Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 86126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86126 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“She’s dilated that far?” Noel muttered dubiously.
“I guess so,” I replied, like I knew what the fuck she was talking about.
“She wasn’t even having contractions this morning.”
“Uh, you’d know better than I do about all that.”
“Okay,” she muttered, her eyes wide. “Okay, uh, she’ll need her overnight bag. I’ll go get it. And um, we should probably—”
“Slow down,” I ordered softly, setting my hand on her back. “Otto said he’s gonna send my mom to get her overnight bag. That’s handled. He asked that we not tell the girls so they can surprise Flora themselves.”
Noel’s body went completely still. I don’t think she knew that I’d noticed. She was trying hard not to react at all.
“She wants me to stay here with the girls,” Noel said slowly, tipping her head back to look at me. The excitement had been completely wiped from her expression. “She doesn’t want me to come.”
“Uh, yeah.” I held back a wince. Shit.
“Otto’s staying with her?” she asked skeptically.
“Of course.”
Noel let out a small laugh that I couldn’t interpret. I just knew she hadn’t found anything funny.
“Okay, well, good,” she said with a tight smile. She looked around, but I had no clue what she was looking for. I didn’t even think she knew what she was looking for. A place to escape, maybe. “Thanks for making sure everything is okay. I’m going to run upstairs and grab Esther’s bag so your mom can grab it and then I’m going to finish up on dinner. The girls are getting hungry.”
“Alright.” I watched her carefully. God, she was trying so hard to seem unaffected, that it was torture not to touch her. “You sure you don’t want me to grab Esther’s bag?”
“No, no, that’s okay,” she assured me as she strode toward the stairs. “Can you just keep an ear out for the girls?”
“No problem.”
When Noel was upstairs, I went back into the living room to find Flora bossing the other two around with mixed results. From what I could gather, she was trying to clean up the room, and Ariel was more than willing to help her, but Diana was either oblivious or knew exactly how to ignore her cousin to the best effect. Flora was fuming.
“I’ll help you, Flower,” I said, trying to defuse the situation. “Looks like Diana’s not ready to stop playin’ with her toys yet.”
“Mommy’s going to be home soon and I want to get the room clean,” Flora practically growled.
“You know what?’ I asked, picking her up before she could completely lose her shit. “I actually just talked to your dad. He said they’re gonna be a little longer and he wants you to spend the night with me and Auntie Noel.”
“Why?” Flora asked suspiciously.
By the frown on her face my soothing adult voice was clearly unbelievable, so I went in the opposite direction. “How the hell would I know? Your dad doesn’t tell me shit.”
Flora watched me for a moment. “That’s true,” she said with a sigh.
“It’s all good, kid,” I assured her. “I think they’re comin’ home tomorrow.”
“You said a bad word,” Ariel said, looking wide-eyed at me from across the room. “You said two bad words.”
“Don’t repeat ’em,” I ordered.
“I won’t,” she assured me, shaking her head.
“I’m going to start the rice,” Noel called out. “About half an hour until dinner, girls.”
“You hear that?” I glanced down at Diana to find her stuffing some kind of slimy toy into her mouth.
I quickly put Flora back on her feet and dove for the two-year-old. “What is that?” I griped as I fished it out of her mouth.
“That’s my slime slug,” Flora said, looking over my shoulder. “Ew, Diana. Now it’s all slobbery.”
“That’s nasty, princess,” I told Diana as she scowled at me for taking her snack. “Don’t put shit in your mouth.”
“You said another bad word!” Ariel announced.
“You know what, honey?” I asked, turning toward her. “I say a lotta bad words. You’re probably gonna get real sick of havin’ to remind me when I do.”
Ariel just looked at me.
“Maybe we could have a signal,” I said, making her eyes brighten with interest. “You hear me say a bad word and you tap your cheek. That way we’ll both know I said ’em.”
“Like this?” she asked, tapping her index finger against her cheek.
“Just like that.”
She stood there, waiting.
“Shit,” I mumbled.
She tapped her cheek.
I winked back.
“Come on, Diana,” I murmured, taking her with me as I got to my feet. “Let’s put you in the high chair while Mama makes some dinner, yeah?”
“Want dinner,” she agreed, wrapping her arms around my neck like a monkey.
Ariel and Flora immediately went back to cleaning up the toys, zeroing in on the little mess that Diana had surrounded herself with and hadn’t allowed them to touch.
“Hey, baby,” Noel greeted from across the room as I carried Diana into view. “You getting hungry?”