Page 73 of Papa's Bébé
“Nope,” he told her. “I have an expense account.”
Which got charged back to the client, so he would gladly spend the maximum allowed if it meant her father got charged and she had some actual food in the cupboard.
The relief he saw on her face before she glanced away told him that had been what was worrying her.
Yeah. Her father was an asshole.
And he was going to suffer . . . along with the stepmonster.
Matthieu would make certain of that.
13
“Ireally wish you’d let me help,” she called out from where he’d planted her in a rickety-looking outside chair.
“No. I got this.”
“Are you sure?” she said doubtfully.
“I have this,” he told her firmly. “Stay put.” He’d already given the other animals their food and he’d ordered a pizza. Now, all he had to do was get the darn chickens back into their coop before it got dark.
He’d put some food in the coop, but they weren’t moving toward it.
“I can’t understand it,” Maya told him. “Usually when I scatter the food out, they just rush inside. They know it’s time for bed. Don’t you, girls? You’re all being so naughty. I think you’ll have to call them.”
“Call them?” he repeated.
“Yeah, just go, here Chew Bok-Bok, here Jabba the Cluck.”
“Why don’t you call them from there?” he asked.
“Because then they will go to me and not to you,” she told him. “Unless you want me to come over there and help?”
“No. You stay where you are.” He sent her a stern look. “Right. Come here, Jabba the Cluck.”
The darn chicken didn’t even look at him. It just kept pecking the grass.
“Um, that’s not Jabba the Cluck,” Maya said in a hesitant voice. “That’s Chew Bok-Bok. Jabba the Cluck is the one sitting under the hedge.” She pointed over behind him and he turned to see a chicken glaring out at him from under the hedge.
All right. Maybe glaring was an exaggeration. But it certainly felt like she was glaring.
“Fine. Come here, Chew Bok-Bok.”
“I don’t want to be . . . I mean I should say . . . um . . . well . . .”
“Just tell me, Maya,” he said with a sigh. He wasn’t impatient with her. It was these darn chickens.
“I think you have to say it in a nicer voice. High-pitched and kinder. Here, Chew Bok-Bok. Come here, baby.”
The darn chicken seriously turned around and headed toward Maya.
“Are you kidding me?” he asked. “Isn’t that just what I said?”
She bit her lip and if he didn’t know any better, he would swear she was trying not to laugh.
“Not exactly. Like I said. Nicer and higher. You can do it.”
He shot her a look and she glanced away. Again, she bit at her lip.
