Girl Meets Class by Gillespie Karin

Author:Gillespie, Karin [Gillespie, Karin]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: southern humor, women's friendship, sisterhood, Romance, southern living, Chick Lit, Romantic Comedy, Humorous Fiction, rom com, british chick lit, southern fiction, Contemporary Women, Women's Fiction
Publisher: Henery Press
Published: 2015-09-07T14:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

I woke up the next morning thinking who sandpapered my tongue? Also I heard an insistent ringing sound that made me wonder if I was suffering from tinnitus. Oh. The phone.

“Hello,” I said. Only it came out Rhe-ro. I sounded like the Cookie Monster with bronchitis.

Carl said, “I think I have the wrong number.”

“It’s me, Toni Lee. I was just…uh…clearing my throat. What’s up?” I said. He didn’t usually call me when he had Katherine.

“Deena’s just announced she might move to Atlanta; she’s got an interview for a teaching job there.”

I sat up in bed, scrubbing the sleep out of my eyes. “I’m so sorry. This is my fault.”

“It is not. Deena has been threatening a move since our divorce, and she can do it too, so long as she doesn’t move more than two hundred miles away. That’s what the custody agreement says. But that’s not why I’m calling. I have a huge favor to ask.”

Turned out Carl had an exam Monday and desperately needed to visit the library to study. Deena was supposed to pick up Katherine in the morning, but she woke up with a stomach flu and asked Carl if he could keep her for the day. He called his mother and a few other people, but nobody was home.

“Hate to ask you this, but I’ve run out of options,” he said. “Could you please, please help me out?”

My foot had fallen asleep, and I gave it a shake. “You want me to babysit?”

“Just for a couple of hours. I know it’s an enormous thing to ask.”

My head lolled on my neck, heavy as a medicine ball. I was in no condition to be responsible for a kid.

“I might be getting a cold myself.” I sniffed a couple of times to add authenticity to my claim. “I felt a tickle in my throat this morning.”

He didn’t respond, but his disappointment surged through the phone tower, rose out of my iPhone, and stared at me with big, sad puppy eyes.

“Okay. I’ll do it,” I said quickly.

“Thanks. Saved my life, babe. See ya soon.” He hung up.

How was I going to handle a five-year-old? I was at home with little children as a pacifist is with an Uzi. It’d been ages since I’d been around a child that age. Unlike Joelle, I’d never been one to babysit. What if Katherine stuck her finger in an electric plug or ate dishwashing soap? Carl would never forgive me, and I would never forgive myself.

I almost called him back to say I didn’t have enough experience, and that I needed to read a bunch of back issues of Parent magazine before I could be entrusted with his child. But I couldn’t let him down. If Carl and I were going to get any more serious, I needed to learn to get along with his daughter.

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