How to Knock a Bravebird from Her Perch : The First Novel in the Morrow Girls Series (9780985751616) Read Online Free Page B

normal. But none of that stopped Ricky from having his fun.  
    I heard him singing before he was even at the door. Ricky was like that. One minute the world was his enemy, the next they were all his friends. He danced through the doorway, bringing at least three inches of snow with him. “Can you dig it? Guess what!” I didn’t even get a chance to answer before...“I got a fight!” He shed everything in a matter of seconds and lifted Nikki above his head, teasing her until she giggled. “Daddy’s got a fight!”
    “What kind of fight?”
    “The kind that’s gone put me on the map, baby. Ain’t you happy for me? Huh? Baby here’s happy for me. Ain’t you happy for daddy? No more living in this shit hole. We gonna have real food and a real roof over our heads. Pecan, why you ain’t saying anything?”
    “You doing all the talking. I thought I’d let the two of you work it out. You hungry?” I knew he was. He was always hungry. So I ain’t need to wait for an answer before heading toward the cabinet that kept all our food.
    “Hold on, hold on.”
    “I’ll make you something.”
    “Hold on. Let me look at you.” Ricky plopped Nikki down on the bed and she scooted around, kicking her feet against the bed covers. He had both hands against my face, kneading my cheeks with his thumbs. “You got such pretty skin. You know that?”
    I did. Or at least I knew it the day before. When I looked like me. A piece of his hair was sticking up over the middle of his head and it kinda waved in the draft from the door. Stole my attention for just a second but then I was back to knowing him better than I wanted. Last thing I wanted was Ricky’s hands on me.
    “It’ll heal,” he said like it was no big deal.
    “I know.”
    “You still pretty. Ain’t nobody pretty like my girl. You hear me?”
    “Yeah.”
    “You believe me?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Good. Because I got a surprise for you.” Ricky ducked out into the hall and came back with a flat white box stretched across his arms. He held it out level with his chest and refused to give it up until I sat down on the bed. “It’s for the fight,” he said.  
    I wanted to ask him which fight. The one between me and him or the one he was so excited about. But I ain’t say none of that and he laid it gently on my lap.  
    “Open it.”  
    It was a dress. Blue. With a turtleneck and long sleeves. I held it up and could tell right away that it was shorter than he probably thought.  
    “Put it on.”
    “Now?”
    “Yeah, yeah, put it on. Come on, baby.”
    I took my time undressing, folding everything neatly on the bed, hoping he’d lose interest but those pretty eyes never left my body. A train rushed by and the entire apartment, walls and all, shook with it. The shades were still up since I was looking down on the folks below. Ricky marched over to the window and yanked the string until the shade fell to a good length. I started to relax a little after he did that. The dress zipped in the back so I stepped into it and waited for him to do the honors. He took his time.
    “It’s shorter than I thought it was gonna be,” he said.
    “All the girls are wearing their skirts here. It ain’t that bad. It’s fashionable.”
    “Hmmm. Turn around. Let me see the front.” He could see I ain’t want to, but that just made him impatient. “Come on now. What you think I’ma do? If it don’t fit, I’ll just take it back and get another size.”
    It wasn’t that it ain’t fit. I had always been a six, a perfect six. It was that the dress ain’t fit the way I knew he’d want it to.
    “Damn. That...that looks real sexy on you.” Ricky scratched his head then wiggled his finger around inside his ear. “They had another one that...that had this V-shaped dip in the front. You know that kinda came together like...this.”
    “A V neck?”
    “Yeah that makes sense. That what it’s called? Anyway, I thought about that one. Good thing I ain’t get it. That would’ve