Gabby Duran and the Unsittables Read Online Free Page B

intimidating, but she highly doubted Edwina had ninja skills. She imagined her leaping into a
midair roundhouse kick and laughed out loud.
    Edwina raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think I could pull off Ninja-Nana Annihilation?”
    Gabby clamped her hand over her mouth, then asked, “How did you…?”
    “No, I don’t read minds,” Edwina said, “not even to know you were wondering if I did. I simply surmised it from a combination of your clumsy attempt to subtly size me up,
your expression, and what I observed earlier.”
    Gabby opened her mouth to reply, but she was too shocked for anything to come out. A hint of a smile played on Edwina’s lips.
    “Magnificent work, by the way,” Edwina said. “With the triplets. You handled them beautifully.”
    “I didn’t
handle
them,” Gabby corrected her immediately. “I played with them. It was fun. They’re really good kids.”
    “For
you
,” Edwina noted. “As are many children who are impossible for other authority figures.”
    Gabby screwed up her face. “I’m not an ‘authority figure.’ I’m just a babysitter.”
    “
Just
a babysitter?” Edwina arched an eyebrow. “That’s not what I’ve heard. More like a
super
-sitter. Clients all over the world seek you out for the
most impossible babysitting cases.”
    Gabby simply nodded. She was proud of her reputation and happy she could help people who needed her, but she didn’t like to brag about it. Starting with her own little sister—despite
Carmen’s claims otherwise—babysitting was just something Gabby was good at. It came naturally to her.
    “Tell me,” Edwina said, narrowing her eyes. “What’s your secret?”
    “I don’t have one,” Gabby said honestly. “I just love kids.”
    “
All
kids?” Edwina pressed.
    “Never met one I didn’t like.”
    “No matter how…unusual?”
    Gabby laughed. “The more unusual the better! That’s what makes babysitting so fun. Every kid is unique and different, so I never do the same thing twice.”
    Edwina nodded thoughtfully, then stared at the road and didn’t say anything for what felt like ages. Gabby wondered if she’d put her foot in her mouth again, and if Edwina
wouldn’t offer the proposition after all. She was running their entire conversation back through her head when Edwina’s eyes snapped to the rearview mirror and caught Gabby’s
own.
    “I have a job for you,” Edwina offered. “One boy, eight years old, ten minutes. I’ll pay you four times your hourly rate.”
    Gabby sat straight up and leaned forward against the seat belt. “What?!”
    “I believe you heard me,” Edwina said. “Should this job go well, I’ll offer you more.”
    The “Yes!” was about to leap from Gabby’s mouth, but Edwina cut her off.
    “Before you answer, there’s a caveat. You must agree beforehand that you will tell no one about the experience. Not your mother, not your sister, not your friends.”
    Gabby fell back into her seat. This changed things. “I don’t like to lie,” she said.
    “Nor do I,” said Edwina. “It’s an admirable quality. However, I’m afraid the circumstance requires it. So what do you say? Are the terms acceptable to
you?”
    A million conflicting thoughts whirled through Gabby’s brain, but only one got bigger and bigger until it stood front and center in her mind.
    Gabby’s mom, Alice.
    She worked so hard to provide for Gabby and Carmen and still be there with the girls all the time, but it was a struggle. Though Alice never complained about it, Gabby knew her mom always felt
the pressure to earn more money in less time. And yes, Gabby’s income helped, but between school and her French horn and homework and time with her friends, she could only work so many hours.
If Edwina really would pay four times her rate, that could make a huge difference in the Durans’ lives.
    There was something else Gabby wanted, too, but she knew she shouldn’t get ahead of herself. Right now Edwina was offering just