Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 53807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 269(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53807 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 269(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
“Nursery!” She hesitated for a moment before adding, “I’ll be good.”
“I’ll trust you learned your lesson. I’ll call you when dinner is ready. If you get lonely, come talk to me.”
“Okay, Daddy.”
When he walked out of the nursery, she, Rexy, and Bowbow were discussing what they should do—a puzzle or read a book. Jerico shook his head, staggered by the difference in his life in the last month. His new position on a new team in a new town had been the best move of his life. He would have missed meeting her and already he couldn’t imagine life alone now.
His phone rang as he was finishing the dishes. Crossing his fingers that Zale wasn’t calling him to tell him the team had been activated, Jerico answered the phone as Aspen shot to her feet.
“Zale, are we a go?”
“No. I’m not calling for a deployment. I had a feeling she wouldn’t tell you,” Zale said, and Jerico could hear the regret in his voice.
“Aspen?” Jerico looked at the guilty expression on his Little’s face. She knew she was in trouble.
“I was going to tell you, but I wanted to wait until after dinner. He promised he wouldn’t call until late,” Aspen stammered, plopping back down on the chair where she had been watching a nature documentary about butterflies with Bowbow. At the sound of distress in her voice, Rexy dared to pop up from his doggie bed to race to her side. Aspen tangled her fingers in the dog’s fur.
“What happened, Zale?” Jerico listened to his teammate describe the bathroom incident, and the actions taken. “Got it. Thanks for calling. I owe you one.”
“Give her a break, Jerico. She was afraid she’d lose her job… And maybe you. There seemed to be something else going on. Some reason she didn’t want to report that bastard.”
Jerico clicked out of the call, knowing that Zale would understand his abrupt behavior. He turned to see the worried look on Aspen’s face and her stiff posture. She hadn’t believed that Zale would call.
He stopped at her side to cup her chin and lifted it so that their eyes met. “This is okay. Whatever is going on, we’ll deal with it. Okay?”
When she nodded, he turned to look at the dog. “Rexy, Aspen and I need to talk alone. How about if you take a nap in the bedroom?”
Hooking his fingers in Rexy’s collar, Jerico walked the large dog to the furthest room in the house—the main bedroom. He petted the dog reassuringly and told him he was a good boy before going to the door. When he turned to close it, Rexy darted into the closet to hide. Not understanding what was going on, the fearful dog’s first thought was to hide.
“Rexy’s safely hiding in the closet. Tell me what’s going on.” Jerico walked into the family room and took a seat on the couch next to Aspen.
“Zale’s such a tattletale,” she accused with tears in her eyes.
“He’s a daddy who suspected you wouldn’t tell me something important. But you will now, won’t you?”
Aspen nodded furiously. “I was going to tell you about the man in the bathroom. I was waiting until you’d eaten your steak and were in a good mood.”
“Your day sounds far from how you described it. I think you said okay? That seems like a solid lie now. Tell me what really happened.”
“A guy came in and used the men’s restroom while I was cleaning in there. That’s it.”
“That’s not it,” he denied her statement, knowing Zale wouldn’t have called for something minor.
“I had the closed sign up. He came in and peed. You know, out where I could see him. Not in a stall.”
He forced himself not to react until he got the entire story. “And…”
“I’m supposed to leave, but I couldn’t go around him to get out. I would have seen his thingy.”
Jerico didn’t allow that term to distract him, no matter the visual image that popped into his mind of the man’s micro penis. “What happened then?”
“When he finished, the jerk trapped me in a stall and insisted on getting my name. When I refused to tell him, he got angry. Zale took care of it. They even yelled at him in the hallway with his commander.”
“And what else happened?” Jerico forced himself to remain calm and didn’t allow his face or voice to reveal his anger.
“Zale didn’t know that,” she said, staring at him in horror. “How do you know?”
“Tell me.”
“The guy at the gate recognized my name. Some guy in a beater car had tried to get inside, telling the guard that he was supposed to meet me on base.”
“Eddie,” Jerico guessed. “They didn’t let him in?”
“No. They told me to report it at the main building so all the gates could be on alert.”
“And you did as they suggested?” Jerico continued to press her.