Page 154 of Papa's Bébé
Was that his problem?
“Only if you light the fire. Which I don’t do.”
“You need to have the chimney cleaned,” he told her.
“I know.”
There was a beat of silence. She reached over and flipped open the lid of the pizza box. Yummy.
“You know?” he repeated.
“Um, yep.”
“Then why haven’t you done it?”
“Money.”
He sighed. “I don’t like that. I don’t like it at all.” But he grabbed a piece of pizza and sat next to her.
Maya shrugged. There wasn’t anything to like about it. But it was what it was.
They settled in to watch one of her favorite shows, where dogs got adopted from a shelter. She just loved all the happy endings for those doggies.
She glanced over at Tank again with a smile.
Maybe he’d gotten his happy ending too.
Matthieu felther slump against him and then a soft snore hit his ears. Tank and Big Berry had already taken themselves off to bed and so had Gummy. Dougie was now asleep in front of the fire that wasn’t even lit. And Princess Priss was sitting on the other side of Matthieu, purring heavily.
He shook his head at himself. Who knew he could feel this content? He was living with a pig for God’s sake. Things didn’t get much weirder than that.
He'd thought Maya might fall asleep. He’d wanted to talk to her about what she’d said about herself earlier, but she’d seemed so defeated and tired that he’d decided to let it be.
For the moment, anyway.
Shifting around, he managed to get her into his arms before he stood.
Princess Priss looked up and gave him a disapproving look.
“You can go get into bed,” he told the cat.
With a swish of her tail and a haughty expression on her face, the cat jumped down and headed into his bedroom.
Yep, at some stage the cat had started sleeping with him at night. He knew he should discourage her. He just hadn’t found the ability to do that yet.
Matthieu carried Maya into her bedroom and laid her down on the end of the bed. Then he drew back the covers and placed her in the bed, tucking her in.
He thought about undressing her, but he didn’t want to make her feel awkward. Hopefully she wouldn’t be too uncomfortable sleeping in her clothes.
She let out a small noise and tossed around. There was a frown on her face.
Shit. What was wrong?
Then he spotted her toy dolphin which was hidden beneath some of the pillows. Grabbing it, he placed it under the covers inher arms. She immediately settled down and he walked over to pull the curtains.
Ryan wasn’t a problem anymore now that he was in jail. The judge hadn’t granted him bail, deeming him a flight risk due to his family’s wealth.
But Maya seemed to attract weirdos and assholes, so he wasn’t taking any chances.
