Page 34 of Rescued By My Best Friend's Brother

“So, anything new happen? I know I have been really busy. But I hope to make it up to you today. We can hang out and do whatever you want.”

“Can I go to Sarah’s house? She invited me to her birthday party, and I wanna go.” She takes a bite of her toast.

“I could take you bowling instead. I really want to make it up to you.”

“Then let me go.” She smiles at me, her teeth showing remnants of eggs.

“Swallow your food first.” She closes her mouth. “I will call Sarah’s parents and find out the details. But only if you clean your plate. Where is the invitation?”

She swings her legs back and forth, my lack of a no giving her a spurt of energy. “It’s in my folder in my backpack.”

I walk over to her backpack hanging on the back of the kitchen chari and pull out the invitation, “Looks like it isn’t until 2 p.m. We have some time before then. Do you want to do something? Like watch a movie?”

She perks up even more. “Can we watchFrozen?” Her voice rises several octaves.

I grimace, not only because of how loud she is, but also because we watch this movie nearly every weekend. It must be some sort of torture to have to watch a child’s movie so much to have memorized every single word and know all the choreography to the song,Let It Go. Pure torture. The CIA needs to learn from children.

“Sure. We can watch that. But I refuse to sing.”

“Can I go invite Auntie Josie and Elena?”

I shake my head. “No, leave them alone. They’ll come in when they are ready to get out.”

“When who wants to get out?” A voice asks from behind me. I turn to find Elena standing in the open doorway. I didn’t even hear the door slide open.

“Elena!” Lily screams and runs around the table to hug her, as if Elena had been missing for months and came for a visit.

Elena laughs and returns Lily’s enthusiastic hug. “I saw you last night, kiddo.”

“I’ll get you a plate,” Lily offers and goes to the cabinet to grab one before Elena can object.

Elena sits down beside me in what has become her regular seat. I give her a faint smile, trying not to make it too obvious. Children are a lot more observant than people give them credit for. I did not want Lily to catch on just yet that something is happening between Elena and me, especially since we had yet to define it. She returns the smile and thanks Lily as my daughter puts a plate and silverware on the table in front of her. Lily then grabs the jam and moves it closer to her. “You like jam, right?”

Elena’s smile broadens. “You remembered! You have a great memory.”

Lily returns to her seat, preening over Elena’s compliment. I watch Elena pile four pieces of bacon, a large scoop of scrambled eggs, and three pieces of toast onto her plate.

“How’d you sleep? It looks like you have quite the appetite,” I say.

“Oh. Um. I slept great.” Her cheeks redden, as if a memory of last night crosses her mind. She takes a bite of her bacon.

“Do you want to watchFrozenwith us?” Lily asks. Before Elena can even answer, Lily continues, “Do you think Auntie will watch it with us, too?”

Elena shakes her head. “Josie is sleeping right now. Work has been hectic for her, being short-handed is making her put in a lot of hours, and then she has a salon appointment, so I don’t know when she will be free.” Lily’s body collapses into the chair like a deflated balloon. “But I’ll watch it with you.” Lily’s expression returns to youthful exuberance.

“How do you feel this morning?” I ask.

Elena swallows her food. “Good. Good.”

I scan her appearance. Her hair is pulled into a low ponytail. Today, she wears a t-shirt and jeans. Although she looked beautiful in a sundress, I love how comfortable she looks in this outfit. It is simple, but she doesn’t need anything flattering to show off her beauty. I would have loved to wake up to her face this morning, wrap my arm around her, and lay there, experiencing her.

She notices me staring and wipes her cheek with the back of her hand. “Do I have something on my face?”

I shake my head. “No. Just looking.”

“Oh.” The blush returns, setting fire to the urge to kiss her. But I know she doesn’t want that. We spoke a little bit about it last night. I want to speak about it more in depth, but I know we will have the chance later, when Lily goes to Sarah’s birthday party. Then I will bring up the subject. Whatever is between us, I want to explore it, see where it goes. I have always wondered what it would be like to be with Elena, but never took the chance. I don’t know if it was pride, jealousy, my insecurities, or maybe a little bit of all of those, that kept me from ever taking that chance. Now, I could. Now, I would.

I knock on the door to the guesthouse. After watchingFrozen, Elena said she wanted to go back to the guesthouse to do some things. Lily and I hung out until I had to drop her off at the birthday party. It is a slumber party, so I made sure she had her sleeping bag and her favorite teddy bear. After returning home, I waited a little bit, but the anticipation of seeing Elena again overtook my desire to seem unattached and collected. I didn’t want her to think I am too invested in whatever this is between us.

---