Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 95756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 479(@200wpm)___ 383(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 479(@200wpm)___ 383(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
He snorted. “You can paint a canvas and I’ll put it on the wall, but you put paint directly on the wall and your little tush is toast.”
“Tush.” She giggled.
“What’s wrong with the word tush?” he asked with mock outrage as he gently pushed her so she was lying back in the bath. He ran the cloth along her legs.
“It’s something an eighty-year-old granny says about a baby’s bottom.”
“Eighty-year-old granny!” He started tickling her and she flailed around in the bath as she laughed.
“Stop, Daddy! Stop! I gotta pee.”
He immediately stopped tickling her. “Let’s finish getting you clean. And you are a baby. You’re my baby.”
And she thanked God for that every day.
5
She was curled up on the sofa in her pajamas with a blanket around her, a mug of hot chocolate held between her hands as she watched the flames of the fire flicker. Queenie was nestled up at her feet. Macca had insisted she get into her pajamas since she apparently had to have a nap.
Naps. Sheesh. Total waste of time.
She wondered if she could distract him until it became too late for her to have one. Hmm, possibly not the best idea considering all the trouble she was already in.
Her butt cheeks clenched together. She hugged Kiki, her stuffed koala. She had lots of stuffies now, but her two favorites remained Kiki, which she’d had since childhood, and Bunnykins, the first toy that Macca bought for her.
“Maybe he’s forgotten about me falling in the creek, Kiki,” she said to her koala, before taking another sip of hot chocolate.
It had little marshmallows floating in it and was the perfect temperature. Only thing that would have made it better. . .Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup creamer. But Macca had refused to put it into her hot chocolate, claiming the hot chocolate had enough sugar on its own.
But whoever invented that creamer. . .genius. Pure genius.
Kiki gave her a skeptical look. Well, as skeptical as a stuffed koala bear could look.
She sighed. “That’s what I thought too. My butt is in so much trouble.”
“What was that, sweet pea?” Macca asked as he stepped into the room. He’d dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. He picked up Queenie, setting her down on a blanket near the fire they’d set up as her temporary bed then he sat next to Gigi. She snuggled into his side.
“How’s the hot chocolate, sweet pea?”
“Yummy.”
He ran his fingers through her hair. He’d untied her pigtails after her bath. When she’d sipped the last of the hot chocolate, he took the cup from her hand and set it down on the side table.
“Are you feeling warmer?”
She nodded. “I feel good, Daddy. Nice and toasty.”
And kind of tired, but she wouldn’t tell him that.
“I’m glad, sweet pea. I wish I could just let you go to sleep. But we have a little matter to take care of, don’t we?”
She tensed. Drat. Seemed she hadn’t gotten away with it.
“Isn’t falling in the creek enough of a punishment, Daddy?” she asked.
“No.”
That was it? Just no. She sat up and looked at him. He gave her a stern stare back. Then he reached up and cupped the side of her face. “You know how much you mean to me, Gigi. You’re my whole world. I know I’m a bit obsessed with your health. But when you had that Lupus flare-up and ended up in the hospital, I was so worried about you. I wanted to bundle you up and put you somewhere safe where nothing bad would ever touch you. I still want to do that sometimes. I know I can’t. But the urge is there.”
“But nothing really bad happened. I just got a bit wet and cold. And that would have happened on the way home anyway when we got caught in the rain.”
“Except if you hadn’t fallen in the creek then we would have gotten home before the rain hit us,” he pointed out.
Drat. She hadn’t thought about that. Okay. He might have had a point.
“If you’re sure you’re warm enough now, I want you to stand up and push your pajama pants and panties right off then go stand in the corner while you think about what you did today and why you should follow the rules I give you.”
Bummer. She hated corner time. She stuck her lower lip out. “Shouldn’t we skip corner time, Daddy? I have to take a nap, after all.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Don’t worry, we have enough time to fit in both.”
“What if someone comes to the door, though?” she added.
“Do you really think someone is going to be out in this weather?”
Hmm. He had a good point.
“But I’ll lock the door so no one can walk in. Not that they would without knocking.” He stood and walked over to the door and locked it. Shoot. She was well and truly out of arguments.