Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“Where are Michael and Deke going?” Charlie set a load of laundry down on the bed.
Because his office was now in the bedroom. The actual home office he’d been sure he would never have to use was now a distant dream that had three different laptops in various stages of decay that served as “school.”
The girls were still sharing a bedroom, and they’d converted the one meant for Tasha into a playroom complete with a crafting table, pink floofy bean bags, and glitter everywhere. He was pretty sure the girls were made of glitter at this point.
“Los Angeles,” he replied, putting his headset aside. His next virtual meeting wasn’t for another thirty minutes. “Hutch is already out there, and there’s some concern with cybersecurity for one of our clients. He’s here in Dallas, and given the nature of his job, he wants security as he goes out to deal with it.”
She winced, likely because she knew which company they were talking about. “Tell them to be careful.”
It was a big pharma company working on a vaccine. It was shocking how even though the company was working in concert with several other companies, there were still people trying to sabotage them.
Foreign actors, or even domestic ones, who wanted to sow chaos. He wasn’t letting it happen because he freaking wanted to get out of this house one day. He loved this house, but damn…
There was the sound of something crashing and breaking and then utter silence.
The silence was what really scared him.
They both took off running down the hallway, past Travis sleeping in his crib and Seth in his playpen, holding on to the edge so he could try to see what had happened.
All three girls stood in the kitchen, one of the everyday dishes smashed on the floor between them.
“Okay, no one move.” Charlie sighed in obvious relief. “I’ll get the broom. Kenz, you especially stay where you are. You don’t have shoes on. I thought something terrible had happened.”
Something had happened, but Charlie was missing it.
“I did it,” Kala said. “I dropped the plate. I was trying to get some cake and I slipped.”
No, she hadn’t. She was a good liar, but he could see through her right now. Kenzie wasn’t good at all, and she was looking at Tash, who had gone a pasty white.
Fuck. How careful had she been all these months? She wore what Charlie told her to wear, helped around the house, never complained, and she’d made one wrong move and now she thought it would all fall apart.
“Tash? Was it you?” He had a point to make. They were all on edge, and he was about to piss his wife off and probably everyone would shame him for being an unsafe dad and shit, but this needed to happen.
Tears rolled. “Yes, Mr. Ian. It was me. I wanted the cake, and the plate slipped out of my hand.”
Her accent had softened a bit over the months, but it was back in full force now. And she’d forgotten it was afternoon and they’d shifted to English. He wasn’t going to call her out on that.
“If I told you it’s okay, would you believe me?” he asked quietly, replying to her in Russian since it was the language she fell back on when she was scared.
Tasha nodded. “Of course.”
Liar.
He picked up a dish off the counter where it had been drying and let it slip out of his hand, crashing to the floor.
“It’s only a dish, sweetheart. It’s not going to get you in trouble. You are more important than any dish. You are my daughter.” He enunciated each word, certain he was getting it right. His Russian had improved even as Tash’s English got better.
Tasha’s eyes had gone wide and she gasped.
“Ian, what the…” Charlie stopped and then seemed to process what had happened. She sighed. “Oh, well, it was time for new dishes anyway.”
She picked up a cereal bowl, and it joined the ruins.
Kala was tossing down a plate before Ian could stop her, glee in her eyes. “Can we do them all?”
He walked over and picked up Kenzie because she’d been good and hadn’t moved even though he could see plainly she hated being left out of the destruction. He let her select a dish and do her own damage.
He moved her out of the way and set her on the rug before he got to one knee in front of Tasha. “Mistakes will happen, daughter. You will not lose your place in this family for any reason, much less a couple of broken dishes. You need to feel safe enough to make mistakes and know you won’t be hurt for them. I just want you to think about that. Now help your…help Miss Charlie clean up and then we’ll all have a piece of cake.”