Page 125 of This Wild Heart

I wrapped Louise in a hug as I laughed. “Yeah. I think we can figure something out.”

Chapter 33

Anya

“Daddy?”

Dad didn’t look up from the toy he was trying to assemble. “What’s up, Wills?”

“My friends and I were wondering something, but they said you’d say no, and I think you’lltotallysay yes.”

My hand froze where I was cutting Willa’s cake. The pink rhinestone crown on her head was slipping down over her waves, and behind her stood a dozen other ten and eleven-year-olds, all looking up at my tall, imposing dad like he hung the moon.

He finally realized he had an audience and blinked. “Uhh. Okay.”

Willa punched her fist in the air. “See? I told you he’d say yes.”

I smothered my laugh behind a cough. Isabel smacked my leg from where her chair sat by the dining room table. Dad pinched the bridge of his nose. “I didn’t say yes to the question, Willa, I was saying it’s okay that you ask.”

Her shoulders slumped.

After licking some frosting off my thumb, I leaned down and whispered loudly enough for my dad to hear. “Just make sure you give him those really big puppy dog eyes and say please like you really mean it. He’ll be helpless.”

“Thanks,” he said dryly.

Willa and her friends gathered close, all widening their eyes, fluttering eyelashes and everything. My sister had her hands clutched together in front of her black ninja outfit.

“Daddy,” she said sweetly.

He licked at his bottom lip, glaring at Isabel when she snorted. “Yes, Willa?”

She blinked comically. “Can we pretty, pretty,prettyplease with cherries on top and sprinkles and I promise I’llneverget in trouble ever again for the rest of mylife?—”

My dad stared down at his youngest incredulously. I clapped a hand over my mouth and leaned against the counter as Isabel and I tried to keep our laughter to a minimum.

“Abort,” I whispered loudly to Willa. “You’re going overboard. You’re losing him.”

From the table, Violet stared at us over the edge of her phone. “If this works, I’m bailing. I tried to promise I’d never get in trouble again, and I didnotget what I asked for.”

Isabel reached behind Violet and gently tugged her ponytail until she was forced to look up. “You were asking for a weekend away with your boyfriend. Of course we said no.”

Dad closed his eyes and muttered something about gray hair.

Willa cut me a quick, panicked look. “Eh, umm, never mind about the trouble thing. Maybe thisweekI won’t get in trouble?”

I winked at her.

“Slightly more believable, but I’m still waiting for the question,” Dad said, finally having opened his eyes.

Willa sucked in a deep breath, and her words came tumbling out. “Can we please go up on the roof and try to shoot basketballs into the hoop on the driveway? We want to make a princess trick shot video on YouTube.” Her face went deadly serious. “We’ll be famous.”

The kitchen went completely silent. My mouth was slightly agape, and even Violet’s eyebrows were arched high on her forehead. Isabel had her hand covering her mouth while she stared at my dad, whose face had gone almost comically unmoving.

All the girls seemed to take a breath en masse, awaiting the fate of their YouTube fame.

“No.”

“Daddy,” Willa wailed. “Please.”

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