Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 100441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Then I think about what it would be like to actually hire some random guy off the street to be my child’s nanny. It’s an insane idea and one my usually overprotective self wouldn’t even contemplate. It would be safer to go through a nanny agency.
I can’t remember the last time I had fun just talking with someone like that. Most of my conversations over the last few years have all been with a tiny human who asks things like, “Why can’t we live on the moon?” or with musicians who are all professional. Well, except maybe Cash.
The way I got along with Lyric is part of why I don’t want to hire him. I’m worried my intentions aren’t entirely selfless, and like I told Cash, Kaylee is my priority, not my love life.
Yet, as I pull into Kaylee’s school and then see my little girl in tears, sitting in a chair in the office, I know there’s no way I can keep bringing her here.
“Mr. Kennedy.” Tiffany approaches.
“Save it,” I bark. I’m not the type of person to get angry—at anyone—but I’m mad now. “How do I unenroll her from this place?”
Kaylee’s little ears prick up at my voice, and she runs right into my arms.
She has a bandage over her forearm.
Tiffany looks confused. “Unenroll?”
“Yes. Unenroll. As in Kaylee will no longer be going to this school.”
“I don’t … I mean, I can assure you this won’t happen again.”
“Hmm, you said that last time. I should’ve pulled her out then. Do whatever you have to do. Kaylee won’t be coming back.”
I pick up my daughter, and I’m vibrating with rage.
I never should’ve left her. Nope, she’s not ready for school. Nope, nope, nope.
As I put her in her car seat and buckle her up, she looks up at me with her glassy green eyes. “Am I in trouble?”
“Oh, honey, no. Not at all. The school is. And the boy who bit you.”
“My teacher says he has ’motional problems.”
I’d hope so if he has a fascination with biting people.
“You don’t have to go back there, okay?”
“But you said I have to make friends.”
Oh, how my own words come back to bite me in the ass. It’s on the tip of my tongue to say I’ll buy you new friends, but I want genuine relationships for Kaylee.
“We’ll work something out, honey,” I say instead.
When we get home, I send Kaylee to her room to play with her toys while I jump online and look at the other schools Lyric recommended.
They all look great online, but my trust is a little shot.
I don’t know if another school is the right move for Kaylee. She’ll have to go next year, but right now, it’s not compulsory. Why send a kid to school longer than she has to be there? I hated school growing up, mainly because it was all God this and God that, Texas is great and so is God!
I pick up my phone, hitting a number I rarely get to nowadays even though we were inseparable at one point in our lives.
Harley Valentine, ex-Eleven member, answers right away. “Please tell me you’ve considered my offer to get Eleven back together and you’re jumping at the chance to go on tour with me again.”
Of course that’s the first thing he says. When he called a few months ago to tell me about his harebrained idea of getting Eleven back together, I told him he was drunk and hung up on him. Apparently, no, he wants it to be a thing.
“I told you, man. When we’re forty.”
“Can you really wait thirteen years to see my beautiful face again?”
“Who are you talking to?” comes a growly voice in the background.
“Ooh, someone’s boyfriend is jealous of how beautiful I am,” I taunt. “We both know I’m hotter than you.”
“Calm down, Rambo,” Harley says to his bodyguard boyfriend. “It’s only Ryder.”
“Nice to know you think so highly of me, but anyway, I’m calling because I need a favor.”
“Yes. Yes, I will get Eleven back together for you. It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”
“Not that.”
“One day.” Harley sighs.
“I can hear you pouting.”
“Just wait. After I finish this tour, I’m coming after you … in a nonthreatening way.”
I huff a laugh.
I’ll never understand why he wants Eleven to get back together. Since splitting, Harley has gone on to win two Grammys on his own. He has the most success out of any of us, so this whole get the boy band back together thing doesn’t make sense to me.
I’d jump at the chance if not for my current situation. The reason I left Eleven—to protect Kaylee—still hasn’t changed. I don’t know if it will until she’s a grown-up, and right now, I can’t even imagine her as a teenager, let alone an adult.
Oh God, a teenage girl. Nope, nope, nope, she will stay my baby forever.