“Sorry,” she whispers.
I drop a mindless kiss to the top of her head before I can think about it. “No apologies. Come. You sit, and I’ll finish up.”
Anything to move her scent into another room.
Because I’m going to pounce her if I can’t get away from it.
Eli
Moving her to the living room doesn’t work.
I get her seated and comfortable on the couch, tucked in with a blanket around her legs. Then I venture back into the kitchen and finish up our lunch. Her scent follows me, heavy and heady with a desire I haven’t indulged in years, and I can’t stop stealing glances in her direction.
She tugs at a part of me that has been dormant since losing Gloria.
Finishing up the food preparations doesn’t take long. I cook up the rest of the pancake batter while some bacon is frying, and I decide at the last minute to cut up some fruit that needs to be eaten. Soon, I’m on the couch with her, the two of us with massive plates of food in our laps.
Her scent invades my surroundings.
But her next question makes me ache.
“Did you and Amber’s mom do this much? Cooking together and stuff?”
The memory of Gloria slams into me, and it takes me a moment to work my answer around the knot forming in my throat.
“She couldn’t cook a baked bean out of a can,” I manage to say.
Lia’s giggle is divine, and it loosens a bit of the pain in my chest. “So, you did most of the cooking?”
“All of it,” I say as I pick up my fork and dig into my pancakes. “I didn’t mind, though. I loved watching her eat my food. She was always so…”
I feel Lia’s gaze on the profile of my face. “Yeah, I get it. It’s like when I watch people enjoy my baking. There’s pride, but also a sort of selfish motive to it, too. Like you know you did a good job simply because they’re enjoying it. It’s hard to explain.”
“You explained it pretty well to me,” I say as I peek over at her, taking in her gorgeous green eyes.
I’ve never seen eyes as green as hers.
I watch her movements as she takes a bite of the food. My lips unlock and the words come out before I can stop them. “We lost her during childbirth.”
Lia’s eyes bulge as she shifts a bit, turning her body to face me. “Wait, really? That’s what happened? I thought maybe you were divorced or something.”
I shake my slowly. “I wasn’t even there, either. When she passed.”
Her face twists into something like sympathy. Honestly, I’m just glad it’s not pity. I hate the look of pity people give me whenever I talk about Gloria.
“What happened, Eli? I mean, if you want to talk about it. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
I just shake my head as the memories drag me back to a moment I’ve done a terrible job of moving past.
“It… was just one of those things, you know? She had pre-eclampsia. It wasn’t like it was a shock or anything when she went into labor early. We knew it was a risk. I got a call at the school from her mother telling me what was happening, and Ileft my classroom and raced home to pack things up. We hadn’t even packed our hospital bags, you know? And then her father called me and told me to drop everything and get to the hospital. She was gone before I even got there.”
“Oh, Eli.”
I don’t even realize my eyes are watery until I see Lia’s hand moving to my face. My hand beats her to the punch, and I lift my glasses to wipe my eyes.
“Sorry,” I murmur.
“No, no, no,” she says as she scoots a bit closer to me, her thigh against mine. “Don’t you ever be sorry for something like that. I’m sorry, for what you guys had to go through.”
