Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
I do and I feel them burn with moisture.
“And hell if I don’t love you just as much as she does too.” He uses his thumb to catch my tears and rubs the moisture off the rough pad with his finger. “Love doesn’t come with conditions, it just is. When you figure that out, you’ll feel it just the same and we ain’t goin’ anywhere while you work on that.”
“You love me?”
“As much as, if not more than I love your momma.”
“You really love her,” I comment quietly because I know he does, I can tell when he looks at her all gooey. It’s so gross.
“Your momma is so easy to love.”
“Easier than me?”
“Ain’t nobody in this entire world who is easier to love than you,” he states and my lower lip trembles. “Behavin’ the way you do ain’t gonna make people stop loving you. It’s just gonna make you miss out on stuff we all know you’ll love. Like going to the movies for example with your giant dad here.” He bangs on his chest like a gorilla which makes me almost fall back laughing. “Or going to Travis County Fair with your momma in there who hates all the big rides but it’s funny watchin’ her scream. You really wanna miss that?”
I shake my head because I really don’t want to miss that. “You’d take me to the county fair.”
“Little darlin’, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go that’s not ridiculously dangerous. But you gotta give us a chance in return. Okay?”
Nodding, I wipe my eyes on my wrist. “Okay.”
“Good, then let’s go figure out your schedule.”
Smiling now, no… beaming, I stand up as he does and place my hand in his when he offers it. It’s so big and warm. He winks at me and we walk together, every two steps of mine make almost one of his.
When we reach the house, Immy is standing in the kitchen with a cup of something hot. I can see the steam rising out of the top.
“We good?” Immy asks, her eyes glancing between the two of us.
Kane smiles down at me. “We’re good.” He lets go of my hand after giving it a squeeze and lifts me up onto the counter which makes me giggle because I wasn’t expecting it. “Let’s start making plans, shall we? Before bolter here hops the fence and legs it to Mexico.”
Grinning, I look at Immy who slides a pen and paper closer to me and writes in block letters at the top of the page, “DAYS OUT.”
“What do you really want to do, that you never get to do?” Immy asks and my heart starts hammering in my chest.
“Anything?”
“Yep, if we can do it, we’ll do it.”
I chew on my lip and look around the room. I’m nervous. What if they say no? I don’t want to feel stupid.
“Go on,” Stacey mouths.
“I like Disney.”
Immy writes Disney movies down.
“Anythin’ else?”
“There’s this cake place in the city,” I admit, mouthwatering at the thought. “Where they do you like a spread of cupcakes to taste allll their flavors. Melody got to go for her birthday with her uncle. I really want to go.”
“You want to go eat cake?” Immy asks, lips twitching.
I nod and sigh wistfully. “I love cake.”
“Me too,” Kane agrees and we bump fists. “Definitely put that on the list.”
“I’m tryin’ to watch my waistline,” Immy jests as she scribbles it down. For somebody who is so good at art, her handwriting is like mine. Very messy.
“I didn’t say you have to eat it.”
She yanks on my braid like Kane did and smiles fondly at me. I never want her to look at me in any other way.
Immy
2 months later
“You’ve gotta crank this and hold on real tight, okay?” West Jessop tells my eight-year-old daughter as he climbs onto the back of the quad she’s about to drive. She’s kitted out from helmet to booted toe, but my heart is still racing.
“They’ll be fine,” Kane whispers in my ear, kissing the shell. “Let him have this.”
“I’m not about to stop them.”
“You sure? You’re holding onto that grill fork like you’re ready to poke him with it.”
I look at my white knuckles around the handle of the arm length tool and quickly hang it back on the grill.
One month ago Connie Felicia Jessop decided not only that we could give her a new middle name and surname, but that she was ready to come and live with us at Kane’s home in Faceless. And though social services are still present in our lives and will be for the next six months or so, she’s staying right where she is. And so am I.
We have decorated her room to suit her tastes which consists of dark purples and greens and a medley of other random dark shades of colors. Whatever floats her boat of course. She seems to love it and I just love having her here. I read to her every night if she lets me, sometimes it makes her sad and she opened up to me a week ago and said it reminds her of her first momma. So I said well if we keep doing it, maybe all our story time memories will erase the memories that bring her pain.