Page 114 of Stone Vows

He runs his hands through his hair and I know he’s thinking about Grant forcing himself on me. He picks up one of the discarded fortune cookies and hands it to me. “I think we can make an exception,” he says.

I take it from him and crack it open, giving him half of it to eat. I stare at the slip of paper, then I glance down at my tattoo before I read my fortune aloud to Kyle. “Take nothing for granted,” I say.

Suddenly, I know what I need to do and I vow to call Skylar after dinner to get the ball rolling.

“Holy shit, Lex. Look!”

I look where he’s pointing to find Ellie up on all fours, scooting one knee forward and then the other as she attempts her very first crawl. “Oh, my God!”

I sit stunned, my eyes locked on Ellie as she reaches this milestone. I’m mesmerized by watching the careful and meticulous way she tries to move herself forward. After a few failed tries, she manages to crawl a few steps. “She’s doing it!” I squeal, excitedly.

I glance over at Kyle to see that he’s gotten out his phone and is videoing the entire thing. And I’m not sure which touches me more—my daughter crawling for the first time, or Kyle looking like the proud father while she does it.

Chapter Fifty-three

I find myself getting excited when I look at the clock. It’s been almost two days since I’ve seen him. He was on call over the weekend, and the hospital was so busy, he just decided to sleep there. I’m sure he’s so used to sleeping at work that it doesn’t bother him. Me, however—even though Ellie and I have only been here for six weeks, I find it lonely in the apartment when he’s not around.

Nothing has changed between us in the past few weeks. Nothing except I can tell he’s fighting his feelings more and more. He has to catch himself sometimes before he touches me. And often when we sit on the couch and watch late-night TV, he absentmindedly plays with my hair. He really seems to like my hair.

He rarely slips up and calls me Elizabeth anymore, which is funny, because outside of our circle of friends, that is exactly who I am. The doormen to our building, the residents who use the fitness room, the little old couple who own the corner market—they all know me as Elizabeth. After all, that’s what my birth certificate and photo ID say.

Ellie starts to fuss in her highchair as I’m chopping up vegetables for dinner. Kyle walks through the front door just as she breaks out into a full-on scream. I know this scream. This is her‘I’ve pooped my pants and I don’t want to sit in it’scream.

Kyle watches what I’m doing in the kitchen for a few seconds, then he unstraps Ellie and picks her up. “I’ll go change her,” he says. “You’ve got your hands full.”

“Thanks,” I say, smiling from ear to ear as he carries her away. I smile because he knows that scream, too. I smile because he’s not her daddy, yet he’s changing her diaper—and not for the first time. I smile because if anyone would look through our window on any given night, they would think we are a family.

But then I frown, because wearen’ta family. We’re roommates. Roommates who give each other time and space, apparently.

I’mdrowningin time and space. Can’t he see that? What will it take to get him to make the decision that he wants to be with me?

Maybe he already has. Maybe the decision is he doesn’t want me in his life—not likethatanyway.

“All clean,” Kyle says, bringing her back into the room.

Ellie looks at me as they approach the kitchen. She lifts her hand up and touches her chin with her thumb.

My eyes go wide. “Kyle, did she just . . .?”

Ellie does it again, smiling at me.

“Oh, my God, she did!” I squeal. “She just called me Mommy!”

Kyle does the sign as well and then touches me on the shoulder, just as he always does. Ellie repeats the sign for the third time, looking at me and smiling.

Tears are spilling from my eyes at the first real communication from my baby girl. I hug her in Kyle’s arms as we cheer and turn in circles, our arms around each other, Ellie swimming in laughter between us.

“Thank you,” I say to Kyle. “Thank you for teaching it to her. I can’t believe that was her first word. It never would have happened if it weren’t for you.”

“Of course it was her first word,” he says. “You are the most important person to her, Lex.”

We step apart and Kyle puts Ellie back into her highchair, sitting next to her at the table so he can spoon some strained peas into her mouth.

“I really needed that after my day,” he says.

I bring a bowl of salad over to the table. “Tough one, huh?”

He nods.

---