Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“Did the party cost more than fifty thousand dollars?” I asked.
Dash pushed open the front door, causing me to topple past him into the house. Damn, he had me so flustered I got mixed up on what way the door opened.
“It cost about half that,” he said, surprising me with his honesty.
“Why would you spend so much?” I asked, once I managed to keep my body upright.
“For you,” he answered as if that was the obvious response and leaned in with puckered lips. I left him hanging and aimed for a critical brow raise and set jaw so he’d get a full sense of my displeasure.
“What did the school say?” Mia said from the kitchen table. She was the pixie-est looking one of the three with a new Tinker Bell hairstyle for the start of school. The cut fit her face perfectly, but I missed her long hair. They weren’t little anymore, but sometimes, I was lulled back into those sweet toddler years, where we had to be careful of color placement between them, otherwise we wouldn’t know which child was which.
What a serious mistake it had been to tell the girls that their school wanted to speak with us before the year began again. They’d been hounding us for days, wanting answers.
“Go get your sisters and Amelia,” Dash said. “Meet at the kitchen table in five minutes. I want to change my clothes.”
“I’ll get the boys watchin’ television on the porch while we talk to them,” I added, heading for the backyard to bring the little guys and the dogs to the porch where they could be seen from the kitchen. I whistled and gained their attention like every other time. The dogs made it to me first for a good rubdown before the boys skidded to a halt in front of me. Hunter bent with his hands on his knees, dramatically puffing out breath like he’d run a mile in a matter of minutes.
“We need to talk to Livie inside the house. I’m gonna turn on the television out here. I need you to sit down properly, and be good until we’re done,” I said, using the remote to find the Nickelodeon channel. It usually held their interest.
“Livie’s in trouble. Livie’s in trouble,” Fisher chanted, rocking his hips as he did his best to climb into the chair while keeping the dance going.
“Do you wanna watch another episode of Blaze?” I asked, ignoring Fisher.
“Yeah!!!!” That was all it took for them to scramble for their seats. I grabbed juice boxes from the outdoor fridge, and stuck the straw inside each one before handing it over.
“Put these headphones on,” Dash instructed, coming toward the porch from our bathroom door. “They should be synced. Test ’em out while we’re here.” He offered each dog a treat, quickly gaining their favor.
I motioned for them to a seat near the boys. In addition to the huge windows separating the kitchen from the back porch, Duke and Dixie were the best sitters. We’d know before any of the boys’ feet hit the ground, if they decided to leave the patio.
Who knew how long we had for serious talk time. It had to be fast.
“What’s going on, Dasham?” Amelia asked, handing out juice boxes to the girls, sitting around the table that doubled as a kitchen and dining room table, as well as a laundry folding station, and desk for homework.
“It’s funny when she calls Daddy Dasham,” Ava said. She had gone with a shaved sides haircut, making her hair look normal when it was down, but cool and edgy when it was up. She was drawn to the darker side of life, and deftly opened her own juice box by ramming the straw through the small opening.
“Little Miss Ava,” Amelia warned. “What have we talked about? You don’t need to say everything you think aloud.”
“Sorry,” Ava said, of course without an inkling of remorse.
Dash had to help Mia with her juice box—she was our scatterbrained child, only because she read emotion and energies in people, while always giving a kind hand. She was also our most normal child in her jean shorts and a tee. If a bug dared to invade our property, Mia swooped in on a rescue mission, happily lifting the insect to safety. She applied the same techniques to snakes and spiders too, which was a win for me as well. Too bad her strengths didn’t include inserting the plastic straw into the juice box without spilling it everywhere.
“What did they say, Paw?” Livie asked, exuding elegance in the same manner as a presidential first lady. Her hair was long, not a strand out of place. She sat naturally with her hands in her lap, her ankles crossed. “Do they want us to skip a grade again?”
“Sort of,” I said, taking the seat beside her. We waited to explain once Amelia joined us.