Page 60 of Hunting Little Hope
Maybe “everywhere” wasn’t entirely unfair. I’d been so focused on getting it off my hands and shoes, I hadn’t realized I’d left tracks on the floor. Not to mention the small arsenal of gold where my clothes from last night were thrown.
“Why,” Daddy Tyrell said almost conversationally, “do I get the feeling that you know what’s up with the glitter, little nuggie?”
Perry’s eyes grew comically large before slowly turning toward his Daddy, but he didn’t say anything, just stared at him.
Oh boy.
What on earth were we going to do to get ourselves out of this?
“Darn it,” I muttered. “I knew it was a bad idea.”
That was a lie. Obviously. Doing it this way had beenmyidea.
“What exactly was a bad idea, sweetheart?” Daddy Lee asked me.
I was torn, and from Perry’s expression, he wasn’t sure which way to go either. If we pushed going to breakfast, we’d probably end up outing ourselves anyway, because there was no way that the prank hadn’t been discovered yet.
I couldn’t believe it, but I was almost wishing I could face Troy and Archie instead.
I pressed my lips together, trying very hard not to look at Perry again, because if I looked at him, I was going to laugh. And if I laughed, we were absolutely doomed.
Daddy Lee’s gaze shifted slowly between the two of us, sharp and assessing in a way that made my stomach flutter for entirely different reasons than nerves. “Hope.”
All he said was my name in that calm and quiet way, but somehow that was worse than if he’d raised his voice.
I fiddled with the hem of my shirt, watching the glitter still stuck to my fingers like traitorous little sparks. There was so much of it. I wasn’t even sure how that had happened. I vaguely remember sticking my hand into the container of glitter and then... I think it all went just a bit fuzzy because it wasso much fun.
“It was supposed to be harmless,” I said weakly.
Daddy Tyrell blinked once.
Perry made a strangled noise beside me.
“Harmless,” Daddy Tyrell repeated slowly as if he was trying to figure out what I was doing a bad job of explaining.
“Well,” I rushed on, waving a hand vaguely, which only sent another shimmer of glitter drifting onto the carpet, “it’s a victimless crime... kind of. If you squint and look at it from the side I suppose.”
Daddy Lee pushed up from the bed and sat upright, making me move with him. He stared at me as he rubbed a hand over his mouth.
For a moment, from the expression on Daddy Tyrell’s face, I thought he might actually give in to the smile that was hovering just out of reach. Instead, he straightened and folded his arms. “Hope,” he said, gentler but no less firm. “What did you do?”
Silence stretched.
Perry shifted his weight in the bed.
Then, very quietly, he said, “We might have… come up with a plan to decorate the room where they were holding the rope play workshop this morning.”
Daddy Tyrell’s eyebrow lifted. “Decorated.”
“With glitter,” Perry admitted.
I closed my eyes. “It was supposed to be a surprise,” I mumbled.
“For who?” Daddy Lee asked, or more like demanded.
“The… participants?” I tried, hopefully.
When I dared peek up again, Daddy Tyrell was staring at us both like he was deciding whether to laugh, sigh, or march me directly to the nearest chair so he could start spanking me.
