Page 75 of Forever Flirting

“I want our forever, too” Everly smiled knowingly, “We can talk more later, when I am looking at your finger – and we are alone.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.”

“We need to distract Caleb before he starts crying…”

“Koi?”

“Koi…” she confirmed, and handed him the cup of fish pellets.

Alex got to his feet and Caleb was scrambling in the grass to find the frog that had leaped away. Holding out a hand, he helped her up, and she couldn’t help but chuckle as he wiped it on his jeans first.

“I think we are beyond that,” she laughed easily, and they both took off after Caleb, who was angrily yelling at the water for the frog to ‘come back’.

* * *

An hour later,they were pulling up to her house, and Caleb was whimpering near tears, exhausted, and upset that he wanted his frog. Mallory opened the front door and Everly saw the ‘mask’ slip over her features as she spotted Alex.

“Hello,” she said politely, and held the door open. “I hope you don’t mind but I went ahead and started the chicken.”

“Thank you,” Everly smiled. “Caleb’s exhausted and probably will go to sleep easily tonight.”

“I thought he was staying with Alex,” Mallory started, looking at the two of them in shock. “I knew Alex was going to be in town, so I volunteered to take the night shift for the extra money, and have to leave in two hours…”

“Heisgoing to stay with me,” Alex volunteered.

“Here? Are you two…?”

“What? No! No, we aren’t…” Everly blurted out nervously, as she realized what Mallory was thinking. The other woman thought that they were sleeping together, or that Alex was spending the night there - with her.

Even Alex’s eyes got wide in shock.

“Nope,” Alex blurted out. “I did that once and never again – no offense…”

“None taken,” Mallory interjected candidly.

“Not until I marry her…”

Everly’s eyes got round as she turned slowly to look at Alex in surprise. They talked about ‘forever’ several times, but hadn’t discussed marriage as of yet. Was this some sort of weird proposal? Was she reading too much into this? Obviously not – because Mallory looked just as flabbergasted as she was.

“Y’all are getting married?” the other woman gaped in stunned shock.

“Wait! What? Hold on, we’ve talked but we haven’t…”

“Someday,” Alex amended quickly, and Everly immediately calmed. They would talk later – away from prying eyes and little ears.

“Someday is a possibility,” she agreed, looking up at him.

“Goodness, you two move fast…” Mallory muttered under her breath, taking Caleb to go wash his hands, as Alex looked at Everly.

“No, I just feel like I’ve waited long enough to finally meet her.”

She melted.

“Me too…”

Dinner was simple – a baked chicken and rice dish that she’d put together in the fridge, covering it, until it was time. She liked making something where she could have leftovers to make a quick, healthy lunch… and it was a hit!

Everyone enjoyed the filling meal, and talked easily while they ate – which was a little surprising. She expected things to be stilted between Alex and Mallory – or for her to feel threatened or jealous about the other woman, knowing they had a past… but none of that happened.

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