Page 88 of The Grump

“Exactly.”

“I’ll stand strong.”

Bella started to grab plates for the table.

“We’ll do that,” I said.

“No, Uncle Xander. I’m a big girl now. I set the table all on my own every evening. I’m really good at it.”

She set out three plates and then saw four beignets.

“Everyone gets one?” she asked.

“Exactly.”

“So, what do we do with the fourth one?”

Bailey was looking at me intently.

“I can split it in three.” I was only teasing her, but I could practically see the joy leave her eyes, and I couldn’t do it for long. “Kidding, Bella. It’s yours, of course.”

“Yesssss. I haven’t had beignets since we went to Café du Monde.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Fine,” Bella said. “Dad sometimes buys them for me, but I’m only allowed one.”

I didn’t blame him, but it was Friday, so she didn’t have to get up early for school tomorrow. Besides, as everyone liked to remind me, we had one week to go before Christmas. Rules could be broken.

“What do you want us to do tonight, Bella?” Bailey asked as we ate our beignets.

Bella sucked in her breath, looking straight at Bailey. “We could watchGoblet of Fire.”

Damn, I was good. I’d been about to wait to warn Bailey until after we ate, but my instincts were on point, as usual.

Bailey had an excellent poker face, though. She didn’t seem either surprised or amused, though I knew her well enough to tell that she was both.

“I remember that being a very dark movie, Bella. Does your dad allow you to watch it?”

The thing about Bella was that she never lied. Sure, she tried to negotiate, but she didn’t lie.

“No.” Her shoulders slumped. “But if I watch it with an adult and you think it’s okay, then maybe he won’t mind.”

She might not lie, but she did like to sneak around.

“We can’t do that. We don’t want your dad to stop trusting us. Then he would never let us come around again, and how would you get your two beignets?”

Bella frowned, starting to eat her second one. She had powdered sugar in her hair. She’d done that ever since she was a baby. In the beginning, I used to clean it up after every bite, but eventually I realized it was easier to just let her finish eating before cleaning her up. Of course, that had been years ago. These days, she went to check her appearance in the bathroom mirror and took care of the powdered sugar all on her own.

“But I have a suggestion,” Bailey said. “I mean, you can totally say no.”

Bella perked up. “Yes?”

“What if we rewatch your favorite Harry Potter movie and discuss it?”

Bella looked at me skeptically. “Uncle Xander, have you seen any yet?”

“The first one. We watched together, don’t you remember?”

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