Page 81 of Wishing for Love

“I’ve been telling him, along with Austin, that it still exists. He got that started and he’s building it and it will be much bigger and better than it ever was because maybe someone with more knowledge than him can run it more effectively.”

“Yikes,” she said. “How did he take that? I know he’s got this fear of failure.”

Just like she did. Though you wouldn’t ever see it on Phoenix.

“He does. He puts way too much on his shoulders and I’m sure having to tell Elsie about the two of you now is just another thing.”

“It is,” she said. “We hadn’t talked about it for a few weeks and then last week Elsie almost caught us kissing. It’s getting too hard to keep this secret and I don’t think we should.”

“So it was your idea?” Carolina asked.

“Yes and no,” she said. “We talked it out. I don’t like secrets any more than the next person. Phoenix even admitted that he hated that he has to always watch his every move around me and flip the boss and boyfriend switch.”

Phoenix’s mother laughed. “Just one more thing for him to be concerned about on top of everything else.”

“Exactly,” she said. “So tonight we are taking Elsie to dinner and going to figure out a way to bring it up as gently as possible. Phoenix said that Maryn had relationships so he is going to try to explain it that way.”

“Phoenix has always been so great with Elsie. He’s going to be a wonderful father to her. To his own kids someday too. He’ll figure it out like he does everything else in life.”

“He will,” she said. “And he won’t have to do it alone. It’s funny, he’s always asking me for advice on parenting and it’s not as if I have any experience. He had more experience with Elsie than me.”

“But she opens up to you more. It’s a girl to a mother type thing. I’m sure there are things she doesn’t tell Phoenix, right?”

“There are,” she said. “Lots of times I feel bad that he and I will be talking and I’ll say something about Elsie thinking he knows and he doesn’t. Just simple things like her new favorite toy or show or food.”

“It’s part of being a family,” Carolina said. “Even one as unconventional as what you’ve got. My children figured out fairly fast which parent to go to for what thing. But Austin andI would talk and make sure we were on the same page all the time.”

Her heart swelled hearing the word family.

She and Phoenix hadn’t said they loved each other yet, but she knew what she felt for him and had for weeks. She thought he felt the same by the way he looked at her and held her.

“With nine kids that had to be a lot of conversations,” she said.

Carolina laughed. “It was. And we still have them. I’m going to let you go because I know you need to run and get Elsie from school.”

“I do,” she said. “I still have an hour. Phoenix is going to try to come home first and then we’ll do it together and go to an early dinner to beat the crowds. You have a great night too. Hopefully you’re doing something special and romantic.”

“No,” Carolina said almost letting out a snort. “After all these years and kids, Austin and I are happy to be empty nesters.”

“You miss the chaos, you know it,” she said.

“Maybe just a little. Two of my kids will be back home in a few months, then the house won’t be so quiet again.”

“Take advantage of it,” she said and hung up a minute later.

She turned when the door to the garage opened. “Hi,” Phoenix said.

“Hey,” she said. “I was just talking to your mother.”

“Really?” he asked. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” she said. “She checks in with me at times. You know that. She wanted to know if we were doing anything special for the day.”

He walked over and pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “What did you tell her?”

“I said we were going to dinner and talking to Elsie. That it was hard to keep this private.”

“It is,” he said, his mouth moving over her neck. “I want to be able to do this without worrying she’s going to come in and be shocked.”

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