“You should see your face right now, Daddy. If only I had a camera to capture it! That would make a great Christmas card.”
“Laugh away, Brat. We will never have glitter bombs in the armory, Sweets. Glitter is straight from the pits of hell.”
That, of course, sent her into a bigger fit of giggles. I had a feeling I had given my Little sneaky brat ammunition to use against me without even meaning to.
“Josh, if you are done, take Rebekah into the other room and find some trouble elsewhere. I’ll be out as soon as I am done in here.”
“You got it, Boss,” Josh replied between fits of laughter.
He took Rebekah’s hand and led her out the door, hopefully to go find Seth, maybe cause problems with him.
“Joshie, do you know where we can get glitter bombs?” I heard Rebekah ask as they made their way down toward the offices.
Shaking my head, I turned back to my gear and zipped it up. With that done, I stacked my things with the rest of the guys’ for the next time we went out on a mission. After turning off the light, I headed down to my office.
Technically, it was Rebekah’s job to handle filing, but I was going to let her hang out with the guys. It shouldn’t take me long at all to put things where they belong. Especially since she had done such a good job creating a system that was easy to follow.
I was notsure how much time had passed when Rebekah came and crawled into my lap. This time, she didn’t have her blanket to wrap up in. An oversight that I was going to have to fix immediately. She would need one for both the house and the office.
“Hi, Sweets. You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay, Daddy. Just a little sleepy is all. I got to spend a lot of time playing games with Seth and Josh, though. Did you know you have a whole big screen that we can play Fortnite on?”
I did know that because those nerds did it often. That wasn’t the intended purpose of that room, but sometimes it made for fun game nights. When we didn’t play poker, all of us would pile up in the briefing room, and Seth and Josh would hook up whatever gaming system was their current fixation.
I was sure Rebekah would love that kind of game night. I would have to talk to the guys about planning something again. I must have zoned out because I didn’t hear the next question that she asked me.
“What was that, babygirl?”
“Is there anything you need my help with?”
“Nope, I’ve taken care of it all. There were just a few files that needed to be put away and some that needed to be updated. So we are all good. I was just checking the emails I got over the past week, but that can wait till tomorrow if you are ready to go home.”
“Actually, I kind of had another idea. If we can get the guys to agree, that is.”
“I think for you they would agree to just about anything, but what are you cooking up in that devious brain of yours?”
I was not expecting Rebekah to decide tonight would be a perfect movie night. There was a showing ofMoanatwo,and she thought that begging the guys to come and watch it was the best idea ever.
That was how I found myself sitting in the front row of the movie theater with Rebekah on my right and a big bowl of popcorn nestled between us. Surrounding us were Seth, Josh, Zack, and Patrick. None of them took a lot of convincing once Rebekah pulled out the puppy dog eyes and the pouty lip.
It seemed that not only did she have me wrapped around that pretty little finger of hers, but she had my men whipped as well. The guys who couldn’t come this time had to promise that they wouldn’t miss the next one. Apparently, they all pinky-promised, and you couldn’t break a pinky promise.
The past fewweeks with Rebekah had been nothing short of amazing. Spending the time getting close to her and learning about her Middle had been great. It had been a learning curve, but I had always been a quick study.
“Sweets?”
Rebekah had wandered off a little bit ago, and the house was silent. Silent houses meant that there was a Little finding all sorts of trouble to get into.
“Sweets? Where are you, babygirl?”
After I made my way down the hallway, I walked into my room, finding Rebekah curled up on my side of the bed again, clutching her blanket from my house and the one she had from her sister, Alicia.
Tears rolled down her face, but she didn’t make a sound or move a muscle as I walked into the room and curled up with her. I could tell over the past few days that Rebekah was withdrawing more and more, and I couldn’t place why.
Seeing her lying here, everything made perfect sense. “Rebekah, can you talk to Daddy?”
“She would have been eighteen today, Daddy.”
