Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“This is so much fun,” I say, sitting on the blanket with my legs to the side. “Isn’t it fun?”
“Yeah,” she agrees, sitting down on the other side of me. “There are a lot of people.”
“Wait until the Christmas fair comes to town, and then we have the Santa Claus parade down Main Street.” I smile at her. “It’s my favorite time. What’s your favorite holiday?”
“Christmas,” she answers softly. “It was mine and my mom’s.”
I reach over and squeeze her hand in mine, and she gives me a small smile. “Okay, I got two of everything,” Emmett announces, holding two trays in his hands. “I didn’t know what you wanted.” I get on my knees to grab the tray from him, and his eyes go to me kneeling, and I can see his jaw getting tight.
“Are you okay?” I ask, taking the tray from him and slowly putting it on the middle of the blanket. I see he got two of everything: burgers, hot dogs, corn, fries, and chips. I reach up for the second tray, but he bends and places it in the middle, and I see it’s filled with water bottles and condiments. “Here are the napkins.” He pulls them out of his back pocket before sitting at the other end of the blanket. “What do you want to eat, Lucy?” he asks first, and I have to say he’s giving this his everything. He’s such a good dad even though I know he thinks he’s not doing that good of a job.
“Can I have a burger?” she asks, and he hands her a burger with a napkin.
“Do you want ketchup on it?” he asks, and she shakes her head at him. “What about you, Lilah?”
“I’ll have whatever you don’t want,” I tell him. “I’ll take the hot dog.” I pick up the hot dog and leave the burger for him.
The three of us eat together, and I do most of the talking while the father and daughter answer with one word. I get up when we are finished, and Emmett cleans up the blanket. As I’m going to fold it up, a family comes over and asks if they can have it.
We walk around the schoolyard, seeing the games being played. “Look, a dunking tank.” I point out to the side to see the older kids trying to get one of the teachers in the water. “We should get that for the barn,” I tease and look over at Emmett, “and you should sit down, and we should try to dunk you.” The idea makes Lucy laugh.
“You think you could actually knock me off?” He side-eyes me, and I shake my head.
“Nope,” I tell him, “but I have no problem with running and smacking that white bull’s-eye with my hand.” Lucy and I both laugh as he grumbles. “Are you going to show me what you’ve been working on?” I ask Lucy, who looks at me and nods. “Lead the way.” For the past week, she’s been coming into the barn after school and doing her homework beside me. I usually stay late doing my own things while she sits there. She’s starting to come out of her shell if only a bit, but it’s better than the way it started.
She pulls open the brown door. Emmett holds his hand up to secure the door, so I have to walk past him. I can smell his musky cologne, and all I want to do is plaster myself to him and get the smell on me. The T-shirt he kissed me in last week has been on my chair. His smell is almost gone, but the memories still lurk in my head. Which then, most nights, leads me to touching myself with his smell all around me. I look down at my feet to make sure no one sees my face turning beet red. It doesn’t help that we walk side by side, following Lucy down the corridor past the open doors and people walking in and out of them.
I spot a couple of the classrooms with fall decorations and some early Halloween decorations inside them when we finally get to Lucy’s classroom. “Here it is,” she says, walking into the dimly lit room, her teacher smiling at her when she spots her, and her smile gets bigger when she sees Emmett.
I almost roll my eyes at her. “Hello, Lucy,” she says, tucking her hair behind one ear. “Mr.,” she says shyly, “Emmett,” she corrects herself, then she looks at me. “Hi, I’m Ms. Summer.”
“I’m Lilah.” I hold up my hand, but then look back down at Lucy. “Okay, let me guess which one is yours.” I look around the room. The desks are lined up in three rows, and each desk has a different Halloween project on it. Some of the desks have Mason jars decorated and some have flowerpots planted, but then we get to the desk with what looks like branches all glued together with a hole in the middle and a cotton ball with a plastic spider in the center. “This is it.” I look at it and then look at Lucy, whose eyes go big. “This is yours.”