Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 71843 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71843 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Shadow of a smile then, but it was fleeting.
“You explained that Facebook was not the best platform for my business anymore and that we should use Instagram instead and put up gorgeous pictures of our design work.”
Timid smile as she nodded.
“And I told you that bangs are never the answer.”
Big smile with her sweet dimples and sparkling eyes. “You taught me that I can do whatever I want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else and doesn’t offend the eyes.”
“Like paisley,” I said with a shudder.
She moved quickly, rushing across the room and falling down into my lap, arms wrapping around my neck right before she gave a great heave and started to cry.
“Oh, bunny,” I soothed her, “what were you thinking?”
She squeezed me tighter.
“This isn’t you.”
Easing back, she looked at my face. “I’ve never had somebody here all the time,” she told me. “I mean, I’m used to sharing you and Dad with Kola, and I don’t ever think, like, you love him more or I’m not as good as him or…anything. We’re just us, me and him, the same.”
“But not Lucy.”
“I love her,” Hannah insisted, staring at me. “She’s one of my best friends but––” She bit her lip. “––I’m super selfish, huh?”
“You want us for yourself,” I told her. “It’s very human. And as much as you love your friends, there comes a point when you think, I wish I could just veg with my people.”
“Is that how you feel?”
“I think whoever you consider to be your family, they are. And those can be your dearest friends as well as people actually related to you. The main factor is if you can be yourself with them a hundred percent. Those are the people that you can be with day in and day out and never feel like you have to be on with. They just soothe your soul.”
“Yeah, but sometimes, I know because he told me, Kola would like to shake me as hard as he can.”
I snorted. “Yes, but you’re also the person who he let give him an undercut and a side cut the other day without putting the shaver guards on the clippers.”
She tipped her head, gave me a shrug.
“You free-handed that, and he looks great, by the way.”
“Yes.”
“And who goes with you to your aerial silks class?”
No answer.
“I mean normally.”
“Yeah, fine, him.”
“I mean, I don’t see as many guys doing aerial yoga, am I right?”
“You’re right.”
“And you can’t tell me that now and then you don’t want to punch him in the stomach.”
“It’s true,” she said evilly. “I do want to do that.”
“See?”
“What am I seeing?”
“That even though you two do some clashing, I also think you’d give him a lung if he needed it.”
“That’s valid,” she agreed.
“I think you love Lucy and she’s your buddy, but you’re ready for her to go home.”
Slow nod.
“Well, she can’t right now, and since we’re all crazy about her, maybe if you’re feeling overwhelmed, you and I can just open your window and sit outside on top of the house for a bit.”
“Didn’t Dad ban us from doing that?”
“He doesn’t have to know.”
Wiping her eyes, she leaned back into my arms, and I hugged her and kissed her and told her she’d always be my baby.
“You’ll always be my favorite girl.”
“I know,” she said, sighing deeply.
“So can I help you with the masks?”
She sat up and gave me a look of disbelief.
“You could show me how to work the sewing machine.”
“How about you do the ironing.”
“The sewing machine looks like more fun,” I groused at her.
“Remember that time you tried to learn to quilt and somehow got one of the needles pushed between the webbing of your thumb and pointer finger?”
“I don’t recall that at all.”
“And when Auntie Aja said she’d rather perform her own root canal than try to teach you to knit?”
I pointed at myself. “I can make stuff.”
“On the computer, in the kitchen, absolutely,” she agreed. “But you’re not so much with the crafting skills, am I right?”
I snapped my fingers. “No, remember, I can do decoupage. I did your desk when you were little.”
“You mixed rubber cement and epoxy, and Dad said it was way too flammable and took it somewhere it could be safely incinerated.”
I repeated my earlier statement. “I don’t recall that at all.”
She started giggling, and it was all downhill from there.
Kola sauntered into her room a few minutes later with a big bowl of popcorn and flopped down onto her bed. He had her TV on and her PS4 powered up in minutes.
Hannah had stopped laughing by then. Barely.
“What’re you doing?” she asked him, taking a breath before walking over to the bed and standing close. She ate some popcorn from the bowl that he had set down beside him.
“I’m gonna get you through that part in Hollow Knight that you’re having trouble with so you don’t whine about it anymore.”