Page 76 of Let's Kiss and Tell

Marsh

My phone is buzzing on my nightstand.

Still buzzing.

I hear it, yet it takes my body a few more seconds to wake up. Rolling over, I groan and see the nameOliveron my screen.

“What time is it?” I yawn.

“It’s almost seven. Are you still asleep?” Oliver laughs knowing very well I’m naturally up at fivea.m.on weekdays. “Don’t you have work?”

“I’m awake, I’m awake.” I stretch. “I’m on assignment today.”

“I guess I just assume you’re working at all hours of the day,” Oliver says.

“What’s up?” I ignore him.

“Sadie wants to talk to you…one sec.”

Lucy and I were up until almost twoa.m.live texting as we watchedMasterChef.It’s been two weeks since we agreed to be in a “relationship,” but it also feels like it’s been two months. And lately, it seems like all I do is think about Lucy. It’s like one day I woke up and she became the only thing I cared about. Granted, wearespending a lot of time together, but I can’t gauge whethermy consistent thoughts of her are because of the stories we’re working on, the upcoming wedding, or that for some reason we can’t keep our hands off each other like a couple of goddamn teenagers.

“Uncle Marsh?” Sadie’s high-pitched voice echoes through my phone.

“Dee Dee?” I mimic my niece’s energy.

“It’s me!” she says. “Daddy says I can only talk to you for three minutes because I have to go to school…But guess what happened to me this morning!?”

“Uh.” I pretend to be stumped. “You made your bed?”

“No!” She lets out a laugh. “Guess again!”

“Ummm.” I move an arm underneath my head, adjusting myself on my pillow. “You…won the lottery?”

“What’s the lottery?” she asks.

“The lottery is something that your parents are fortunate enough to never have to play,” I say. One day she’ll realize the benefit of both Oliver and Quinn being commercial architects.

“I lost a tooth!” she shrieks.

“What! You did?!”

“And guess what? Daddy said that the tooth fairy will come tomorrow and give me money.”

“She sure will,” I say.

“Uncle Marsh,” Sadie pauses. “Why does the tooth fairy need my tooth?”

I try to remember the tooth fairy lore. “I think she uses it to build her house,” I say. Yeah, that sounds right.

“Why?”

Great question. What kind of morbid children’s story were they telling us? “Because it’s too expensive to use wood or bricks,” I say confidently.

“How many teeth does she need to build her house?”

“A lot,” I say. “So keep leaving the rest of your teeth under your pillow when they’re ready.”

Sadie pauses again. “The tooth fairy doesn’t have anywhere to live…”