Page 77 of Born to Sin
“Why not?” Beckett asked.
“Mrs. Hobarts wouldn’t let me have a friend come over,” Troy said. “She likes it for kids to be very quiet, and if I talk about dragons, I’m not being quiet.”
“I’ve been thinking,” Beckett said, “that we may need to find another babysitter.”
“Really?” Troy asked.
“Maybe,” Quinn said, “one who wants to come here. That’s always more comfortable. And to your house when you’ve moved into it,” she added in a hurry.
Beckett looked at her. “Do you know somebody?”
“I might,” she said. “I’ll talk to you about it later.”
“Works for me,” he said. “And Mrs. Hobarts doesn’t watch you on Sunday, does she? How about then? Want to ring Claire up tomorrow and ask if she wants to come play?”
“What if she doesn’t, though?” Troy asked.
“Then,” Beckett said, “maybe she can come another day. And you’re going to make more friends, no worries, because you’re a kind person, and people like kind people. It takes a bit for people to get to know other people, that’s all, and know whether they like them.”
“Unless you’re like Garrett T.,” Quinn put in. “Or my date last week. Then you get to know them right away, because they never shut up about themselves.” She grinned at Troy, and he giggled. “Yeah,” she said. “It’s not nice to talk about other people in a mean way, but sometimes, if they’re mean to you, you do it anyway. We could think about this, though. Sounds like Garrett T. might not have a dad like yours, who tells him it’s OK to be the way he is, that he loves him no matter what.”
She glanced at Beckett, hoping he’d pick up his cue. Fortunately, he said, “Too right I do. That’s a Dad’s main job, to love his kids, and I’m aces at doing my job.”
Quinn went on, “Whereas Garrett T. might be worried that he’s not good enough for his dad at doing those boy things, and that’s why he tries so hard to do them. Boys want their dads to think they’re special.”
“Oh,” Troy said, and yawned.
Beckett said, “So now that we’ve got that sorted, think you can go back to sleep? Bacon started snoring fifteen minutes ago.”
Troy giggled. “He farts, too, when he sleeps. Sometimes he wakes me up, he farts so bad.”
“I noticed,” Beckett said. “But he’s your dog, and you love him anyway.”
“Yes,” Troy said. “Because he’s the best dog, and he likes me very much. He can’t help being stinky sometimes.”
“Yeah,” Beckett said. “And you’ve got a loyal heart. You get that from me.”
“What does that mean?” Troy asked.
“That when we love somebody,” Beckett said, “we never give up.”
So that was all wonderful. And then Janey came downstairs.
32
SITUATION UNCLEAR
Beckett had just stood up, holding Troy—which was good, Quinn thought, because sometimes, a boy needed to be carried upstairs by his dad, and this seemed like one of those times—when Janey appeared in her new pale-blue, heart-dotted PJs with the piping, which Bam had told her were “perfect. Exactly what the girls are wearing now.”It must be true, because Violet’s purple PJs looked remarkably similar. Quinn knew that, because Violet was right behind Janey.
“What’shappeningdown here?” Janey asked. “Violet and I are trying to go tosleep,and there’s all this talking!”
“Funny,” Quinn said. “When I used to have friends over, we didn’t go to sleep until about two in the morning.” It was pretty hard not to laugh, Janey looked so outraged at this reversal in the natural order.
Janey asked, “Why is Troy up? Why are you all eating cookies? It’s aboutmidnight!You always say not to eat late at night, Dad. Especially things like pizza and cookies, because they’ll give us bad dreams, and you had both.”
“Yeah,” Beckett said. “I did. And now it’s time for bed.”
“Because I did have a bad dream,” Troy said. “So I came downstairs.” He was wriggling to get down—embarrassed in front of Violet, probably. Fortunately, Beckett noticed and put him on his feet, so Quinn didn’t have to say anything.