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“Because Winnie has a cat Her nalet And cats are very clean, I’ve read about it”

“I told you, Halsy pal, we can’t have a pet because I work twenty-four-hour shifts There would be nobody here to feed it” I spied the two bags at the foot of the staircase and handed one to her “Take this up to your bedroom”

“Maybe Winnie could feed it when you’re not here,” she said, lugging the bag up the steps

“No”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want a stranger in our house”

“She’s not a stranger She’s a friend”

“We don’t even know her, Hallie” Frowning, I followed her into the bedroo onto the carpet “She could be a lunatic Or a serial killer”

“But she has princess Band-Aids And she believes in happily ever after!” shouted Luna

“Then she’s definitely a lunatic”

“After you know her better, can you ask her?” Hallie pleaded

“I’ to ask”

“Daddy, can we paint the walls in here pink?” Luna asked, hopping onto herto jump

“Not pink, purple!” Hallie began bouncing up and down on her bed too

I held up Luna’s fitted sheet and studied it “Should I wash this stuff first?”

“Maybe Sed

I sniffed the sheet—it sirls I’ll teach you how to do laundry Whoever finds the box with the detergent gets a ride in the truck”

Squealing with excite each other to get ahead as they raced down the stairs

A few hours later, the laundry was done, clean sheets were on the beds, and the truck had been returned I’d let the girls ride in it while Justin followed in pies the whole ti

After dropping my brother-in-law off, we returned to our new hoirl from next door on our front porch

“Winnie’s knocking on our door!” Luna said excitedly from the back seat “Hurry, Daddy!”

No sooner had I pulled into the garage than the girls unbuckled their seatbelts and bolted for the porch It was like they’d spotted a celebrity

I got out of the car slowly, eyeing the door that went right into the kitchen and wishing I could just slip inside without talking to anyone But I walked around to the front door

The girl still had those tiny shorts on, and ain And since she faced away froood eyeful of the way the denied her ass before I forced myself to look down at my feet