Page 32 of Sleeper: The Palisades Edition

But the dots disappear.

No more messages come through.

Maybe he fell asleep.

Maybe I should stop texting my boss to try harder to dazzle me.

But hopefully he just fell asleep.

NINE

SHANE

It’s seven thirty, Summer is about two blinks away from falling asleep, and we’re only halfway throughGreen Eggs and Ham. This is awesome. She usually makes me go through a few books before finally nodding off.

Willa is in Lucky’s room, reading to him. I took on bath time duties since I had gotten a couple of hours sleep before dinner and have been feeling great. Now I am simultaneously impatient for and dreading the moment when Willa and I will be the only two people awake in this house. It is bizarre, how quickly she has assimilated into our life.

I try my luck at turning a chunk of about ten Dr. Seuss pages at a time and hope that she doesn’t notice when I continue reading, but Summer knows this book by heart. “Daddy.”

“What?” I ask innocently.

I expect her to turn the pages back, but instead she says, “Is Willa always going to live here?”

“No. She’s just here to help me out with you guysuntil your mom is back from making the movie she’s making now. Then we’ll hire a different nanny. Why? Don’t you like having her here?”

“Yeah. She’s better at singing than you. I think she should live with us all the time.”

“Well, I don’t think that’s something she’d want to do. Being a nanny isn’t her normal job. She needs to get her own place eventually. But you can enjoy her while she’s here, right? You tired?”

She nods.

“Did you have fun today?”

“Yes.”

“Hey there,” Willa whispers as she tiptoes into the room. “Sorry to interrupt.”

“Lucky asleep?”

“Out like an adorable light.” She stops at the foot of the bed and clasps her hands behind her back in a way that pushes her chest out and makes me want to die a little. “I just wanted to say good night to Summer, but—wow.” She grins at me. “I never would have guessed you’d look so good as a redhead.”

Fuck.

I remove the child-size Little Mermaid wig that I had forgotten was on my head and toss it on the floor. “She made me wear it.”

“I would have too if I’d known about it. Keep reading.”

“Actually, I think we’re done, right, sleepyhead?”

Summer can barely keep her eyes open. “What are you going to do when we’re asleep?”

“Nothing,” I answer quickly.

“Separate stuff,” Willa says.

“Nothing together.”

“You should watch a movie,” Summer says.