Elliot is leaningover the counter, eating ice cream out of the container, when I waltz into the kitchen giddy. I’m fully clothed now, but when the cotton-polyester shifts against my skin, it’s Sutton’s fingertips I feel. Nails scratching into me, explorative and selfish.
Elliot’s mouth makes a popping noise when she drags the silver spoon out of it. She lets it dangle between her pointer finger and thumb.
“Nothing to say?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” she replies smugly.
“Hey, Elliot. Do you have any moisturizer? I’m out,” Sutton calls from her bathroom.
“Top drawer in my bathroom.”
“Thanks!” Sutton’s feet slap against the floor in a scurry to Elliot’s room. I’m frozen in the archway, steadied by the sound of her voice.
“You like her, don’t you?” Elliot spoons another bite of vanilla.
“Since the day I met her.” Something settles in my chest. Different from the dread that’s been there. Different than whenI showed up here earlier. It’s smothered by…by…no, that’s just quietness. Peace. “Have a good night, Elliot.”
“Yeah, you too, Coop.” Her mouth moves to the side in way as if she’s calculating tonight and the years prior.
“Cooper!”Madeline, Beck’s little sister, bounces off the couch to me. “I kept asking Beck where you were.”
“I was visiting a friend, but I would have been home sooner if I knew you were going to be here.” I drop to my haunches to put us at eye level and let her lanky arms wrap around my neck.
She’s nine, but petite for her age. Arms secure, I scoop her up in a hug and spin her around in a circle. Madeline laughs, and I see it rejuvenate her brother.
There’s very little that makes him smile. I honestly don’t remember the last time I saw a smile break through his steel of a face. Not even when we won our conference last year, or when he was named conference MVP.
Madeline makes him smile, though. Not a fake one. Real. Big enough that it makes all his other facial features relax and brighten.
When I set her down, I ask, “What have you and your brother been up to?”
“He made homemade chicken nuggets. Then I painted his nails. And—” She pauses, contemplating something. “He was going to let me paintyournails while we watched a movie.”
“Is that so?” I let out a ha, flick my brows up at him over my shoulder.
Luckily, the remainder of my roommates walk through the door.
“Are you sure you have time for my appointment?” I ask, pointing at the guys over my shoulder.
“Wow.Madeline’s salon is going to be busy.” She giggles. A dangerous glint to her cobalt eyes.
One after another, we take turns getting our nails painted in various shades of the rainbow. My fingers are an alternating shade of orange and green. The colors are horrific, but her work is pretty clean for a third grader.
“You are good at this, Mads,” Dawson tells her, checking out my nails. His are sparkly red.
“I know.” Her head bobs, eyelashes fluttering like a little princess.
“Mads.” Her brother pokes his head in from the kitchen. “What do we say when someone compliments us?”
“Thank you,” she groans. Then turns in the direction of Dawson. “Thank you, Dawson.”
“Anytime, Mads.”
“You’re supposed to say you’re welcome.” In the kitchen, you can hear her brother relent a sigh. “It was career day at school this week. When it was my turn to present, I said I want to work in a salon when I grow up. Or be a singer.”
“You can be both,” I encourage. Maddie smiles, finishing my topcoat.
An hour later, the five of us are learning a dance routine to “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” fromMulan.
