“Well, what about the fireworks? Have you checked that all of the fireworks are ready to go?” she asked.
“Button, of course I’ve checked the fireworks. Everything is set to go.”
Betsy shook her head. “I really am acting like a crazy person, aren’t I?”
“You’re just acting like someone who cares. Now, what shall we play with for half an hour? How about we finish some of that Lego you’ve been working on?”
Betsy shook her head. “I don’t think I’ve got the patience for Lego at the moment, Daddy. I might add some more glitter to my painting, though.”
“Are you sure glitter is a good idea?”
“Yeah, I had to make this picture for Hack,” Betsy told him. “Hack loves glitter. You know that. The more glitter, the better. Don’t you think this is an excellent painting?”
He looked at it. “I do think it’s an excellent painting.”
“Do you think it looks just like Hack?” she asked.
“It definitely looks like Hack,” Ink replied.
“Daddy!” she cried. “This isn’t a painting of Hack. This is a painting of his house. Oh no, this painting is terrible isn’t it? You don’t even know what it is!”
“Of course I know what it is,” Ink told her. “I was just being silly. Now, you need to finish doing your painting before we fire up the barbecue.”
“All right, Daddy.”
5
DUKE AND SUNNY
Duke leaned over Sunny, kissing her lightly. “I want you to stay in bed and rest until I get home. I won’t be long.”
“I have stuff to do.”
“Rest,” he said firmly. “You had a late night, baking cupcakes. Stay in bed. I’ll be about an hour.”
Sunny let out a disgruntled breath as she rolled over onto her other side. She heard the front door shut and counted to thirty.
Surely he would be gone by now, right?
Pushing back the covers, she sat up and got out of bed. She didn’t have much time, so she needed to get to work.
She couldn’t believe that Duke thought she would just lie around in bed while there were still things to get ready for the barbecue this afternoon.
She was in charge of the cupcakes, and Sunny was determined to make sure that everything was just right. Pulling on her robe, she put her feet in her fluffy unicorn slippers and rushed into the kitchen, nearly tripping over Hatter, who was lying in the hallway for some reason.
“Hatter, what are you doing? Have you had your breakfast?” She reached down to pet the large dog.
His tongue rolled out and he panted, looking happy with himself.
“You look like you’ve had your breakfast,” she said as she moved into the kitchen. “Sorry, I’ve got no time to play. I have to make some more icing. I really don’t think I have enough. And you know what they say, Hatter, there’s no such thing as too much icing on a cupcake.”
He gave a small woof as though in agreement. She kept an eye on the time as she mixed up more icing. “There we go. There’s some more white,” she said. “And now to add blue coloring to the icing to make some blue. These cupcakes are going to be so good, Hatter.”
At this pace, she was going to get this icing finished before Duke came home. She’d sneak back into bed, and he’d never be the wiser.
“Last, we have the red,” she said, mixing in the red coloring with a large wooden spoon.
Hatter let out a loud bark, and Sunny spun around, the spoon flying into the air, and blobs of red icing falling to the floor.
