Page 137 of Time to Bounce

I just loved him.

“I think I’ll just get a burger,” he said to our daughter. “How was your day?”

“My day was magical.” She batted her eyelashes at him. “Want to hear about it?”

“Of course,” he answered instantly.

“Well, I woke up this morning and thought, self, you should really get your nails done today.”

My daughter was hilarious.

She had my brains—not saying that Gable wasn’t intelligent, but she’d already skipped two grades and was in the same one as Gavrel, but to his chagrin—and her daddy’s charisma.

There wasn’t a single person she couldn’t charm.

And her daddy? He was the most charmed of them all.

“So then Mommy, Gavrel, and I went to do that. Since I convinced her,” she continued, showing off her pastel pink fingernails. “Then we went to Aunt Maven’s, who made us these perfect eclairs. Followed by a day at the mall buying school clothes. We ended it here, for dinner, with you. Now how much more magical can you get?”

Gable, the child spoiler, said, “Nothing better, Princess.”

“It sucked,” Gavrel, who was Gable’s mini-me in every way, declared.

The waitress came up and smiled at my kids, pausing our conversation.

“And what can I get you two darlings?” she asked.

“I’ll have the vagina,” Ferris ordered from underneath the table.

Ferris was our four-year-old boy who didn’t resemble either one of us. He was wild and impulsive, smart and sneaky.

He also detested people and hated going out to eat.

Hence him being under the table.

There was a moment of silence before my daughter said, “He means the lasagna. He can’t get anything right.”

The waitress’s smile was blinding, “Got it, darlin’.”

“I’ll have the cobb salad, ranch. Extra croutons. I want my chicken slightly overdone, with crispy edges,” my daughter ordered.

The waitress didn’t even blink.

“You, darlin’?” she asked Gavrel.

“I’ll have the special,” he looked to my husband. “Can I get a milkshake instead of a drink?”

“You already have a drink,” Gable pointed out.

“Soooo….” He waited.

Gable rolled his eyes. “Sure.”

After giving the rest of our order, I smiled at Gable and said, “How’s your day been?”

“Boring, just like I like it,” he said.

When Gable had made the switch to Sunnyvale Police Department eight years ago, he’d found that he loved it.

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