Page 66 of Callow
“I do love me some oatmeal and snickerdoodles,” Callow said, nodding.
“I’ll buy some,” Dezi offered.
“How are you not three-thousand pounds?” Croft shot back at him. “Never seen anyone eat as many sweets as you do.”
“All the fighting keeps ‘em fit,” Fallon said in a way that suggested the fighting was both a problem and somewhat humorous to him.
“Alright. How’s that?” Croft asked, pulling Daphne’s attention back to him.
She looked at it for a long moment before nodding.
“Yeah, that’s him.”
Croft turned, showing the image to Fallon and Brooks.
“Well,” Fallon said, “at least he’s not so generic-looking. Might be easier to track him down.”
With that, he took a picture of it, then started texting the picture out to, I assumed, the bikers who weren’t present.
“Alright. So guard duty,” Brooks said as Fallon was distracted. “I think the twins would be good for the school,” he said, getting a nod from the brothers. “They’re the closest to school age we got. Won’t be as suspicious. If that’s alright with you,” he added, looking at me and Daphne.
“Yeah,” Daphne said, nodding.
“What about after school?” I asked, not exactly comfortable with the idea of my underage child alone in an apartment with two adult men. Even if they were there to protect her.
“How about after school, the twins take Daphne to the self-defense gym?” Callow suggested. “She’s already familiar with it and the people. The women who run it are highly-trained themselves. And the twins will hang there too as backup. Until we swing by after your work to pick her up and bring her home.”
They had it all planned out.
It was… surprisingly refreshing not to have to iron out all the details to everything myself.
“I think that’ll work. What do you think?” I asked, running my hand through Daphne’s hair.
“Yeah. I guess I can just do my homework while I’m there.”
“And read,” I reminded her.
“I owe you a trip to the bookstore,” Callow told her, making her eyes brighten.
“Really?”
“Yep. Know about some sort of shopping challenge thing.”
“But I can’t hold that many books,” Daphne said, clearly already knowing about that challenge.
“I got arms,” Callow said.
“Can we go tomorrow?” she asked, practically bouncing in her seat. “There are two sequels to this,” she said, reaching for her massive tome and patting it lovingly. “I need them ASAP. This is going to end on a cliffhanger, I can feel it.”
“We’ll see how tomorrow goes. But we got all weekend too,” he reminded her. “Read that one a little slower,” he added, giving her a little smile.
“Easy for you to say. You’re not watching the heroine be trapped in a tower by her evil step-brother while her love interest is tortured in a neighboring kingdom.”
“Just a little light reading, huh?” Callow asked, making Daphne laugh.
“If we go on the weekend, it gives you more time to convene with Allie about what other books you need to look for. It’s a timed challenge, you know,” I told her.
“That’s true,” she agreed, already reaching for her phone. “Wait… what about Allie and her moms?”