Page 184 of Keep This Promise
I don’t think it will be, but I’m not going to be the guy to break her heart. “How about I paint your nails after,” I suggest.
How hard could it be? I am a doctor, I’ve operated on people with precision cuts, I can handle some paint.
Oh, how wrong I am.
As soon as I start, Eden starts to tell me a story, which requires her hands, and she doesn’t care if her polish is wet or if I’m in the middle of painting a nail.
“And then I went on the airplane, and I was so tired, but Mummy was sad. She was crying.” She grabs my face with her polish-covered fingers. “Holden! Do you cry?”
“Everyone cries sometimes,” I tell her.
She sighs heavily. “I don’t like to cry.”
“Why not?”
“Because my nose runs.”
Solid logic. I look out the window, finding that the snow is coming down harder now. I grab my phone and call Sophie.
“Are you on your way home?”
“Yes, Dad, we’re on our way,” Brielle answers instead of Sophie.
I roll my eyes. “No one asked you.”
“I’m driving Sophie home since you didn’t offer to come get her.”
I’m going to kill her. “I did offer, and she told me no.”
“Your chivalry is dead.”
“You’re going to be if you keep giving me crap.”
“Enough, children,” Sophie chides. “I’ll be home soon. Is Eden okay?”
“She’s great. She painted my nails, face, and parts of the floor.”
The two of them laugh. “Perfect. I’ll see you soon.”
“Drive careful, Brie.”
“I will.” She huffs and then disconnects.
I do my best not to act like a nervous idiot, but I can’t help it. I clean up the polish the best I can, which requires a lot of scrubbing because I have no idea if we have remover anywhere. I really didn’t think this through when I said it was fine to do it.
Thirty minutes later, Sophie comes through the door, shivering and brushing snow from her jacket.
“It’s getting quite treacherous out there. I am worried about Brielle, but she refused to stay.”
That girl has no sense of self-preservation. “Is she still out there?”
“No, she left before you could come bully her.”
I sigh and grab my phone to call Spencer. “Hey, your wife is an idiot. She is driving home from my house now.”
“What the hell was she doing at your house?”
“Driving Sophie home, and before you start, she drove off before I could tell her to stay the night.”
