Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
“Uh, well…” Zane winced.
“I saw her ear. It’s blue, Daddo!”
Zane and I looked at one another. I gave him big eyes.
“Her ear gemstone is malfunctioning, and we don’t know why,” Zane told him.
Ollie’s expression dropped. It dropped so hard that I felt pain in my chest.
“We’re not a family?” His lower lip protruded in a pout.
“We’re still getting acquainted, Ollie. It hasn’t been ruled out.”
I fought against the urge to pout, too.
Ollie frowned at Zane. “This is why I was gone two sleeps.” Ollie held up two fingers. “What in the world have you been doing all this time then?”
Whoa.
Zane leveled his son with a dark gaze. “You forget who you’re talking to here, Ollie?” He folded his arms over his chest and looked down at his son with a ‘Dad’ look that would’ve had me peeing my pants if it were aimed at me. I’d never had a dad, but if I did, I was guessing it was a look no kid wanted aimed at them.
The little boy wiggled, the bulge of Chili running around in his shirt making him do so. He did look remorseful, though.
“I’m sorry, Daddo.”
“Right. Tanya and I have breakfast to eat. Are you hungry?”
Ollie looked up at the tabletop and shook his head. “I ate with Granddad but I’d like a razzleberry.”
“Go ahead.”
Ollie took the white peach-like fruit with the leopard spots on it and bit into it. Chili popped up out of his shirt, sniffing the fruit.
“You want a bite?” Ollie asked and held the fruit in front of Chili’s face. The inside was deep purple. Chili sniffed it and let out a whole bunch of clicks that seemed angry.
Ollie shrugged. Chili jumped off him to me, landing on the opening of my shirt. He nuzzled my chin sweetly, making me go, “Awe, Chili…” then he jumped to Zane and did the same thing, looking at Zane and then strangely pulling the black thing out of his tiny pouch and dropping it on the floor, making a whole bunch of clicks as if he was telling Zane off, before jumping to the floor, fetching the black stone, and then jumping up back to Zane and making more clicks. Zane stared at Chili quizzically. Chili then glided through the air to land on his cage. He went inside and flopped down on the fluffy pink bedding, evidently exhausted by all the activity. The three of us watched him wrap himself into a ball and close his eyes, resting his chin on his rump.
“What was that about?” Ollie asked.
“Beats me,” I shrugged.
“I’m gonna go pick some books to show you, okay, Tanya?”
“Sure. I’d like that. Can you read any stories all by yourself, Ollie?”
“I can read a lot. I can read anything,” he said, looking confused.
“Oh, great. Where I come from, children your age are just starting to recognize letters, mostly. Many of them can’t read a whole story on their own until five or six years old.”
He looked at me like I was crazy. “That was what I was like when I was two. I’ve been reading everything in sight since I was three years old.” He sounded grown up saying that but held up three fingers just like a kid his age would.
“I’d love you to read me some books.”
“I’ll be back. Then after you eat your morning meal, I can show you my room. And maybe later we can go swimming. I learned to dive a week ago and I’m really good. Can we go swimming, Daddo? All of us? I want to show Tanya and Granddad my diving.”
“Granddad is coming for dinner and a swim so yes, but later. After mealtime, we’ve got to run to my office for a bit. When we get back, Granddad can come sit with you and Tanya and if Tanya would like to swim, that’ll be up to her.”
“I’d love to,” I said. I’d brought a swimsuit and coverup with my things, in fact.
Ollie clapped his hands. “Are we keeping the fuschialala-viscacha?”
“We’re helping him as he’s orphaned, but they don’t make good pets. You know this. I’ll be calling around to find a---”
“We can build him an enclosure in the greenhouse, Daddo. A big one that we can go in and play with him and he’ll have lots of room to play, and---”
“Ollie…”
“But he’s so stinkin’ cute!” Ollie said with a big smile, face filled with mischief.
“We’ll see,” Zane said.
Ollie winked at me like, leave it to me; I’ve got this, as he walked by on his way out of the room.
“Looks like you’ve got an ally on the Chili situation,” Zane said, in a grumbling tone.
I giggled nervously and then put a forkful of eggs in my mouth. They were the best scrambled eggs I’d ever tasted.
I had about thirty something hours to get vaccinated. I had to muster up the nerve to tell Zane. Or… to seduce him so that it’d just happen naturally. Maybe… try to seduce him so that he wasn’t marrying me out of pity. And if that didn’t work… beg for it.