now, it was hilarious. Damon, a full-grown man, was debating whether my daughter was a grown up. He also appeared to be taking the argument completely seriously, just like Luna was.
With a quick prayer that I really could trust a building full of adults to keep Luna alive, I rushed out the door to start on my hopeless task of finding the things Damon asked for.
I had nothing to be smiling about, but I found myself beaming from ear to ear as I half ran out of the building.
19
Damon
I waited with my fingers threaded together in an inverted “V.” Across my desk, a very small, very angry person was testing my patience.
“I won’t break it.”
“You will.”
Luna crossed her arms and stuck her lip out in a pathetic attempt to draw sympathy from me. Ridiculous. Sure, she looked cute, but so did bunnies on the side of the road. I wasn’t about to let a bunny handle the handmade glass paperweight one of my clients had given me as a gift a few years back. It was an intricately carved sculpture of an athlete winding up to throw a baseball, and I happened to enjoy looking at it.
“You might as well give up. You won’t win this,” I said.
“I held a snow globe once,” Luna said.
“And?”
“Snow globes are glass. I didn’t break it.”
“If you had petted a tiger once without getting bit, it doesn’t mean I’d be enthused about letting you try again.”
“You’ve petted a tiger?” Luna’s eyes lit up, and it was clear she’d completely moved on from the idea of holding my paperweight.
I decided to seize the opportunity and divert her, just to avoid circling back to her touching my things. It seemed that negotiating with small people was very similar to bargaining with high power athletes, multi-million-dollar teams, and huge corporations.
It also happened that I was damn good at it.
“I didn’t just pet a tiger. I held a baby one and fed it milk from a bottle.”
I thought Luna’s already large eyes couldn’t get any wider, but she proved me wrong. “A baby tiger?” she whispered.
My mouth twitched. Maybe it was a smile, but it probably wasn’t. “That’s right.”
“You can come to my birthday party if you let me touch him.”
“The tiger? This was years ago.”
“I want to touch him. Please Mr. Flower.”
“Rose. And you’re not understanding me.”
“Tiger. I want to touch one.”
I sighed. For the briefest moment, I felt sympathy for Chelsea. She had to deal with this force of nature at home and then come to work to put up with me? Maybe I could go a little easier on her from now on. Just slightly, though.
“We’ll see,” I said, fully intending that to actually mean “it’s never going to happen.”
But Luna jumped up from her chair and punched at the sky. “Yes! Thank you!” She started trying to climb up and over my desk, so I had to get out of my chair and go help her down. As soon as I was beside her, she gave up and spun to hug my legs.
I shook my head at the ceiling. Apparently, spontaneous happiness and hugs were genetic qualities Chelsea passed on to her disturbingly cute spawn.
Not for the first time, I wondered what kind of man her father was. I also wondered if he knew what kind of daughter he had. For some reason, the thought made me sad, so I decided to focus on something else.
“Where’s your mom?” I asked, peeling Luna off my leg.
She dropped into a fighting stance and started swatting at my hands, as if I’d just challenged her to a duel. “Hi-Cha!” she squealed, aiming a kick at my knee.
I put my hand on her forehead, keeping her out of range while she flailed uselessly. “Are you done yet?”
Luna nodded, so I removed my hand. That was exactly when she dashed into range and karate chopped my leg.
Normally, I hate kids. In fact, I was pretty sure if this particular gremlin gave me enough time, I’d find a way to hate her too. But for some inexplicable reason, I found myself pretending her attack had mortally wounded me. I gripped my knee, let out a silent scream, and fell to the floor of my office.
Luna squealed with glee and jumped on my stomach. She started a deadly combo of punches and head butts. I played it up, grunting and twitching with each hit.
And that was exactly when Chelsea walked into my office with bags and bags of assorted food hanging