Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
A red eye set in a dark face peeked up at me, and I gasped.
“Did you do it on purpose?” I asked him, referring to the way he had woken me up by passing gas with his butt inches from my face earlier. My whole eye felt funny now. And from that little side-look he’d just given me, I would have sworn he’d done it on purpose.
My boy didn’t say yes, but he didn’t say no either. It made me laugh before I reached down and tickled his neck as we kept going. He was taking the stairs so easily now.
“That’s rude, if you did it on purpose,” I kept on going as we approached the closed door where Agnes’s room was. “But your firepower was impressive.”
We hadn’t even gotten to it when the door opened and a blonde head of hair stuck out like she’d been waiting.
I slowed down and smiled. “Good morning, Agnes.”
Duncan trotted ahead to stick his face in the doorway, and I could see the little girl duck to give him a hug as she replied, “Hi.”
“Everything okay?”
There was a pause longer than it needed to be before she peered up at me, her face pretty much pinched. “Can you fix my hair?”
I couldn’t let myself blink.
Agnes hadn’t been acting differently during the day or at night when we met up in the hallway before going outside. She was still quiet. Still self-contained.
But now? She was asking me to help her. Me.
It had only taken two months.
“Love,” Duncan’s familiar voice had me flicking my eyes toward him.
My donut and his moral support. I puckered my lips and blew him a kiss. He knew me well enough to sense I was going through something, and he was telling me it was okay.
How in the world had I gotten so lucky?
“Sure,” I agreed, still trying to keep my features even. This had to be the equivalent of the popular boy in high school being interested in me. I had to play it cooler than I ever had before. “Pigtails again or would you like me to try something else?”
If she noticed that my voice came out pitchy, it didn’t reflect on her face. “Pigtails are okay,” she answered a little warily.
One day, she was going to let me braid her hair, I decided right then. That was my goal, which meant I should practice my braids, so I’d be ready when we got to that stage in our relationship. Because we would, even if it took ten years. I had never met another child like her before, and I still had no idea what had led to this, but as long as I was here, I was going to be there for her.
Agnes backed up and opened the door wide, and Duncan darted inside, his nose to the ground, smelling one way and then the other, drawn the most to the twin-sized bed closer to the window with a plain white comforter on it. It was where the women who took turns sleeping in her room stayed. I hadn’t made friends with either of them exactly—they were polite yet not what I would call friendly—but I wasn’t worried about it. All that mattered was that they were good to her, and so far, I hadn’t heard a single complaint.
While Duncan snooped around, I sat on the bed in the same spot as last time and the little girl backed up between my legs.
“Did you sleep okay?” I asked, taking the comb she handed me and drawing it through her thick but very straight hair.
“Sera snores a lot,” she answered, not sounding any grumpier than usual.
“You know…” Would it be too much too soon to…? Should I talk to Duncan about it first and see how he felt about it? I was overthinking it, I decided. “If you need anything in the middle of the night… or can’t sleep… or if you want to have a sleepover, Agnes, you can always come upstairs with us. We all fit that other day with Henri.”
“Yes,” the puppy on the other side of the room told me again, confirming my thought that I’d been overthinking my offer to the little girl. Red eyes were peeking at me from over the edge of the bed.
Oh, this donut knew exactly what he was doing and when he was doing it best. After holding him for a while, I’d eventually fallen asleep the same way we used to when he’d been a newborn. On his back with his butt tucked into my armpit, legs straight up in the air.
I winked at him before parting Agnes’s hair straight down the middle.
I’d just perfected the spot for her right pigtail and gotten the elastic around it when she whispered, “Henri said the man in the dream is looking for you.”