Page 45 of Learning to Run

Brady turned to his Daddy and gave him the best Brady smileever. “I like brownies.”

Jude snorted. “What junk don’t you like?”

He had a good point and it almost let me get to the door butthey both sighed in unison, making me freeze in my tracks.

Had they practiced that?

“Everything went okay with Cash’s date with Bates?” SinceJude had asked nicely and without growling, I kind of felt like I had toanswer.

Manners sucked sometimes.

“Yes.” Turning around, I leaned against the door and triednot to look guilty or worried. “They went to the NASA museum place out on thecoast and had an early dinner, so now we’re doing dessert.”

And…

I could feel they still had questions even if I hadn’tnoticed the way Brady was looking at his Daddy.

Ugh.

What else was I supposed to say?

“We had a good evening so far.” That sounded awkward even tome but was I supposed to just announce I’d been a pup?

Was it like losing your virginity?

Was it like coming out of the closet?

I’d never really been in one, so I wasn’t even sure what Iwas supposed to do if it was closet-related.

As they stared and had some kind of silent conversation, Itexted Bates and Cash.

I’m trapped. Not a hostage situation yet but they’relooking at me funny and asking about my day.

Okay, even I realized that didn’t sound traumatic but Iwasn’t sure how to describe the weirdness.

Bates’s response popped up first.

Do you need to be rescued?

That was a very good question.

I don’t know.

Cash was the most helpful.

If they’re just being curious tell them you need to getdown here before the cookies start to thaw.

Oh, good idea. I didn’t think either of them baked enough toknow if that would be important or not.

Thanks. Oh, now they’re looking at me again.

I needed better words to describe the stress of having bothof them staring at me from the couch because my current vocabulary was not goodenough.

“Um, hi.” Okay, what would Brady’s mom do? “Is this a writeletters kind of situation because if it is, I don’t know why we need to writeone.”

“No.” Brady seemed offended enough that I felt better.

“Letters?” Jude looked confused, so I had a feeling Bradyhad kind of brushed over that punishment.

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