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“What do you want to do?” she asked me, and at that moment I felt like the child between us. I looked at Brady, who lay down on the floor close to Anne as he watched the cartoon with her.
“What do you want to do?” She placed her finger on her chin, pretending to put on a thinking face as she tapped. I mimicked her actions as I thought about my morning exchange with Asher and the events that led up to two girls bored out of their minds in my apartment.
I was finally bestowed the pleasure of taking care of Anne without supervision from either Granny Elise—it would be a downplay of her joy for me to say she was pleased that she was relieved from babysitting a five-year-old and a twenty-seven-year-old—and Asher.
He had given me specific instructions to fetch his daughter from daycare before five p.m. or else I would pay the fine. What day care closed at five?
Anne and I had had a pleasant walk from her school back to the apartment building where we met a tenant who had found my apartment keys. I would’ve kissed his cheek, but after paying a fine at Thomas’ office, I decided to buy a new door lock and trusted Asher by giving him one of the spare keys.
I thanked the kind guy who had returned my keys, because they still had my favorite keychain, with my brother’s dog tags and a cute, purple butterfly.
“I don’t know,” she sighed, and I snapped my fingers as I got up.
“Would you like to bake some cookies with me?” I smiled as I pointed to my chest with my thumb, and Anne got up from the couch, as well.
“Yes! Can we make chocolate cookies?” I knew my girl would be on board with baking.
“Uh-huh, we can even coat them in melted chocolate,” I told her, and she jumped excitedly. “Do you want to go visit Granny Elise and get some easy-to-bake recipes?”
“Yup!”
“Put on your shoes, sweetie,” I told her as I grabbed my phone from the counter, and we were on our way to the floor beneath us.
“We’ll be back soon, Brady.” She waved as we walked out of my apartment, and he watched us carefully until we closed the door. I assured him that we would still be in the apartment building, and he finally caved in when I gave him a treat.
Brady was already protective over Anne, and it was safe to say that my young neighbor had met her favorite best friend ever. Brady seemed to be opening up to the family, and it brought me so much happiness to see him being loved and welcomed by Asher and Anne.
I had suggested baking cookies because my brother and I used to enjoy doing that together whenever he would come back home from whatever tour he had been on. He would say that his missions were confidential but would proceed to tell me a few stories as we shared our cookies together.
I missed him.
Anne and I got into the elevator, and we were finally on our way to Granny Elise’s apartment.
“Do you want to keep some cookies for school tomorrow?” She hummed before she shook her head.
“No, I want to give them to my daddy.” Nobody was Asher’s biggest fan like his daughter was. The girl rooted for her father more than anybody, and she would constantly sing his praises.
It was valid though; he was a great father, just a horrible person.
We arrived at Granny Elise’s apartment and knocked on her door as we discussed the different type of flavored cookies we wanted to bake.
“I want a lot!” she giggled like she was already high on sugar, and I laughed as I moved her hair away from her face.
“I was just like you when I was younger; I lost all my teeth,” I warned her, and she rolled her eyes, waving away my warning.
“That’s because you ate them all on one day. You need to eat them in two days, Brooke.” She raised two of her fingers.
“My dearest girls, what pleasure do I owe this visit to?” Granny Elise asked as she pulled her door open even wider, and Anne and I entered, both kissing her cheek. Granny Elise was a gem; I still had no idea how Asher was able to get such a wonderful woman on his side.
He attracted the best of people with his shitty personality; it was a mystery, indeed!
“We came to get cookie recipes,” I told her as I leaned against the counter, and she looked at me, giving me a warning sign, and I waved my hand. “I promise, I know what I’m doing.”
“Okay, dear,” Granny Elise caved in almost immediately as she reached into a cabinet and grabbed a book that was doubled in size because of all the pages that had been slotted in there, and I knew right then and there that Anne and I were about to have a blast.
“Woah, you have so many recipes, Granny,” Anne gushed as she climbed on the island chair and leaned forward, watching as Granny Elise paged through her many recipes.
“Yes, and everything has been color coded according to the baked goods,” she told us as she paged through to the yellow page section.
