Page 7 of The Snuggle is Real
I extended my hand to shake. “Ford Donnelly.”
“Thank you for coming so quickly, Mr. Donnelly. There’s some paperwork to sign. Then you can take Charlie home.”
I nodded. “Want to wait here, Charlie?”
“No.” She clung tighter. “I’ve been waiting forhours.”
“I know, kiddo. I’m sorry.” I bent and hefted her onto my hip. She was really too big for carrying, but she nestled her head onto my shoulder, and if she wanted to be babied today of all days, I was okay with that.
“This won’t take long,” Gwen promised.
I carried Charlie down the hall to the second office on the right then settled into a chair. Gwen went over the guardianship agreement that she’d drawn up with LuAnne, to be used only in the event that her sentence didn’t go as planned.
Which it had not.
“You live in Christmas Falls, is that correct?”
“Yes.” I glanced over the paperwork. “All this info seems to be up to date.”
“Excellent. Then, this gives you guardianship over Charlie for the next forty-five days.”
Forty-five days. I could do that. It wasn’t even two full months. Times were tight, but I could cut back on the streaming services. I didn’t need Hulu. Never anything good on, anyway.
Maybe I could talk Dottie out of such a big Thanksgiving meal. Then again, Charlie could use a distraction from this mess, and a nice holiday dinner might help with that…
Christmas was right around the corner too, and Christmas Falls wasfullof holiday magic a kid would love.Someof it was free, but there were always drinks and treats and crafts andoh hell, I’d already maxed out one credit card and was down to a few hundred bucks in cash.
I’d have to find some extra work, only—shit, who would watch Charlie if I did? Dottie could keep her for short stretches,but she wasn’t really up to a full-time babysitting gig, and if I paid someone else, it’d just eat up all the money I earned.
“Mr. Donnelly, are you with me?”
My head spun. I’d had hardly any time to process this huge change. One minute I was shopping and the next I was agreeing to be a real dad, if only for forty-five days.
“Uh, yeah, sorry. Just thinking.”
Gwen Goetz patted my arm. “You’ll be just fine. I can see that Charlie trusts you. That’s the most important thing.”
The lawyer was right. Charlie trusted me enough she was falling asleep in my arms. She’d had a long day, and we still had a three-hour drive to get back.
I needed to get her home, and then we could tackle everything else.
I picked up the pen and scribbled my name. “Anything else?”
“Nope. Charlie’s got a bag in the corner there. Otherwise, you should be good to go.”
“Just one bag?”
“That’s all LuAnne brought. Like I said, we really were hoping it wouldn’t come to this. She should have prepared better in this event, but…” She spread her hands. “I’m sorry. They’ve already taken her to rehab, and I don’t have a key to her place. It’s only because of this agreement that we were able to avoid social services coming to take Charlie the minute LuAnne was sentenced.”
My arms tightened around Charlie. “Well, that can’t happen.” I’d heard too many horror stories about what happened to kids in the system. “I’ll figure it out. It’s only six weeks.”
Famous last words, right?Onlysix weeks during the most expensive time of year.
Charlie had already lost her mom for the holidays. I didn’t want her to miss out on anything else. She deserved more than I could give her.
But sadly, I was all she had.
I woke her enough to walk to the car so I could carry her little pink suitcase—maybe her clothes were small, and it held more than I thought?—and Gwen provided me with a booster seat.
