Royal (Club Pivot Book 1) by Rebel Shaw

Author:Rebel Shaw [Shaw, Rebel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ryan Black
Published: 2022-05-09T18:30:00+00:00

“Why do I gots to wear this?” Hadley asks, gazing up at me in her pink and purple swimsuit with the unicorn on the front.

“Because I don’t know what the rules are for this. Besides,” I say, picking her up and setting her inside the full bathtub, “now it’s just like swimming in a pool.”

“I wanna swim in a big pool. Dis big,” she declares, holding her arms out as wide as they’ll go.

“That would be a big pool,” I confirm, wondering where the closest pool is.

I watch as she plays, soaking everything from the floor to me. At first, I get annoyed, knowing I’m going to have to clean the bathroom after cleaning the child, but then I look at her face. At the smile stretched from ear to ear and the happy chatter she makes as she plays with cups, boats, and everything else in the plastic basket London keeps tucked away in the vanity.

London.

She hasn’t been home, though I did get a text from her around five to see how it was going. She’s been gone all day, probably with that Levi guy, and gave no indication on what time she’d be home. I thought about asking her but talked myself out of it. I shouldn’t care. As long as she’s home by midnight, since that constitutes the next day, it shouldn’t matter.

But it does.

It bothers me a lot more than it should, not that I’ll ever voice it.

I wash her hair, splattering more water on myself than I do her, and then scrub her little body as best I can with the suit. When the suds are gone and her hands are wrinkled, I release the drain and stand her up.

I easily find one of the towels London purchased for her and wrap it around her. Then, we head to her bedroom to go through her nightly routine. First pjs. Then hair and teeth, followed by a couple of stories. Finally, bed.

Except tonight, I don’t feel like reading.

Instead, once she’s dressed in princess jammies and her blonde curls are brushed out, we slip across the hall to my bedroom so I can change. “You hang out on my bed while I change into dry clothes, okay? Don’t mess with anything.”

She nods, her eyes dancing around the room to take in everything she can find. “Why you gots that?”

I stop just outside my closet and turn to see what she’s looking at. On the table beside the reading chair I never use is the sonogram photo from my brother’s house. I didn’t want to throw it away, knowing Hadley would possibly want it when she was older, yet not really wanting to just toss it in a box to be stored away.

“That?” I ask, my throat suddenly tight.

She nods.

“I wasn’t sure what to do with it,” I tell her honestly, walking over to pick up the frame. London put the other frames in Hadley’s room on top of her dresser so she could always have her mom and dad close, but this one didn’t seem right to put in her room.

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