Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 26721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 134(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 134(@200wpm)___ 107(@250wpm)___ 89(@300wpm)
“Of course I know what it is,” Ink told her. “I was just being silly. Now, you need to finish doing your painting before we fire up the barbecue.”
“All right, Daddy.”
5
DUKE AND SUNNY
Duke leaned over Sunny, kissing her lightly. “I want you to stay in bed and rest until I get home. I won’t be long.”
“I have stuff to do.”
“Rest,” he said firmly. “You had a late night, baking cupcakes. Stay in bed. I’ll be about an hour.”
Sunny let out a disgruntled breath as she rolled over onto her other side. She heard the front door shut and counted to thirty.
Surely he would be gone by now, right?
Pushing back the covers, she sat up and got out of bed. She didn’t have much time, so she needed to get to work.
She couldn’t believe that Duke thought she would just lie around in bed while there were still things to get ready for the barbecue this afternoon.
She was in charge of the cupcakes, and Sunny was determined to make sure that everything was just right. Pulling on her robe, she put her feet in her fluffy unicorn slippers and rushed into the kitchen, nearly tripping over Hatter, who was lying in the hallway for some reason.
“Hatter, what are you doing? Have you had your breakfast?” She reached down to pet the large dog.
His tongue rolled out and he panted, looking happy with himself.
“You look like you’ve had your breakfast,” she said as she moved into the kitchen. “Sorry, I’ve got no time to play. I have to make some more icing. I really don’t think I have enough. And you know what they say, Hatter, there’s no such thing as too much icing on a cupcake.”
He gave a small woof as though in agreement. She kept an eye on the time as she mixed up more icing. “There we go. There’s some more white,” she said. “And now to add blue coloring to the icing to make some blue. These cupcakes are going to be so good, Hatter.”
At this pace, she was going to get this icing finished before Duke came home. She’d sneak back into bed, and he’d never be the wiser.
“Last, we have the red,” she said, mixing in the red coloring with a large wooden spoon.
Hatter let out a loud bark, and Sunny spun around, the spoon flying into the air, and blobs of red icing falling to the floor.
“Oh, shoot,” she said, racing over to the window to check that Duke hadn’t arrived home early.
Nothing. Phew.
She turned toward Hatter who gave her an innocent look. “You made me nervous.”
Rushing back, she added the icing to the container and then packaged everything up.
Finally, after putting all of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, she turned back to look at the kitchen floor, and that was when she heard the truck pull up.
Grabbing a dishcloth, she quickly wiped up as much as she could before rushing back into the bedroom and throwing off her robe and slippers.
Oh, no. Oh, no.
He was going to catch her. She threw herself into bed and pulled the covers up over her shoulders as she lay there, trying to calm her racing heart.
The door to the bedroom opened.
Oh, shoot. Had that been shut or closed when he left?
Why hadn’t she paid more attention? She really wasn’t good at this sneaky stuff.
“Hi, did you get all of your errands done?” she asked.
“Good. How did you get on with your lie-in?” he asked as he sat facing her on the bed.
She sat up and leaned back against the headboard, hoping she looked innocent. “It was good. I think I really needed it. You were right.”
“I’m always right. So, is there anything that you want to tell me?”
“What would I have to tell you?” she asked.
“Maybe that you disobeyed me and got out of bed to possibly make some more icing? Maybe red icing?”
What the hell? How did he know that? Her eyes went wide. “What are you talking about?”
“Little Rebel, you’re already in enough trouble, so you might want to start being honest with me.” He gave her a stern look, and she swallowed heavily.
Uh-oh.
Sunny had a feeling that she could be in real trouble here.
Duke couldn’t believe she’d disobeyed him.
Well, he guessed he could believe it, but he had hoped that she would stay in bed, like he’d told her to.
She had dark marks under her eyes that he wasn’t very happy about, and he’d been hoping to get rid of them before they went to the barbecue this afternoon.
But now it seemed like she was going to be spending all of tomorrow in bed, resting.
Sunny had been doing far too much lately, and he wasn’t happy about it. She needed some care and attention, and plenty of sleep.
But to blatantly lie to him about it, well, that was a little bit more than naughty. And it was going to result in her over his lap, getting her bottom smacked.