Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 48550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 243(@200wpm)___ 194(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 243(@200wpm)___ 194(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
“Like the book?” Harper whispered.
Immediately, Beau’s chin lifted, and he tuned into their conversation. “The book?” he echoed. “The one I found in the parking lot on my way into school?”
“Yes,” Amber admitted, feeling her face heat a bit.
“I thought we decided to not talk about that book aloud ever again. We just write our notes in the margins,” Maisie pointed out, drumming her fingers on the literature they were neglecting.
“Rio called Amber ‘Little girl’ today,” Harper shared.
“You were supposed to keep that between you and me,” Amber hissed, throwing her hands up in the air dramatically.
“Come on! Harper can’t keep a secret. You wanted us to know,” Beau pointed out.
“Hey!” Harper protested Beau’s assessment before slumping in her chair. “You’re right. I can’t keep a secret from any of you.”
“Should we wait until Colt is here?” Beau asked.
“I’m here. What are we waiting for?” Colt appeared at the bottom of the stairs with a supersized pizza.
“That’s it! Time for a break,” Maisie declared, carefully moving the textbooks away to protect them.
A few minutes later, the pizza box lay open on the coffee table between them, and everyone munched a slice of pepperoni heaven. Amber hoped that her friends had forgotten what they’d discussed when Colt arrived, but she should have known better.
“So…catch me up,” Colt demanded.
“Rio called Amber Little girl,” Harper provided as she nibbled on the crust of the smallest piece of pizza.
“Harper!” Amber protested again.
“What? Everyone else knew,” Harper defended herself.
“He did?” Colt’s attention switched from the slice in his hand to Amber. “What did he say exactly?”
“Happy birthday, Little girl,” Amber admitted.
“We knew others had to exist—Daddies and Little girls! Do you think Rio is a Daddy?” Beau asked.
“Definitely,” Maisie answered. “I’ve known that for a while.”
“What?” Amber screeched and then lowered her voice as she heard Harper’s dad stomp three times on the floor above them. That signal meant quiet. When he flipped the lights three times on the stairs, it was time for everyone to go home. They all paid attention to her friend’s dad. He was a massive man who worked for the state highway department driving an excavator.
“Sorry!” she whispered. “You can’t just say that and not explain. What are you talking about, Maisie?”
“I’ve suspected Rio was a Daddy for a while. I finally just asked him,” Maisie explained.
“What? You just asked him? Like… Hey, Rio. Are you a Daddy?” Amber mocked, unbelieving.
“It was more like… Rio, I think you’re a Daddy dom. Am I wrong?” Maisie said bluntly.
Beau covered his mouth and Amber knew he was trying not to laugh. Maisie sometimes didn’t have a polite filter. Blurting out random bits of information or questions was part of her charm. It was as if she was too busy solving the complex problems in her mind to worry about social acceptability.
Colt raised an eyebrow and nodded. “That would be the most direct way to find out. What did he say?”
“Yes.” Maisie took another bite of pizza and chewed as she looked around at everyone leaning forward eagerly.
“That’s all? He just said yes, and you didn’t ask him any other follow-up questions?” Amber asked, trying to keep her volume down so they didn’t get another quieting stomp from Harper’s dad.
“That was the only thing I wanted to know.” When Amber tumbled dramatically to the floor, Maisie asked, “What? I didn’t have like prewritten questions. I was sitting at the bar waiting while you were in the bathroom and the question popped into my mind.”
“When was this?” Amber asked as she dragged herself up to sit against the side of the couch.
“I think it was before that big football game against the Chargers last year,” Maisie said after thinking about it for a while.
“Like a year ago?” Harper asked.
“Probably?”
“I’m implementing a new rule now. Anyone talks to Rio about being a Daddy, I want to know,” Amber stated.
“For how long?” Colt asked.
“Forever. The new rule is if you talk to Rio about being a Daddy anytime from now until we all are fifty or dead, you have to tell me.” Amber looked around the circle of friends and waited for each one to nod.
CHAPTER 3
Rio knelt on the hardwood floor in his one-room apartment. Opening the battered wooden lid of his footlocker, he unpacked a few treasured mementos. At the very bottom sat a tattered volume wrapped in brown shipping paper. Carefully, he lifted the packet and removed the protective covering.
Amber always sat her books on the corner of the bar when she came in after school to talk to her dad or beg a ride to an event. He’d moved them once when a tipsy patron had almost coated her algebra book in bourbon. Over the years, it had become a habit. He liked taking care of her.
When he’d found her books on a table in the corner one evening as he was cleaning up, Rio had picked up the stack and noticed one wasn’t a textbook. Carrying them to the shelf he’d established for her books, he read the spine. It said simply, Daddy.