Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Donnelly and I share a bright look.
She’s adorable. Too cute for this earth, and I get giddy every time she demands to cosplay as the Thebulan Princess Solana. Her purple leotard glitters like my dress.
I check the time. “We only have a few minutes.”
Elara reads a few more lines, muttering to herself.
“Please and thank yous to the little alien who can bookmark her page,” Donnelly tells our daughter. “Your mommy is right. We have to go.”
She huffs a little but earmarks the passage, and Donnelly scoops her up from the wardrobe so quickly that she drops the paperback. Her fit of giggles is music to my ears. I bend down, careful not to rip the fabric ties of my dress and pick up the book.
Donnelly holds our little alien upside-down. “I can hear the floor!” she tells us. “It’s giving me all the secrets.”
“Yeah, what’s the floor telling you?” Donnelly asks her, his smile shifting to me.
“It loves Mommy’s shoes, and it thinks you should have glitter on yours, too.”
I nod in agreement. “There’s never enough glitter in this world.”
“Stamp,” Donnelly says in agreement and flips our daughter upright and back on her feet, and he casts another adoring look back at me.
I love him.
Paul Donnelly Hale.
Married on Earth, we were. But nothing was as momentous as the day Donnelly stared into my eyes and said, “Let’s make a baby.”
“What?” I almost didn’t believe him.
“I wanna have a baby with you.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
Donnelly finally believed he could welcome someone so innocent into his world, and they’d never be harmed. Stability, light, and peace—he found perfect balance and harmony among all living things.
But I always knew the force was in him.
Elara holds his hand and then reaches out for mine. She likes to walk in with us like she’s a “big girl” and not on her dad’s shoulders like when she was four.
I take her hand. “Ready for take off?” I ask her.
She nods vigorously. Her round face more like mine.
“You strapped in?” Donnelly asks after grabbing the messenger bag off the floor.
She mimes putting on a seatbelt. “Ready.”
Together, the three of us walk out of the dressing room and down a narrow hallway. She skips and swings between us, a ball of effervescent joy.
Our one and only. Our little Gemini.
I have her constellation inked below the Leo on my back. In shades of fuchsia.
Security leads us to the main door, and when Donnelly’s phone pings, he stops short and drops Elara’s hand.
We wait for him to unpocket his phone. He up-nods to a few bodyguards, recognizing them as they pass and join our personal detail for the event.
The day we learned I was pregnant, he retired from security. He’s a comic book illustrator. A tattooist. A former bodyguard. But he’d tell you his favorite job on our planet is being Elara’s dad.
He frowns at the Caller ID. “It’s Farrow,” he says, and I nod for him to take it.
“We have a minute,” I tell him, but in truth, I think we’d both make a thousand minutes for Farrow. I watch him answer the call, and he’s all frown lines before he grins.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll tell her.” He hangs up, and it’s my turn to be confused. His blue eyes hit mine. “Farrow says he’ll babysit this weekend.”
Elara hears, and her smile reaches her eyes. “Overnight?”
“Yep,” I say. “We have to go to New York for a little bit. You’ll be okay at Uncle Farrow and Uncle Moffy’s for one night?”
She nods rapidly like she cannot wait until she’s there. Not that I blame her. Four of her cousins are under that roof. Ripley, Cassidy, Violet, and Walsh. My brother and Farrow wanted me to be the egg donor for V and Walsh. A girl and their youngest boy. I cherish them just as much as my other nieces and nephews. But I’m really happy Moffy and Farrow got to have some Hale genes sprinkled into their brood, and there’s not a day that I don’t feel honored they chose me for the task.
“Can I stay there three nights?” Elara asks us with a flutter of her eyelashes.
Donnelly and I share a look. She’s a negotiator. Donnelly once said, “She gets that from you, boss babe.” But I’d like to think she just knows what she wants and she goes for it. Donnelly has that in him just as much as me.
“Nah,” Donnelly shakes his head. “One night. Otherwise I’m gonna miss you too much, El-Rey. Who’s gonna do the morning crossword with me?”
“True,” she says in a serious look. She gasps. “My book.”
“Safe and sound.” It’s under my armpit. “Ready?”
Donnelly opens the door to a cacophony of voices and sudden, abrupt applause. Lights flash in our face as we wave to the packed auditorium and reach a desk. Comics are stacked high. I get Elara situated next to me on the third chair, and Donnelly sets out a pile of stickers in front of her. Metallic stars that she asks if they’d like next to our autographs.