Page 16 of Wishing for Love

NICE ON THE EYES

“Can we ask Crystal to have dinner with us?” Elsie asked him five days later.

“We can,” he said, “but she’s busy unpacking.”

Crystal had made two trips with her little sedan loaded with clothes and a few boxes. He’d offered to help her bring things in, but she said she was set.

Most of her clothes were still on hangers and he suspected it was easier to transport and put them in the closet that way.

“But you won’t know until we ask,” Elsie said, putting her hands in front of her in prayer.

Phoenix didn’t want to tell her no to anything. Especially since Elsie seemed so excited over this and he couldn’t ask for much more than that.

They were in the family room off of the kitchen on the other side of the stairs. He couldn’t hear anything going on upstairs since that was above his garage. His bedroom was off the back of the house behind the garage so he’d never hear anything.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Probably a good thing since he couldn’t get her out of his mind.

Crystal was average height, with a nice toned body that she most likely got from never sitting still in her job.

Her hair was several shades of brown and blonde that looked more like the sun had done it rather than a stylist, but what did he know?

Her eyes were blue and clear. Wide and definitely not innocent, but he wouldn’t say anything was calculating in them either.

Something told him that she was open and honest. At least his mother thought that and he wanted to believe his mother. Carolina Westerly rarely steered him wrong.

He heard feet coming down the stairs and Elsie jumped up and ran toward the kitchen before he could stop her.

“Crystal, do you want to have dinner with us tonight?”

“I’d love to,” Crystal said. “What time are you eating?”

Phoenix got up and walked toward the kitchen so he wasn’t yelling. “Whenever works for you,” he said.

The only communication he’d had with Crystal since Monday night was her asking what time she could show up with her things. He’d been afraid she’d back out and was glad she seemed almost as excited as Elsie was about this.

“I just have to make one more trip to my apartment, but I think I’ll do it Monday if that is fine with you. Once I drop Elsie off, you said I can do what I need to during the school day, right?”

“Absolutely. I’ll be available if the school calls so you can finish up.”

“It’s not all that much more,” she said. “I didn’t think I accumulated as much as I have over the years. I would have left some of it there, but they wanted me to clean it all out for the next person. I did leave my furniture so that helped them some.”

“Glad it worked out,” he said.

“I’m just getting another box from my car. I thought I brought it up but didn’t.”

“Sure I can’t help you?” he asked. “I feel bad sitting around while you do all this work.”

“I’m good,” she said. “It’s just my bathroom stuff. Everything else is kind of put away. What isn’t I’ll do this weekend. I like to start organized. It doesn’t always stay that way, but if I start that way I feel better.”

He nodded his head. “Let’s go back to our movie, Elsie.”

He would have welcomed the break from whatever Disney movie was playing, but he needed to make sure Elsie knew they still had their time together.

“What are you cooking for dinner tonight?” Elsie asked him.

“I’ll cook tonight,” Crystal shouted as she carried a box up the stairs. She started to bang into the wall and lose her grip on it and had him running over to help.

Too late, the bottom opened and everything spilled on the floor.

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