Page 42 of Quiet Beautiful Things

“Damn. You got me. Whatwouldit take to impress you, Dr. Stone?”

She smirks and studies me for a moment.

Ellie: You have no idea how much you already have. The things you’ve done for Maisy. The way you’ve accepted her into your life. The effort you’re putting into everything.

Me: Now I’m the one blushing.

She looks up from her phone and laughs silently.

I wave a hand around. “Tell me why this doesn’t impress you.”

Ellie: I grew up coming to places like this. Not all the time, but sometimes. My parents are wealthy.

I furrow a brow at this new information. “What do they do?”

Ellie: My dad is a doctor. An MD. But that’s not where the money comes from. In fact he runs a free clinic in the city. He and his brothers inherited a lot from my great grandparents.

“But you live in such a modest apartment.”

“Your house is small,” she signs.

“It is not.”

Ellie: Compared to the size of your bank account, or your parents’ anyway, I’d say it is.

Me: Okay, fine. So neither of us goes around flaunting it. Just one more thing we have in common.

“One more?” she mouths.

I love the way her mouth moves. It reminds me of our kiss. She rarely mouths words, but I catch her doing it sometimes when she’s signing just a simple word or two.

“Well, let’s see. We both live in Calloway Creek. We come from money but don’t advertise it. And we both love Maisy.”

Ellie: I wanted to ask you something. I know you love her, even in the short time you’ve known her. But I see the way you look when Maisy hugs me or your mom. Do you not hug her?

Me: I want to. You have no idea how much I want to. I’m afraid I’ll scare her. I’m not sure she wants to hug me. She’s more standoffish with me than she is with you, my mom, and Allie. Maybe it’s because she never had a father figure? I guess I was just waiting for her to want a hug, or initiate one, or whatever. Do you think I’m wrong?

Ellie: Actually, I think just about everything you’ve done is right. Do you mind if I ask about her past? What happened to her? Is her mom alive? What brought her to you? I mean, if you’re comfortable speaking of it.

I spend most of our meal explaining what happened. It takes a long time because I text most of it between bites. And by the time I’m done, I realize, aside from my family, Ellie may know Maisy and me better than anyone else.

Ellie: I have one more question. I saw the look on your face when you were talking to that woman out front. Did you think the baby she’s carrying was yours?

I frown. Time to get real. After all, I just told her Maisy was the product of a fling.

Me: I’m not going to lie. I was a bit of a player in college. Even in grad school. I’m sure eventually you’ll hear things about me. It’s a small town. Word gets around.

Ellie: I already have.

My eyebrows go halfway up my forehead. “And you still agreed to dinner?”

She shrugs and dips her lobster in butter then plunges it into her mouth. A bit of butter remains on her chin, and I lean over and wipe it with my thumb. Our eyes lock and I’m taken back to the very first time I saw her in the grocery store. Electricity sizzles between us. No words need to be spoken or signed. We both feel it. Every time I touch her it’s like all my nerve endings instantly come alive.

I’ve been with countless women. Even liked some a lot. But never, not once, have I felt the way Ellie makes me feel. I’m tempted to tell her, but I don’t. I’ll scare her away. But surely she knows it. My eyes tell the story, right? Just like hers do. She wants me as badly as I want her. She’s thinking about the way I wiped her chin. The soft contact of my thumb against her face and the intimacy it suggested. She’s thinking of how our lips fit perfectly together the one time we kissed. And about how we don’t need words to convey our feelings.

One thing niggles at the back of my mind, though. Maybe all deaf are like this and I’m reading too much into it. Perhapsher expressive eyes, her comfortable silence, her easy demeanor, are simply traits deaf people acquire during their lives and I’m misinterpreting it for what… lust?

I definitely can’t say anything now. She’d run for the hills and maybe even assign another mentor to work with Maisy. No, I’ll have to keep my secret for now. The secret that I think I may have fallen for her.

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