghetti. “You definitely need math when you’re dealing with C-4. I should know because once I used way too much and that got me in trouble. See, I was supposed to use a fourth, but I got confused because it’s called C-4 and they gave me four cakes of C-4, and then I thought that meant I should use one of the four. But it was supposed to be a quarter of one cake. It was my first time, and I never made that mistake again. See. Math. Also, I couldn’t hear for a couple of days which was good because my CO at the time could yell real loud. I think you can be whatever you want to be, Lou. But you don’t have to decide now. That’s what school’s for. You’re supposed to explore and figure out what you want to do.”
At least Lou was smiling again. “What did you want to do when you were my age?”
He’d wanted to have a family that loved him, that looked at him and didn’t see a failure. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a cook. My family owned a restaurant. It was a little greasy spoon my dad inherited from his dad. I would go in and watch the line cooks. But they didn’t want me to work there. So I ended up in the Army, and I thought I might cook there but I tested…differently. They found another place for me.”
“You were a sniper,” Lou said with hushed reverence. “Kala told me you could take out a man from over a mile away, but you don’t hold the official record because you were working black ops at the time.”
“Kala talks too much.” He had to tell the guys to stop telling the kids stories. Even if they were true. He hadn’t realized how good he’d been with marksmanship until he’d hung out with a friend in high school whose dad was on a competitive shooting team. “My point is it could take a while to figure out what you want to do. Not everyone is born knowing what job they want.”
“Kala says she wants to be a spy.” Lou stroked a hand down Sprinkles’s little body. The Chihuahua was sharing the chair with her while Puddles was lazing away on one of the many dog beds throughout the condo.
He could absolutely see Kala as an operative, though he rather hoped it didn’t happen. He wanted an easier life for the kids.
Did anyone get an easy life?
“I think Kala is going to be anything she wants to be. So are you going to talk to your mom about the book?”
Lou clammed up real quick.
“You don’t think she’ll be on your side?” From what he could tell, Daphne adored Lou. She’d built her whole world around her daughter.
“She’ll be on my side, but then she’ll go somewhere private and cry about it,” Lou said quietly.
Boomer’s chest suddenly felt tight. “Why would she cry about it?”
“Because she’s worried that Grandmother will decide she doesn’t want to pay my tuition and that not going to Hanover will ruin my life. Everything revolves around that stupid school, and I wish it would go away.” Lou sat back, looking dejected. “I wish the worst would happen so she could see it’s not the worst, but the best. Sometimes I think my mom is stuck. My dad died, and that was hard, but I know she didn’t love him. She should have found some freedom in it even though it was sad. Instead she’s stuck where she’s always been. I see more than she thinks I do. I see more than you think I do.”
“I think you see everything, Lou.”
Lou hesitated. “I know you like my mom.”
“I wasn’t trying to hide that. Not at all.” He thought he’d been pretty damn plain. He’d given her the last egg roll. He really liked egg rolls and he’d still been hungry, but he’d handed it to Daphne because a guy had to look out for his girl.
Even when she wasn’t exactly his girl yet.