Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 78760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Unless she was with Russell, whom she hated and made no effort to hide that fact.
“She doesn’t usually take to people as fast as she did you,” I told him, turning my eyes to the TV to see a commercial on it. “You should see her with Russell.”
Tommy disappeared into the bathroom, but I still heard his question easily. “What does she do with Russell?”
I was just about to reply when I heard the distinct sound of him using the restroom—with the door open—and I wondered if I was supposed to reply or if I was supposed to wait until he was done.
Since I thought it might be a little hard to hear me over the roar of him peeing—which might I add was impressive that he had such a good bladder—I waited until he entered the room moments later, drying his hands, to answer.
“She screams,” I told him. “She refuses to sit with him, and if I hand her over while she’s asleep, she immediately wakes up. There’s no bounds to her hatred of him.”
Tommy frowned. “What happened the time he gave her aspirin?”
I shivered as I remembered that day.
“It was the day that I had to stay overnight out of town due to school,” I murmured. “Russell convinced me to allow her to stay with him. I dropped her off with him with tons of milk, her medicines, and I called to check on her once an hour.”
Tommy’s mouth kicked up at the corner.
“And he didn’t like that?”
I shook my head. “Nope. He stopped answering the phone, and since I was in class, I couldn’t do a thing about it.”
“So what happened while he was ignoring you?”
Before answering, I switched Tallulah to the other side, as he continued to watch me, eyes taking in everything.
“I’m not really sure why the hell he thought giving her a medicine that I didn’t even have in my bag was okay, but he claims he ‘didn’t realize it would hurt her’ even though I specifically said that she wasn’t to have anything that wasn’t in that bag.”
I gestured to the bag—the same one I’d been using since she was born—that was sitting next to the TV, and he turned to look at it.
“Sounds like he did it spitefully.”
I nodded my head.
“That’s what I think, too,” I murmured. “She wasn’t even sick. She was probably just crying—something he claims wasn’t happening, but I know him and I know my kid—and he was frustrated. So he gave her something.”
“What happened then?”
“She started vomiting and screaming her head off. Which, thankfully, was enough for him to get his head out of his ass and take her into the ER,” I murmured. “At the hospital, she became extremely lethargic. By that point, they were able to pinpoint why she was acting the way she was, and they were able to reverse the effects and cleanse her system of the aspirin, but it was enough for me to get a judge to issue a court order stating that she wasn’t allowed any more overnights with Russell.”
Tommy shivered.
“That could’ve been bad. Had he not taken her in, she could’ve…”
He left the rest unsaid, but I knew exactly what he was talking about. It could’ve been fatal indeed.
“Needless to say, now he’s all butt-hurt that I won’t let him have Tallulah. Even though the only reason he’s even pursuing it in the first place is because his new wife wants them to spend time with her. Or maybe she wants her. Hell, I don’t know.”
Tommy sat on the bed next to me and stroked one finger over to Tallulah’s cheek.
He rubbed it back and forth, causing her to smile.
“She would’ve screamed at Russell if he’d interrupted her meal,” I murmured. “My girl gets hangry.”
He chuckled, then moved his hand from her cheeks to start playing with her curls.
“Hangry seems to be commonplace among women,” he murmured. “I’ll have to remember to not interrupt her meal too often.”
I grinned and turned my eyes back to the TV.
“That looks terrible,” I murmured as I finally realized what was on the TV.
“But luckily not as bad as they expected it would be,” Tommy agreed, pulling away from Tallulah’s hair and moving until his back was to the headboard like mine was.
I suppose he was right, but it still looked pretty terrible to me.
“They opened the spillway,” I murmured. “Won’t that flood the town below it?”
“Yes.”
One word.
Simple. Straight forward. Direct.
Tommy didn’t bother mincing words. We both knew that it spelled trouble for that poor city.
“That’s awful,” I murmured.
“It’s either open the spillway or run the risk of the dam breaking. One option is really bad, the other is disastrous.” He turned to look at me. “Think of it this way.” He stood and gestured with his hands. “The spillway opening slowly floods the town below it, but they know it’s coming and have time to prepare. The dam breaking just decimates the town below it with no warning. Which one would you rather have?”