Page 45 of Anything for You
“That’s okay. You’re still learning to read. I bet in a couple of months you’ll be able to fly through any book you pick up. But you know what?”
“What?” she asks, lifting her head and meeting my eyes.
“I’ve never readHarry Potterbefore. Maybe we should start from the beginning so I can catch up.”
“That’s a good idea,” she says, settling back against her pillows.
I open the book and start to read. Maddy is a captive audience. She gasps and giggles over Harry’s life with the Dursleys, and she has a few choice words about Dudley and Uncle Vernon. About halfway through the third chapter, Maddy leans her head against my shoulder, and I swear to Gretzky my heart grows ten sizes.
Ten minutes later, her eyes start to droop so I set the book on her nightstand and sit a few more minutes, not wanting towake her with any sudden movement. Motion in the doorway to Maddy’s room has me looking up to see Emma standing there, watching us with a soft smile on her face. When our gazes lock, my heart stutters. With her eyes on me and Maddy asleep with her head on my shoulder, the moment feels like something I haven’t experienced but that is imprinted onto the most primal part of my being. Like something I should understand but don’t. In a rush of clarity, I realize what it is.
Family. It feels like family.
I could feel sorrow for the younger version of me who never had someone read to him before bed. I could feel sad that this amazing little girl is moving from house to house just like I did, never finding her forever place. I could be angry that there are so many other kids like her. Like me. I could feel all those things.
But I don’t.
Instead, all I feel is gratitude to be here now, and a mysterious longing to grab on with both hands and hold on tight. To never let it go. That thought should scare me because I don’t do permanent. Nothing lasts forever. Better to let it go than keep it close and be shredded when it disappears. But for the first time in my life, I can’t make that feeling stick. Instead, I think about more nights like this and a family of my own and the courage to take it and trust that it would stay.
And the only girl I think I would ever want that with by my side as I try.
Chapter Seventeen
Emma
Well, fuck me.
I’m sitting on the couch trying to calm my racing heart while the image of Jeremy reading to Maddy and the intensity in his gaze when he looked at me in the doorway plays on repeat in my mind.
Presumably, he’s about to walk down those stairs any minute and what then? Between suddenly being the guardian of a child, spending almost an entire day in an elementary school, and now having the man I may or may not have big, complicated feelings for in my house, my introverted brain is melting. I’m not built for this much human interaction.
Turns out every romance novel I’ve ever read was right. There is nothing in the world more attractive than a man taking care of the child who means so much to you. When the man in question is Jeremy Wright, object of my years-long crush, whom I could seldom even look in the eye until very recently, participant in the most memorable night of my entire life, it’s not just attractive. It’s a melt my underwear clean off my body,drag him to my bedroom and strip him naked, get down on my knees and beg him for forever brand of scorching hot.
My phone buzzes, interrupting that uncomfortable train of thought.
“Bless,” I mutter, opening up the group text with my friends.
Julie
Something to share Emma Jane Langley?
Me
What could you possibly mean?
Julie
Any…visitors at your house you want to tell us about?
Hallie
What visitors? Emma never has visitors that aren’t us.
Me
Rude. And also true.
Molly
