Page 46 of Safe With You
She looked offended. “No, it don’t.”
“It does.”
She studied the picture again.
“I like it.”
“So do I.”
She smiled before running back toward the swings.
By the time we left the park, lunchtime had already passed us by, and Mila had grass stains on one knee of her jeans and apparently no idea what she wanted to eat. Mila ordered pizza and ate one of my chicken tenders anyway.
“I thought you didn’t want chicken,” I said as she reached across the table for another.
“I wanted pizza too.”
“So you ordered pizza.”
“I like options.”
“You like my food.”
“That too.”
I slid the rest of the fries toward her and gave up.
On the way back to the truck, we passed one of the little wooden libraries the city had installed along Main Street. Mila stopped without warning and opened the glass door.
A few mysteries sat on the top shelf beside a cookbook and two old romance novels. The bottom shelf held a thin stack of children’s books.
She crouched and started pulling them out one at a time.
“Read that one.”
“Got that one.”
“Too babyish.”
I leaned against the post beside her.
She reached the final book and sighed. “I already read all these.”
“All of them?”
“Most.”
“That’s not all.”
She returned the books to the shelf with far less care than I would’ve liked.
“I need a new dinosaur book.”
“You have several dinosaur books.”
“I read those too.”
“Every one?”
