Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 101488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 507(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“Oh yeah?”
She nodded.
“Well, let me tell you one now.” I crooked my finger for her to come closer. When she did, I moved my mouth to her ear and whispered, “I’m fucking crazy about you, sweetheart.”
She looked at me and smiled. “I’m crazy about you, too.”
***
Sure enough, Charlie woke about ten minutes before the movie ended. She stretched her arms over her head. “Can we have ice cream now?”
I chuckled. “You’re barely awake.”
“I’m awake enough for ice cream.”
“Alright. Why don’t you two go sit at the table, and I’ll make us bowls. You want the works?”
Charlie nodded fast with a toothy smile.
I lifted my chin to Stella. “How about you?”
“What’s in the works?”
“Whipped cream, sprinkles, nuts, banana slices, and chocolate sauce.”
She licked her lips. “Definitely.”
In the kitchen, I whipped up three bowls. Setting them down at the table, I said, “Alright. Who wants to go first?”
Charlie pointed to Stella. “Stella! I want to know her secret.”
“Oh boy…” Stella said. “You need to give me a minute then so I can think of one.”
We shoveled ice cream into our mouths until eventually Stella raised her hand. “Thought of one!” She leaned over the table toward Charlie and lowered her voice. “No one knows this. Are you sure you can keep a secret?”
My daughter’s eyes were wide with mirth, and she nodded rapidly.
“Okay. Well, when I was about eight or nine—not too much older than you—I found this turtle at the park. It was only about this big.” Stella made a circle the size of a golf ball with her hands. “I brought it home and asked my parents if I could keep it, but they said no because they thought he belonged outside. So the next day, I went back to the park and tried to set him free. I put him back in the area of the grass where I’d found him, but he blended in so well that at least a half-dozen kids almost squished him while they were running around playing. I just knew if I left him there, he’d get hurt. So that night, I snuck him back into the house and kept him in a drawer in my room. A week later, my mom found him when she was in my room putting away laundry. She made me go put him back again. I did, but every chance I got, I’d go check on him. I tried putting him in a corner of the park that was safer, but he would find his way back to areas where kids ran around. I worried about him a lot. A few weeks later, my family was going to Florida for vacation—to Disney and SeaWorld. So I tucked the turtle into my backpack, snuck him into SeaWorld, and set him free inside the turtle exhibit. I figured he’d be safe there.”
I raised a brow. “You smuggled an animal into SeaWorld?”
Stella nodded. “I like to think of it as helping him get asylum, but yes.”
“Daddy, can we go to SeaWorld? Maybe we’ll see the turtle Stella saved.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her the thing was likely long dead. “Maybe someday.”
Charlie shoveled a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. “Your turn, Daddy.”
I admitted that I’d never been to SeaWorld, and then gave the floor to my daughter.
She tapped her pointer to her lips as the wheels in her head turned. “Can mine just be a secret that Stella doesn’t know? I can’t think of anything you don’t know, Daddy.”
“Sure.”
Charlie leaned toward Stella, mimicking what Stella had done earlier. She cupped both hands around her mouth and whispered, “My name isn’t really Charlie.”
“Wow. Okay. That is a pretty big secret. I had no idea.” Stella’s eyes flickered to mine, and I nodded confirmation before her attention returned to my daughter.
“Is Charlie short for something?” she asked.
My daughter shook her head. “I was named after my grandmas. My middle name is Charlotte, like Daddy’s mom was.”
“So Charlie is short for Charlotte, which is your middle name? But then what’s your first name?”
“My mommy’s mom’s name—Laken.”
“Laken?” Stella’s brows drew together. “So your name is Laken Charlotte?”
Charlie nodded. “Daddy, can I have more whipped cream on my ice cream?” She tilted her bowl toward me and frowned. “Mine’s all gone.”
“That’s because you ate it. But I guess so. Go grab the can from the fridge, okay?”
Charlie hopped off her chair, already done with the secrets game and moving on, but Stella looked confused.
“Her name is Laken Charlotte? That can’t be a common name combination.”
I shrugged. “Probably not. My ex-wife’s mom passed away a few months before Charlie was born. She wanted to name her after her mom, so we combined our mother’s names to honor them both. But after Charlie was born, Lexi had a little postpartum depression, and every time she called the baby Laken, it made her emotional and upset. So we started calling her by her middle name—Charlotte, but shortened it to Charlie. It stuck. By the time she was a month or two old, Charlie was Charlie, and calling her anything else didn’t feel right.”