Page 63 of Hold You Close
“This is all you have?” I ask her, reaching for the handle of her small black suitcase.
“Yes. I traveled light.” She lowers her face to the roses and inhales, her eyes closing. “Thank you for this.”
“You’re welcome.” I look at the kids, give Morgan a wink. “Should we go?”
The two girls shout “Yes!” and Christopher gives a nod. He’s had a decent weekend so far, and we even had what I thought was a pretty good talk last night after I got home from the club. I can’t wait to tell London about it.
“Where are we going?” asks London as we start heading toward the parking lot, Morgan and Christopher in the lead.
“It’s a surprise.” I take Ruby’s other hand so she doesn’t get lost in the crowd.
“Can I go home and clean up first?”
“We’ll go by your house, and you’ll have two minutes to run in and change.”
“Into what?”
“A bathing suit.”
She grins at me. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Then two minutes is all I’ll need. Maybe one more to feed Eli Walsh.”
“Morgan and Ruby fed your cat this morning.”
She smiles at Ruby. “Thanks, girls. How’s he doing? Did he miss me?”
“No, because we went over and played with him a lot,” Morgan says over her shoulder. “We didn’t want him to be lonely without you, like Uncle Ian.”
“Hey.” I frown in my niece’s direction, wishing I had a free hand to poke her. “I never said I was lonely.”
“I asked you if you missed her and you said yes. That means you were lonely,” she says sweetly, like duh.
London giggles. “She’s poking all kinds of holes in your game, Ian. Pretty soon you’ll have none left.”
“Oh, I will always have game,” I say confidently, sticking out my chest a little as we cross the street. It feels good to hear her laugh. It feels good to be getting along with her. It feels good to walk like this, Ruby between us, Morgan and Chris just ahead, almost like we’re a family.
Somewhere, Sabrina is smiling. I know it.
True to her word,London is in and out of her house in two minutes, wearing a black cover-up, flip flops, a big straw hat, and carrying a beach bag.
She’s a little breathless when she gets back in the car. “Whew. How’d I do?”
“Perfect.”
She buckles her seatbelt and pulls a pair of sunglasses out of her bag. Slipping them on, she looks into the back of the minivan as I pull out of her driveway. “I brought a bunch of sunscreen, you guys. We need to make sure we get some on you if we’re going to be outside.”
“We already put it on, and we packed some,” Morgan announces.
I can’t help feeling triumphant when London looks at me, her mouth falling open.
“Who are you?” she asks. “And what have you done with the real Ian Chase?”
“Babe, I’m just getting started.” Grinning, I glance at the dash and turn up the volume on the car stereo, which is already connected to my phone and playing one of her favorites, “Once in a Lifetime.”
She gasps and stares at the radio like it’s performing magic. Then she squeals like a teenager. “I love this song!”
