Little Red

THIRTY SEVEN

"Look, Ellie!! I'm gonna go down the slide backward!!"

A soft smile curved upon Dani's lips as she watched her baby brother slide down the slide and land on the floor with a big grin on his features as he looked at her. A little while after waking up, Frankie had decided that he'd wanted to go back and play out on the playground in the lobby of the hospital. Dani hadn't really felt like leaving her room, but the pout that had formed on the boy's face was enough to make her change her mind, so it had left her with no choice but to give him what he'd wanted.

Honestly? To Dani it was worth it to see the big smile on his face as he played around with the other kids.

"Good job, bud!! I don't think I could ever do that!!" she said as he ran over to her.

Frankie giggled and said, "I can do it again!! And I can even climb up the rope part!!"

Dani's eyebrows raised in surprise. "You can?!" she asked. "Oh boy, now I have to see that!!"

"Okay!!" Frankie said and ran back over to the jungle gym, which left Dani to laugh as she watched him.

"Hey, Dani baby!!"

Dani's features lit up with a grin as she turned her head to see her mother walking towards her with a smile on her face.

"Hi, Momma," she said as the woman gave her a greeting kiss on the head and sat down on the bench beside her.

"Ugh, you will never believe how difficult it was to find an outfit for Mother G!!" Michelle exclaimed while shaking her head.

Dani's eyebrows raised in amusement as her mother had genuinely looked exhausted from whatever she'd had to endure.

"She couldn't have been that bad, could she?" she questioned with a laugh and laughed even harder as she was given a look.

"That bad? Honey, she was horrible!!" Michelle said.

Dani snorted.

"She needed a dress for a dinner party that's coming up, right? So tell me why I went through about seven different dresses with this woman just for her to turn around and pick the very first one we chose."

"No, she didn't," Dani said with another laugh as she shook her head.

"Yes, she did!" Michelle exclaimed before scoffing. "And get this! The first time I brought the dress out for her, she claimed it was too tight around the waist. So I asked her what happened to that and she goes Well I guess you'll just have to loosen it up for me. Girl, who does she think she is?!"

"Mom...Isn't she the founder of this town?" Dani questioned with a tilt of her head.

Michelle gave her daughter another look. "Is that supposed to make me bow down to her feet? Honey, I am Michelle Irene Richards. I bow down to no one," she said while tilting her head up.

"Well alright then," Dani said with raised eyebrows, which made her mother laugh.

She then looked down at her hands as she said, "Hey, Mom?"

"Yes, sweetie?" Michelle asked with a small frown.

Dani sighed as she looked back up at her mother and asked, "Have you...Have you talked to Momma Darling?"

A knowing look quickly grew on Michelle's face as she said, "Actually...I went over to see her before I came here."

Dani's features immediately lit up as she sat up in her seat and asked, "You did?! Was he there?! Did you see him?!"