Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 60077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
“Nice emotions.” Sighing, Orlando rested his head on my shoulder. “Not loud. Not angry. No robots.”
Considering the variety of emotions his family showed on a regular basis, I couldn’t blame him. “That’s right and I’m glad you understand how important that is for you.”
“A nice spanky Daddy.” Perking up again, he giggled as he sat back up. “No meanies.”
Chuckling, I nodded. “That’s right. No meanies.”
There were a lot of other issues that could pop up outside of being mean, but I’d keep a closer eye on him no matter what he was doing or who he was dating. I’d clearly assumed he’d shifted into being the boring kind of adult…innocent and vanilla…but that was ridiculously off base.
“Nice helpers and Daddies give cookies?” His manipulatively cheerful smile was definitely designed to get a treat.
“Are you a meanie?” Giving me a pout, he sighed. “Meanies don’t give cookies.”
Brat.
“I don’t know.” Shrugging, I made a thoughtful hum and pretended to need a while to process the question. “I don’t think I’m a meanie but I don’t know if I have cookies.”
I might but it wasn’t a given.
“We’ll look.” Taking my hand, he jumped up like a rabbit and started tugging at me. “Hurry.”
If anything showed our age difference, it was how quickly he could get off the floor. I wasn’t at the groaning phase, but I also wasn’t popping up like a mole in that old arcade game. “Alright, let’s go look. Where are your shoes?”
His shrug as he released my hand was incredibly unhelpful but the expectant way he was watching me gave me a hint about what he was thinking. Finding shoes was clearly a Daddy job. “Are they playing Hide and Seek?”
Yes.
“They hide.” Orlando frowned as he looked around, arms starting to swing back and forth. “Boots don’t hide. They’re important.”
So work footwear knew they were important, so they stayed put?
“Then we need special shoes that know Trippy thinks they’re important too.” He clearly didn’t like the current ones enough to keep track of them. “What kind of shoes would be more important?”
“Car shoes.” He answered that quickly enough I knew he’d already been thinking about the answer. “But grown-ups don’t wear car shoes.”
Bullshit.
But I wasn’t sure telling him that his family was full of assholes was a good idea, so I took a different route. “You’re not a grown-up all the time, though. When you play with friends or when we hang out you need fun shoes.”
I mirrored his own shrug, like there was nothing we could do about it. “So we need to find car shoes and maybe animal shoes?”
There was special shit for everyone online, but it’d been a long time since I’d looked for anything like that.
“Animals?” Looking intrigued, Orlando started randomly walking around the living room like he was expecting his shoes to jump out and scream boo any second. “I like animals.”
He liked cars and trucks better, but we probably needed a variety of clothing so he could pick different options depending on his mood. He was going to have a lot of different moods, so there was no point in pretending otherwise.
“I think I’m going to have to do some research so we can pick out a couple of options for you.” Searching under the couch, I wasn’t sure what about that made him snicker. “What?”
Looking delighted with something, Orlando nearly bounced around the living room and up to the front door. “Presents.”
Good grief.
Were shoes a better present than flowers with cars in them?
Where did they rank in terms of chocolates and Build-a-Bear?
“I’m not responding to that.” No matter how cute he was when he snickered, I wasn’t going to promise more presents…even if I was going to get him more presents.
“Daddies give presents.” Orlando seemed to be fawning over his flowers judging by what I could see of him. “I like presents.”
That was not a surprise.
“Well, sometimes yes, but that’s usually for special occasions like Christmas and when their boy has been very good.” My response just got a giggle that sounded like he didn’t believe that at all.
I was going to blame that on Enzo and Terrence.
“I’ve been very, very good.” The silly tone in his voice had me wanting to call bullshit on that, but I didn’t have a specific reason. “Good. Good. Good boy.”
The singsongy note in his voice had me shaking my head as he bounced into the kitchen and I looked behind the couch for the still MIA shoes.
“Found them.” What were they doing tucked between the couch and the wall? “How did they end up back here?”
“Oh, the couch.” Since it seemed like he knew exactly where they’d been, I frowned at him as he bounced back into the living room. “Sorry.”
His shrug and slightly apologetic grin did not scream sorry to me, but I nodded anyway. “Thank you, but we’re going to make a plan to figure out where your new shoes will go.”