Page 23 of Giddy Up, Daddy

“What?” She stared at him, crestfallen. “It has to be.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, it’s not.”

“Are you sure? Maybe you just forgot what card you chose.”

“Girly, I chose the five of hearts and that’s the queen. It’s not my card.”

“Drat!” What was she doing wrong?

“Never mind,” Stafford said gently. “Have you got another magic trick to show us, Brilliant Blakely?”

Except she hadn’t been that brilliant, had she? Because none of her tricks were darn well working. What was she doing wrong?

“All right, for this next trick, I’m going to need my magic wand.” She turned around and set up the floating pencil trick. It couldn’t go wrong. Even she could do it. Grabbing her wand, she turned back, holding the pencil in her fist.

“Abadabadodo! Make this pencil float in the air!”

“Abadabadodo?” Grandpa Jack repeated, sounding skeptical.

“Shh,” Stafford hushed him as she undid her fist and the pencil floated in the air.

Well, it should have. Instead, it slipped free and fell on the floor.

“Oh, witches and wizards! That wasn’t supposed to happen!”

“Well, good try, darlin’,” Stafford told her.

Hmm.

“I thought that was a really good magic show,” he added.

“Are you kidding?” Jack said. “That was terrible.”

Oh God.

He was right. It was terrible.

“Grandpa!” Stafford chided. “You can’t say that. Blakely, he didn’t mean it.”

“I did mean it and now I’ve got to go have my nightcap. Girly, you need to practice.”

Stafford stood and helped his grandfather up. Then he turned to her, his face filled with chagrin and concern. “Blakely, I’m so sorry. You know how Grandpa Jack is. He, uh, well, he . . .”

Fuck.

Why couldn’t he think of something to say to cheer her up?

Yeah, the magic show had been kind of terrible, but that didn’t mean his grandfather could say that to her.

He’d hurt her feelings.

Blakely was . . . she was sensitive. Sweet. She couldn’t really handle criticism. No matter whether it was the truth or not.

And his grandfather needed to learn to hold his tongue around her.

Although that would be like trying to teach a dog not to pant.

Kind of impossible.

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