Mr. Mitchell Billionaires' Club Book 2 - Raylin Marks Page 0,147
I said.
“Jim.” Addy sat up and turned to him. “Can you read me a story like my papa does?”
Whoa! This is new. No one took the place of her papa, reading her stories before bed.
Jim smiled at her. “I’m afraid I don’t have any books with me unless you brought some?”
“Use your ‘magination.” She chuckled. “Like in the car. You told me about the little girl who was tough on the farm, remember, silly?”
“Of course. All right,” Jim said, looking at me for help.
I lay flat on my back, my head propped up by pillows, shrugged, and smiled. You’re on your own, I mouthed to him as Addy laid down again. Jim propped himself up on his elbow, looking at Addy on the other side of me as she waited eagerly for his story.
“So, that little youngster,” Jim smiled at Addy, who started giggling, “she decided to take that nice farmer and his wife up on their offer.”
God only knew what story Jim was telling, but she was on the same page as he was, so I wouldn’t dare interrupt to ask questions. I was intrigued by their interaction. Jim was positively a different person at this moment. He sat up, telling her the story, and she looked at him as if I didn’t even exist between them. It was like they were instantly in their own world.
“Well, she can’t just go in and win. She’s got to think really smart,” he said. “Those boys, you see, they love poking fun at—” he stopped, looking thoughtfully at Addy. “What was her name again?”
“It’s your story, you know.”
“Right, I most certainly do. Little Sally. She was oh so sick and tired of the boys poking fun at her. So, instead of poking fun back at them, she decided she would be smart when they all helped Mr. Jones, the farmer. Mrs. Jones, however, promised delicious muffins for all of the children.”
“Oh no.” Addy ducked and hung onto the last word. “Sally’s going to want to eat the muffins now!”
“She sure does want a muffin,” Jim played back. “But she needs to work hard for that muffin, and she knows it. She can’t be tempted or the little boys that like to poke fun,” Jim arched his eyebrow at Addy, “they’ll plant the seeds in their rows, and little Sally won’t plant anything at all.”
“No. Sally has to work. She’s planting seeds, Jim. She is, right?”
“Of course, she is.” Jim grew serious. “Now, she plugged her nose so she couldn’t smell those delicious muffins coming from Mrs. Jones’s kitchen. I think Mrs. Jones was sneaky, trying to see who would leave the rows they promised to plant to come for her muffins.”
“Then, they wouldn’t work,” Addy said.
“Maybe, maybe not?” Jim said. “Sally focused on her row, one long line in a mound to where she could take her little hand to shovel and scoop her seeds in. She looked over at those boys, and they were a little way ahead of her.”
“It’s because she smelled those darn muffins,” Addy said.
“That’s right, but,” Jim eyed her, “she was determined to plant her seeds and think of nothing but her reward at the end. So, she planted three seeds in a hole at a time, just like Mr. Jones had instructed. In fact, she was actually having some fun now. She was not thinking about anything except what it would be like when her seeds grew into sprouts, and that special day Mr. Jones had promised in the beginning when she could come back and help him pick the corn that she helped grow.”
“And eat it!”
“And eat it.” Jim smirked at me as I watched them with adoration. “Anyway,” he grew serious again, “while she was focused, suddenly, her piggy tail was pulled,” he said, reaching over me and pulling on one of Addy’s piggy tails that I’d put in her hair after her bath.
Addy giggled and hid her hair from his hand. “Those rotten boys did that,” she said in a low voice to match Jim’s.
“Well, one surely did, and Sally stood up, forgetting about planting seeds when she got upset that he’d pulled her hair. ‘Don’t do that, Jake!’ she said to the boy.”
“Jake?” Addy asked. “Like your brother? That Jake?”
Jim chuckled. “Just like him. Being a bit ornery, but always having fun. Now, then, Jake took a bite of his delicious muffin, and instead of wanting the muffin, Sally looked over at his