Page 17 of Daddy’s Fortitude

“You can stand now,” he said.

“Huh? Oh, right. Yeah. I mean, I don’t always do that.” She stood. “I just can’t deal with her today.”

The knocking stopped.

“Who is she?”

Yvonne started calling out Aimee’s name.

There was another banging noise, and Aimee jumped with a squeal, turning to look into the living room.

“Oh my God, she’s standing at the living room window, smacking her hand against it.”

“Just ignore her,” he told her. “She’ll go away. Like a toddler having a tantrum.”

“Do you know much about toddlers?” she asked.

“Next to nothing.”

Unless they were talking about Littles. He knew a bit about Littles. Keira was one. His guess was that Miles was too. There was a room for Littles at the club he frequented, but he didn’t really spend much time in that room.

“But you’re certain she’s going to go away?” she asked. “Because I’m not so sure. Even if she goes away today, she’ll be back tomorrow. She’s like a boomerang, a really annoying, high-pitched, snooty boomerang.”

“She’s always like that?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah. She was being nice today because she was dealing with you. She was always nicer when she was talking to Charlie. Then again, Charlie would just nod and smile at whatever she was saying, and then he’d completely ignore it. Actually, I’m not even entirely sure he actually listened to her at all.”

“I doubt anyone listens to her with that voice.”

“That’s true,” she said. “Unfortunately, it seems to dig its way into my brain, and the words play over and over in my head at night until I just want to scream. Does that ever happen to you?”

“No.”

“Right. Sure. I didn’t think so.”

“So who is she and what does she want?” he asked.

“Her name’s Yvonne Parsons, and she’s the head of the HOA.”

The head of the HOA? That wasn’t what he’d been expecting her to say. She was scared of the head of the HOA?

“Why are you scared of her?” There had to be more to it, right?

“I’m not scared of her.” She puffed up her chest. “Where would you get a crazy idea like that?”

“You fell to the floor and hid from her. You preferred to crawl along the floor than get up and deal with her.”

“I told you, I just wasn’t in the mood today. I nearly died today. That means I shouldn’t have to deal with Yvonne.”

“So you admit you nearly died today?”

Drat. He had her there.

It washed over her. Everything that had happened today, everything that had happened in the last few days, hell, in the last few years. It was all too much.

She was completely and utterly exhausted, and she didn’t see how she was going to get through this.

Sometimes, no matter how positive you were about life, it just kept hitting you and hitting you, driving you down until you couldn’t see any way out.