Hot Mess by Emma Hart

Author:Emma Hart [Hart, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emma Hart
Published: 2020-02-19T16:00:00+00:00

***

“She’s here! She’s here!”

I winced as Arielle’s shriek pierced my skull. “All right, all right, calm down.”

“But she’s here!”

“I know she’s here. Aliens on Mars knows she’s here.” I ruffled her hair as I headed for the back door where she was waiting.

“Are there aliens on Mars?”

“No idea. Ask Aunt Elsie. She’ll know.” I opened the sliding door. “Come on then!”

Elle raised her eyebrows. “Oh, God. She’s not obsessed with aliens either, is she?”

“No. Not yet, at least.”

“Elle!” Ari rushed across the room with a bucket and spade in each hand. “I brought you a bucket!”

Elle pressed a hand to her chest, pretending to be delighted. “Oh, my gosh! Thank you so much. I was just thinking that I didn’t have a bucket to make a sandcastle.”

Ari grinned and held it out to her. “Here you go. You can borrow my spare one.”

“You are so lovely. Thank you. It’s perfect.” She dutifully took the bucket and spade. “Shall we go? Where’s the best spot for sandcastles?”

“It’s the sand! Not too wet, not too dry. C’mon!” She snatched up Elle’s hand and all but dragged the poor woman down the deck.

“Ari! Let her walk!” I called, closing the door behind me.

“It’s fine!” Elle yelled back with laughter in her voice. “It’s fine!”

It was not fine.

Elle, in keeping with everything I learned about her last night, tripped on the dry sand after a particularly insistent tug by Ari and landed on her knees.

At least it was sand. Not even Elle could hurt herself on sand.

Probably.

“Good spot!” Ari plopped herself on the ground next to Elle. “Perfect sand!”

Elle looked at me and shrugged. I laughed from where I was, still several feet away from them. It wasn’t exactly the walk I’d envisioned, but Ari was happy, and I knew she was worried that Elle was sad.

She might not fully understand what Elle was going through, but she had the most sensitive little soul. She was still young enough to be ignorant of the cruelties of the world, and even though one of those had been shown to her today, she’d responded in the way everyone should respond.

Not with anger—not like me.

But with a good heart and kindness.

“What are you building?” I asked, sitting down between them.

“A sandcastle. Duh.” Ari rolled her eyes.

“Oi. Attitude,” I warned her.

“Sorry, Dad.”

All right. She mostly had a good heart. With a bit of attitude thrown in there.

It could be worse. She could be all attitude with a bit of a good heart, I suppose.

“I don’t think I’m very good at sandcastles,” Elle said, filling her bucket full of the damp sand. “They always break when I tip the bucket over.”

“You have to pat it own.” Ari leaned over to Elle’s full bucket and hit it with her spade. “Like that, you see?”

“Ohh, of course. Let me try.” Elle copied what Ari did. “Now flip it?”

“Yes! Quickly so it doesn’t fall out!”

“Okay, okay, okay.” Elle put down her pink plastic spade and, sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, flipped her bucket.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.