Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 29741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 149(@200wpm)___ 119(@250wpm)___ 99(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 149(@200wpm)___ 119(@250wpm)___ 99(@300wpm)
Perhaps rolling her eyes at Daddy hadn’t been the smartest thing.
Yeah, Naughty Betsy shouldn’t have done that.
“Okay, baby. Come here.”
Turning, she saw him sitting on her bed once more and flew toward him. He caught her, drawing her onto his lap.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. I mean, Naughty Betsy is really sorry.”
“Naughty Betsy is forgiven,” he replied, kissing her cheek. “Now, time for that nap.”
He tucked her in and Stella in. Then he found Floppy under the bed.
“Here is Floppy,” he said, handing her toy elephant to her.
She hugged them tight, kissing Stella and Floppy. “I think they miss me.”
“They can still sleep with us at night, Button,” he told her. “They don’t have to stay in here.”
“But what about Zippy? What if she needs me in the middle of the night?” Betsy asked.
“Well, so far she seems to sleep like a log from when she goes down until when she gets up. And second, do you think she’s going to think less of you if you do sleep with a couple of toys?”
“I . . . I don’t know.” But it was something she worried about. And what if she said something to her caseworker?
Would they take Zippy away?
“Stop worrying. Sleep with your toys. Lots of adults do. It will be fine.”
Sighing, she nodded. She did miss having Stella and Floppy with her at night. And she worried about them being lonely down here on their own.
“Go to sleep. Daddy will take care of everything. I promise.”
Snuggling down, she nodded and held on tight to her toys.
Everything would be okay. Better than okay.
Because she had Ink, her boys, and now Zippy.
What could possibly go wrong?
5
“Hey, Zippy, how was school?” Betsy asked that Friday after Zippy had climbed into her car and buckled in.
Zippy shrugged. “It was okay, I guess. But kids can be kind of dumb.”
“Um, they can?” she asked cautiously.
Did Zippy remember that she was a child?
“Uh-huh. They worry about stupid stuff like what they’re getting for Christmas. And where they’re going on vacation.”
“Oh. And you don’t think about that stuff?”
Zippy shrugged. “Santa hasn’t come to see me the last two years, so why should I care about what he’s doing?”
Betsy drew over to the side of the road, then turned around to look at the small girl. “Santa hasn’t visited you in the last two years?”
Zippy shook her head. “Nope. And I don’t care. If he doesn’t care about me, then why would I care about him? The other kids all thought I was mean to say that. But I’m not being mean.” She crossed her arms over her chest, staring out the car window.
God.
She was killing Betsy.
Of course she cared, Betsy could see it in the wobble of her chin.
And it made her heart ache.
But Zippy was putting on such a brave front.
“Do you want to go visit him anyway?” Betsy asked. “I could take you this weekend?”
“Nope. Because then I’d be tempted to kick him in the shin.”
Hmm. Yeah. Probably not a good idea.
And Betsy didn’t know what to tell her. How did she explain this to Zippy? Anything she could think of seemed the wrong thing to say.
“Well, whether Santa visits or not, we can still have fun at Christmas. We can bake cookies. Decorate the tree. Drink hot cocoa in front of the fire. Shop for gifts for the boys and Ink. Hang up our stockings.”
“What’s the point of a stocking if Santa doesn’t come?”
“And what if he does come?” Betsy asked.
“I don’t think he’s real.”
Oh, man.
Betsy’s heart was tearing in two.
Keep it together.
“Well, I believe,” Betsy told her. “And I have stockings for everyone else. I thought we could pick yours together.”
“Even the twins have stockings?” Zippy gave her a skeptical look
“Yes, they do.”
“They believe in a jolly fat man in a red suit who comes down a chimney to deliver toys?” Zippy asked.
“Sweetheart, they’ve already made their wish lists for Santa. You can ask them tonight.”
Thankfully, Baron had not blown up the chemistry lab and they were both still enrolled in college.
“They’re coming home?” Zippy asked.
“Just for the weekend. College finishes for Christmas in a month. They’ll be home for a few weeks then. You miss them, huh?”
Zippy shrugged. “Kind of. You know . . . they’re okay.”
Right. Betsy thought they might be more than okay. But she’d leave that alone. If Zippy didn’t want to admit to a case of hero worship, Betsy wouldn’t make her.
“All right, then. So . . . Christmas shopping?”
“If it’s what you want to do, I guess we can go.”
Well, it wasn’t a ringing endorsement but Betsy would take it.
6
“What do you mean he’s missing?” Ink thundered into the phone.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Isaiah said tiredly. “I checked the camera feed for the past couple of days and Leon hasn’t been around. Tonight, when it got dark, I snuck into his house. Looks like he hasn’t been there for a while. There’s mail in the mailbox, and dirty dishes in the sink.”