Page 54 of Buried Dreams

“How was your day?” I ask as she climbs into the back seat.

“Good,” she answers at the same time my phone beeps from my back pocket.

Pulling it out at the same time I shut the door, I see it’s from Everleigh.

Everleigh: Dropped off a couple of cupcakes for Saige. Left them at the front door.

I get into the front seat and feel a fullness I don’t think I’ve ever felt before. She went out of her way, knowing that I used to always get cupcakes with her on Fridays, and dropped them off at my house. I then get really pissed she didn’t go inside and drop them off. But I’m not sure how she was going to do that with no key.

Me: Thank you, baby. I’ll let her know you dropped them off. Also have to get you a key for my place.

She doesn’t answer me, and when I pull up to my house, I immediately see the box. “Everleigh dropped off some cupcakes for you,” I tell Saige, and her eyes get big as she gets out. She runs straight to the door and picks up the box.

“Daddy, it’s heavy.” She picks it up and then looks at me. “There is a note on top.” She looks down and reads it. “Here are some sweet treats to go with your pizza night. E.”

“That was nice of her,” I say, trying to gauge how she feels.

“She’s the best, and she’s really pretty.”

“She is,” I agree, letting her into the house. “You know, we were friends a long time ago.”

“Really?” she asks. “You knew her?”

“Yeah,” I reply, not ready to give her the full story just yet. I will eventually, but for now, let’s just go with we were friends.

“Was she pretty back then too?”

“Oh, yeah.” I smile at her. “She was the prettiest of all the girls.”

“Did you like her?” she asks as she pulls out a cupcake that has a mountain of icing on it.

“I liked her a lot,” I admit, not sure we should get into the whole I love her yet.

We spend the night camped out on the couch watching movies, and I have my phone next to me in case Everleigh texts, but she never does. I don’t even know what she’s doing.

When I slide into bed after nine, I take my phone and text her.

Me: Going to bed.

I think about adding that I miss her, but I don’t and instead just press send. I put my phone on the side table before crashing. When I get up in the morning, it’s just after eight, and I reach over expecting her to be there. Getting out of bed, I walk out and see Saige is sitting on the stool in the kitchen eating a cupcake.

“How long have you been up?” I ask, starting the coffee, and she shrugs.

“I was reading my book in bed,” she states, taking another bite, frosting on the tip of her nose.

“What do you want to do today?” I ask as I take a sip of my coffee and walk back to my bedroom to grab my phone and check the weather.

I see Everleigh texted me at seven.

Everleigh: Crashed on the couch at six. Moved to my bed at eleven. I’ll be at the shop today trying to paint. Have fun today!

“Want to go to the park?” I ask Saige when I walk back into the kitchen, making a plan to pass by the bakery and see if Everleigh will come with us.

“Yeah,” she agrees, and I make her breakfast. We walk out of the house close to eleven, after I start the laundry and tidy up the house. I remove a couple of steaks from the freezer for dinner.

I drive toward the shop, pulling up not too far from the bakery and seeing a couple of construction workers walking into the shop. “Want to go and check on the bakery?” I ask, taking her hand in mine and walking over. I spot Everleigh right away talking to one of the contractors, and Saige walks up and knocks on the window.

Everleigh looks up and spots us and has a huge smile on her face. She walks over to the door and opens it. “Hey, you two,” she chirps, “what are you doing here?” She’s wearing a pair of jean short overalls with a white tank top with black stripes.

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