Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 103061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Knock it off, old man. Just because you haven’t had sex in over a year doesn’t give you permission to gawk. She’s way too young for you.
“Winnie brought us cupcakes,” Luna called out as I approached, gesturing at a white bakery box in Winnie’s hands. “And she says they don’t have nuts in them!”
“They’re from my mom’s pastry shop, Plum & Honey.” Winnie smiled brightly at me as I climbed the steps, causing the tiniest catch in my chest. “One of my little sisters has nut allergies too, so she’s very careful.”
“She said there’s two in the box for each of us.” Hallie clapped her hands with excitement.
“I wasn’t sure which flavors you’d like, so I just chose some of my favorites—sugar cookie, chocolate chip pancake, maple bacon cinnamon—”
“Bacon!” Hallie and Luna looked at each other and made their that’s disgusting face, generally reserved for meals I’d botched and asked them to eat anyway.
“Bacon on a cupcake?” Hallie was incredulous. “That doesn’t sound good at all.”
Winnie laughed. “I know it probably doesn’t to a kid, but I like it.”
“You can have that one, Daddy,” Luna said benevolently.
It actually sounded fucking great to me—I’d eat bacon on anything. But I said nothing as I moved around the trio to unlock the front door.
“Will you feed our cat?” I heard Luna ask Winnie behind me.
“Oh, do you have a cat?”
“No,” I said, giving Luna a menacing glare over my shoulder. “We don’t.”
“But we might get one in the future,” Hallie said.
Luna tried again. “Will you feed our future cat?”
That made Hallie laugh. “Future Cat sounds kind of like a cartoon or a superhero. Hey, maybe our cat will have superpowers!”
“And we can get it a little cape,” Luna said.
“There will be no cats, with or without superpowers,” I announced.
“He’s still grouchy about the couch,” Hallie said to Winnie, who tried not to laugh. “And because he has to go to a party tonight and he doesn’t like them.”
“Go on inside now, girls,” I ordered, propping the screen door open with my back. “We have to start getting cleaned up soon. I want to leave before seven.”
Luna beamed up at Winnie. “We get to go to the party too.”
“How exciting! Well, I won’t keep you—I just wanted to drop these off.” She met my eyes and handed over the box with a smile. “Welcome to the neighborhood.”
There was that hitch in my breath again, like a loose thread snagging. The girls were right—she was pretty. Her eyes were deep blue and fringed with thick black lashes, and she had dark blond hair streaked with gold. It was pulled back from her face, which was shaped like a heart. When I took the box from her, my fingers brushed the back of her hands, and I didn’t like the way it sent heat rushing up my arms. “Thanks.”
“My pleasure.” One more smile, and then she moved past us and bounced energetically across my driveway, which separated our front doors. Jesus, she even moved like a kid.
But I found it hard to take my eyes off her, and when she turned back to glance at me, she caught me staring.
Embarrassed, I quickly turned and went inside the house.
“Daddy, can we have a cupcake now?” Hallie asked, washing her hands at the kitchen sink.
“I guess.”
I set the box on the kitchen counter and found a knife to slice through the sticker sealing it shut. The girls opened the top, squealing like it was Christmas morning. Each of them grabbed a gigantic cupcake and started inhaling it.
“Mmmm,” said Hallie as she took a big bite of pink frosting that almost looked like it sparkled. “This tastes like cotton candy.”
Luna had dark brown frosting on the tip of her nose. “Mine is chocolate.”
“Are you going to have one, Daddy?”
I washed my hands and came over to look inside the box. There were four cupcakes left, all different, and one of them had bacon crumbled on top of caramel-colored frosting. “Maybe I will.”
The girls laughed as I took the wrapper off and opened my mouth wide enough to bite the thing in half. “Mmmm,” I moaned, and I wasn’t pretending—the thing was fucking delicious. I ate the entire cupcake standing right there at the counter. The girls couldn’t quite finish theirs and left me to clean up the mess while they went upstairs to choose party outfits.
“I’ll be up in a minute to turn the shower on,” I yelled, hunting around for a roll of paper towels. I really wished Chip’s party wasn’t tonight—I hadn’t unpacked half my shit yet. I’d be lucky to find a comb and some deodorant.
But I wanted to see my old friend, and he’d already texted me that bringing the kids was no problem at all. He said he was looking forward to meeting them, and so was Mariah, his fiancée. I’d never met her, but judging by how fast Chip had proposed, I figured she must be pretty cool. Chip wasn’t the kind of guy to make a rash decision.