Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 31777 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 159(@200wpm)___ 127(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31777 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 159(@200wpm)___ 127(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
“Then you should have told me you needed to go a little bit,” he repeated her own words back to her.
She bit her lip. “Am I in trouble, Daddy?”
He eyed her for a long moment. “You’ll need to write twenty-five lines in the morning before we leave saying that you will tell Daddy when you need to pee.”
Bummer. But it wasn’t as bad as it could be.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Now, show me the sweater. I need to prepare myself.”
“I already packed it,” she told him. “Probably for the best that it’s a surprise.”
She also didn’t want him to conveniently lose it or leave it behind.
She really wanted to see him in the sweater.
Gray just sighed. “Just tell me it’s not another poop sweater.”
“Uh, it’s not a poop sweater.”
“Well, I guess that’s good then.”
Actually, when he saw the sweater, he was going to wish it was another poop sweater because this one was far, far worse.
And maybe she really had let out an evil laugh.
Hopefully Santa was too busy to pay attention to how naughty Maeve had been.
2
CAT AND ALEJANDRO
21st December
“That elf is evil.”
There was no other explanation. It had to be evil. And a tattletale. Because yesterday, when she’d been skateboarding through the house, doing her best tricks, no one else had been around.
Except that damn elf.
Yesterday, it had been hanging onto the banister and had had a clear view of her on her skateboard.
A coincidence that Alejandro found out what she’d been doing?
She thought not.
That darn elf had gotten her butt spanked.
That wasn’t cool. She was losing good girl points because of that elf.
“Are you reporting back to Santa as well as Papi?” Cat glared up at the elf. It was sitting in the enormous Christmas tree that Papi had installed in the entrance of the Southampton house.
She hadn’t been allowed to decorate this tree. Apparently, it was too big. Well, she’d done a few of the lower branches, but Doomy Gloomy had done most of it.
He’d been allowed up the ladder.
She still didn’t understand what the big deal was. She had excellent balance. You should see her on a skateboard.
There was no trick that she couldn’t do.
Well, she had had trouble gaining air. It wasn’t so much the getting into the air part, but the coming back down. She’d put up a small ramp yesterday and managed to fly through the air, then crashed down.
That’s what Alejandro said he’d been most upset about. That she could have hurt herself.
Pfft.
That was ridiculous.
She was like rubber. She bounced back up. Good as new. All right, so there was a bit of a bruise on her hip. Thankfully, it hadn’t been showing yesterday when Alejandro had checked her over.
It was all the elf’s fault that she’d gotten her bottom spanked.
Sure, she was conveniently forgetting the rules about not skateboarding in the house, not skateboarding without supervision, and not skateboarding without protection.
What the heck did she need protecting from?
It was time to get revenge.
There was just one problem. How was she going to get to the darn elf? The tree was tall and the only ladder she’d seen was the one that Bernie had used to decorate the tree. And it had been locked away.
It was almost as if Bernie didn’t trust her not to use the ladder.
Shocking, really.
What about if she climbed the stairs next to the tree? That would get her to the right height. But she still wouldn’t be able to reach over and grab the elf, which was about three feet away from the stairs.
Hmm.
Cat tapped her chin. She guessed there was only one thing to ask herself.
What would Donatello the Ninja Turtle do?
Everything had to be perfect for when her family got here. Maeve and Gray would arrive tomorrow afternoon. Then everyone else was arriving tomorrow evening.
Except Isaiah.
She still didn’t know how she felt about him being out there on his own, looking for the wannabe Deity. The wannabe Deity was dangerous. Maybe as dangerous as the real one had been.
A shudder of trepidation ran through her.
Which was silly. No way was he getting to her again. Alejandro wouldn’t allow it. Neither would Rafael.
Although Rafael seemed to be preoccupied at the moment. Maybe he had a girlfriend? But if he did, why wouldn’t he have introduced Cat to her?
Hmm. Where was he right now?
Actually, that didn’t matter. It was better that he wasn’t around . . . made it much easier for her to get away with things.
Or it would have, if that darn, stinking elf wasn’t always watching and reporting back to Santa and Alejandro.
Cat pointed at him. “You’re going down, Elfie.”
The elf just smiled back at her.
Dumb dude. Cute, but really not very smart. He should be running scared after her totally credible threat. Why did he always move at night? Why could she never catch him moving during the day?