Chapter 3 Morning Routine

Marissa

"Eggs will be ready in five!" I called out, cracking a couple into the sizzling hot pan on the stove in front of me. "And you better have brushed those teeth young lady. I'll know if you haven't."

Annie's giggles echoed down the hallway as she rushed into the bathroom. "I'm doing it now, Mommy! I'll be ready before the eggs."

For a six-year-old, Annie was surprisingly good about being on time. I counted that as one of my many blessings with my little girl. She was an absolute angel who hardly ever gave me a tough time.

True to her word, she came bouncing into the kitchen just as the egg whites started bubbling. She ran right up to my side and gave me a hug around my hips before going to stand in front of the counter next to me.

I lifted her up on the counter and as soon as her bum hit the surface, she reached for the salt shaker next to her and handed it over to me. This was our routine every morning, Annie sitting on the counter and helping me cook breakfast.

"Did you really brush your teeth that fast?" I asked, laughing when Annie pulled back her lips to reveal her teeth and show me they were clean. "And your tongue?"

She stuck her pink tongue out to let me see before flashing me a beautiful smile. "All clean. I promise."

Leaning to her side, I gave her a quick peck on the temple just as the eggs were ready to be taken off the stove. I slid some onto the pieces of toast I already had waiting on our plates, making sure to have an extra plate ready for Denise when she got here.

She was my best friend in the city and Annie's nanny. Thankfully for me, she had no desire for lots of money. She could get by with the meager salary I could afford to pay her and was happy with things that way.

A good thing, since I would never be able to make enough money to pay her what she was worth to us. There wasn't enough money in the world. I struck it luckier than a miner in a gold rush the day I met her.

An old soul, Denise didn't have much use for technology and was the kind of person who still wrote checks at the supermarket. Between the influence of Denise and I as her primary caregivers, Annie was growing up as a kid who preferred the garden to the television and was bugging me for a new bike instead of a phone.

As for her father, well, she didn't have one. Okay, she did have one, of course, but he wasn't in the picture. From the day she was born, Annie and I had been alone. I preferred it that way.

Men complicated things. They hurt you and shirked their responsibilities. At least, in my limited experience. I wasn't bitter or anything, I had long since moved on from my failed attempt at romance, I was simply careful. My heart was in a closely guarded vault and it would take a force of nature to pry the thing open again.

I dated on and off, from time to time, but never anything serious. No one had ever even come close enough to our front door to be able to see Annie, never mind to meet her. For her sake, I had to watch who I let into my life.

She was my first priority and my one true love. I didn't need anyone else.

Except for Denise, I needed her, too. More so if I was to carry on working, which I had to do. There was a potential disaster I didn't even want to think about possibly looming if I lost my job on the back of the untimely demise of my boss. I had hardly any savings. Enough to get us by for maybe a couple of months, but that was it. I also had no one I could turn to for help, but doing that wasn't in my nature anyway. Somehow, I would make a plan. Annie depended on me to make sure I figured things out and I would.

It wouldn't help to worry about it, though. Time would tell what would happen with that situation. I had a pretty good idea, but I would cross that bridge when I got to it.

Shoving my worries over the possibility of becoming unemployed out of my mind, right along with my sadness over the death of my boss, I focused on Annie instead.

"Mommy," she said, her bright blue eyes wide. "Did you know Justin got a dragon for Christmas? He told me when Denise and I saw him at the store yesterday."

"A dragon, huh?" I raised my eyebrows, wondering where and what kind of stuffed dragon I was going to have to hunt down for her next birthday-assuming that was where she was going with this.

She nodded, her wide eyes shining with excitement. "A kimono dragon. I want a kimono dragon too, Mommy."

"Komodo," I corrected her gently, when I realized what she was talking about. "A komodo dragon."

Her little blonde eyebrows pulled together. "Yeah, that's what I said."

"No sweetie, a kimono is like that little robe thing you and I wore the morning before Aunt Mary's wedding. Do you remember that?"

I doubted she would. My cousin Mary got married a couple of months before Annie and I left Texas. We'd been in Boston for almost a year now, which meant she had to have been just over four and a half at the wedding.

She had made the most beautiful flower girl with her blonde curls pulled back from her face in a ponytail that hung off to one side. I remembered my heart bursting with pride when she came walking down the aisle, the very picture of joy.

Annie's face scrunched up as she thought, then she surprised me by nodding. "We ate a big chocolate cake and there was a lady who played with my hair for hours."

"She was the hairdresser, honey. But yeah, that's the day I'm talking about. Those little robes Aunt Mary got for us were kimonos. I'm willing to bet the dragon Justin got is a komodo dragon. It sounds similar, but it's actually different."

"Okay," she nodded without any further question. Annie seldom questioned things I explained to her. She mostly trusted I was right and was telling her the truth. I tried every day to earn her trust by never lying to her. It was just the kind of relationship we had.

Annie opened her mouth, presumably to tell me more about the dragon, when she was interrupted by the front door slamming. There was only one person it could be.