Too Much Information (Awkward Love 3)

“Pull your shit together, woman.”

“Yeah,” Allie pipes up, getting to her feet. “Get your shit together.”

Becca turns around and glares at her. “Hey. You’re ten. You don’t get to swear.”

“Oh, but it’s fine for you?”

She sticks her chest out as she stares Becca down with all the pre-teen angst she can muster. The problem with that is she’s underestimating Becca’s ability to act like a thirteen year old.

“Double standard much?” Allie mutters, backing down. She pouts and looks at me for support.

“The world is full of double standards so get used to it,” Becca grumbles.

“She’s right. No swearing,” I say, shrugging at her.

“What was the point of you adopting me if I you’re not going to stand up for me?” She sighs. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that.”

“I’m glad to hear that I didn’t adopt you so you could use me to win arguments.” I cross my arms over my chest. I stare at her and raise my eyebrows. “Now, considering how early we have to get up tomorrow, I think it’s your bed time,” I add.

“But what about the stripper?” she protests.

Annie snorts as I turn around and glare at Becca, who puts her hands up defensively. I rub my head, because I can’t deal with this right now.

“There is no stripper.”

“But I heard Becca on the phone—”

“Seriously?” I huff, glaring at Becca. “A stripper when you knew Allie was staying with us? That was the condition of you staying with me tonight. That you go to bed when I tell you to.”

“No, I—”

I Hold my hand up at her. I’ll deal with her later.

“You. Bed.” I raise an eyebrow at Allie, who releases a loud sigh and hunches her shoulders forward.

“Fine,” she grumbles. “You’re worse than Dad,” she adds.

She stalks off to her room while I sit down. I’m still shaking, but feeling more in control of myself. Allie walks back out a few seconds later, holding up a package.

“I almost forgot. This is from Dad. He said to give it to you when you made me go to bed.”

She practically throws it at me, before stalking back to her room. I nearly laugh when she reappears a few seconds later and throws her arms around me.

“I’m so happy you and Dad are getting married,” she says.

I kiss her on the cheek and smile sweetly at her.

“You’re still going to bed.”

“Seriously?” she says.

She shakes her head, before stalking off to her room in a huff for the third time in five minutes. I groan and shake my head, burying my face in my hands.

“And she’s not even a teenager yet,” I mutter. Becca giggles, which reminds me I’m still annoyed at her. “A stripper?”

“What she heard was me organizing an escort for the wedding,” Becca mumbles. Her face reddens.

“An escort?” I want to laugh, but she looks kind of serious.

She nods. “Well, not the kind that you have sex with. I just wanted someone to dance with and sit next to. All the shit you guys take for granted,” she adds, looking from Annie to me. “I didn’t want to be standing at your wedding, wishing I was in relationship,” she grumbles.

“Oh Becs,” I say. I wrap my arms around her. “I’m sorry if I’ve been making you feel left out.”

“No, it’s not you at all,” she protests. “It’s just…” she shrugs. “Well, I officially hate being single. But, enough about me. Let’s focus on you. And that rat of a kid,” she adds.

I laugh, because I know how much Becca adores Allie.

The truth is, the day I adopted Allie was the happiest of my life. After Luke and I returned from overseas, Allie came out to visit us every school break, until just over a year ago, when she told us she wanted to live with us permanently. We were thrilled, because Luke had just proposed, and Allie moving over to live with us was the icing on the cake. Luke and I had talked about adopting, but we’d decided that, for now at least, having Allie in our life was enough. I’d just completed my fellowship and was looking forward to continuing to work in Mercy’s fertility program and Luke was doing a specialist degree in children’s cardiology, so extending our family wasn’t something that was possible in the short-term future. As much as I loved our life and Allie, there was still something missing.

But all that changed the day she asked me to adopt her.

It was three months ago on the morning of my birthday. She presented me with a card she’d made herself and inside, she’d written a lovely message, asking me to adopt her. I was shocked, and Luke was too, because he had no idea she was even thinking about it. For her to want me to take on that role meant everything to me. I swallow, my eyes tearing up just thinking about it. I shake off everything else and focus on the package in front of me.