Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 76203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
“I’ll buy her one and send it to the apartment.”
“You don’t have to buy her everything.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“In that case, you better make a plan to come over when it arrives because I have absolutely no skills in putting things together. I am forever grateful I have a stuffed animal and figurine kid, not a playhouse kid.”
“I can do that.”
“You can also be in charge of teaching her how to ride a bike.”
“Why’s that?”
“I get too anxious just thinking about her falling off it. My stress would only rub off on her.”
“Has she never gotten hurt before?”
“Not much. She’s always been a careful kid. Maybe a scraped knee or palm here or there. But nothing bad.”
“All the stories you’ve told about your childhood are of you falling out of trees or off of horses. And your hiking stories are practically horror stories with how often you’ve done some field medicine because you were too far away from civilization to get actual medical care.”
“Sure. But it’s different when it’s your kid.”
“I can see that. I’m surprised you’re not freaking out about this,” I waved to our kid as she dropped backward, arms and legs spread, falling onto the mat, then flying back up with a giggle.
“Oh, trust me, I’m imagining all the ways this could go wrong. And I don’t just mean an astronomical medical bill.”
“You don’t have to worry about her medical bills.”
I could feel her gaze boring into my profile.
“What?” I asked.
“How much money do you have?”
“Enough.”
“Enough,” she scoffed. “Is that like when ultra-rich people claim they are ‘comfortable’?”
“Well, I can’t claim to be ultra-rich, but I have no overhead at the clubhouse. So nearly everything I’ve earned since I joined the club has just been sitting in my bank account. Well, that’s not true. A friend of the club talked me into investing some of it. And that has been doing pretty well too. So, yeah, I’m comfortable.”
“Well, good. I like that for Denali. She deserves that.”
I just barely held myself back from telling her that she did too.
“I’m happy to give you guys anything you could need. After this, I’m going to drop in on a buddy of the club.”
“For what?”
“He’s a hacker. I’m going to have him do some looking around at organizations in Philly. See if anyone has any chatter about you. That kind of thing.”
“Oh, good.”
“And the Cider brothers are already on their way up to Georgia.”
“The Cider brothers?”
“Cayman and Dixon.”
“Wait,” she said, her smile spreading slowly.
“Yep. You heard that right. Crazy-ass parents.”
“And here I was, a little worried that Denny’s name was a bit too out there.”
“I like her name. Has she ever been?”
“To Denali? No. I haven’t actually taken her to any national parks. I’ve been a little too cognizant of how easily people can be killed in places like that and have it look like a complete accident.”
“Yeah, I never considered that. But you want to one day?”
“I want her to see them all. And more. Travel was such an important part of my life. I’d like it to be a part of hers too. Though, I don’t think my sweet little princess-dress-clad daughter is going to want to rough it in a tent somewhere.”
“Hey, you never know. She’s so young.”
“True. She’s been talking all about the jungle after watching that movie. She is very interested in petting a snake all of a sudden.”
“I can make that happen.”
“I don’t know if I can transition from her wanting to get a cute, fluffy kitten to having to thaw rats from the freezer for her to feed to her giant snake.”
“Or having to keep actual roaches in the house to feed to a lizard.”
Runa did a full-body shiver. “I rented an apartment once, sight unseen, and, yeah. Roaches. We slept in the car, and I demanded a refund. So gross. I do thorough bug checks everywhere now.”
“I once stayed in a motel while on a job and got bit to shit by bed bugs. I threw away everything I brought with me.”
“Mama, can we picnic?”
Runa winced. “I didn’t pack a picnic, munchkin.”
“We can get something take-out and have a picnic,” I suggested.
That got a cheer out of Denali and a smirk from Runa.
“What?” I asked.
“When’s the last time you sat cross-legged on the floor for an hour?” she asked.
“Been a while.”
“You’re about to become very aware of how old your knees and hips have gotten. Okay!” she said, clapping her hands for Denali. “Daddy’s first picnic!”
Fuck.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to that title.
But as I tried to get up off the ground later, I certainly made all those grunting sounds fathers were notorious for.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Runa
“One second,” I whispered into my phone as I slid out the front door of the apartment to stand in the hall for the phone call. “Okay. All yours.”