My daughter’s shyness remained but eased by the minute, and we still managed to play together on the floor. I’ve learned her favorite sentence is “train go,” and she’s excellent at sharing.
I barely hear Elodie return to the living room, but the feeling of eyes on me weighs heavily, and when I look up, I see that she is watching us with a peculiar look. She’s calm but lost in thought.
“How is it?” I ask.
“You two seem to be best friends.” She avoids answering. “I was just admiring you two for a second.”
Handing Lola the caboose piece, I stand up and lightly touch Elodie’s elbow, guiding her to step a few feet awayfrom our daughter. “We seem to be getting along. I’m relieved,” I say.
"You gave her a palace." Her voice is monotoned. I lift a brow, trying to catch up. "You set up her bedroom. It has a tent with stars, a library of books, a bed, a crib, and a sofa. I’m very confident her closet is well-stocked. Did I mention the giant stuffed bunny on a rocking horse?"
Is she angry? I can’t for the life of me read her right now. “Is it a bad thing…?” My voice drags.
The beautiful smile of hers begins to draw on her face. “It’s overboard, but it’s… perfect.”
I pretend to wipe my forehead. “Phew, you had me worried there.”
“I’m not sure she’ll ever want to live at my place again,” she says. Her sarcasm fades; the undermining hits too hard. Soon, Lola will split time. The idea of all of us living together is an event in itself, if it happens.
“I remember you mentioned that she is soon moving out of a crib to a bed. Oh, and there’s the guest room. The sofa in Lola’s room also turns into a bed if you want to stay.” She smiles in appreciation. It gives me the sign that I can make her laugh or test the waters. “Also, my room. In case you didn’t check it out. Did you check it out?”I tease her, but I'm aware that I'm digging for clues to where her mind is when it comes to the two of us on a romantic level.
She shoves me as she grins. “Don’t. Don’t drag us there.” She rolls one shoulder back and avoids looking at me. “But maybe I did take a peek,” she mumbles.
“Oh yeah?” I smirk cheekily.
“I should see everywhere in the home where Lola will be. Inspection and all.”
“Sure,” I pretend to believe her.
We both return our focus to our daughter, who seemscontent. “We won’t show her the room yet, okay? Small steps.”
“I get that.” I comply because we do see eye to eye on some things.
“And how in the world did you arrange all of this?”
“My assistant.”
The way Elodie hums sounds like suspicion to some, but she works at the same company and knows who my assistant is. “They gave you the assistant who’s married with a kid in college, right?” she asks, double-checking.
Smirking to myself, I enjoy hearing her maybe having a little moment of jealousy. “Yep. Why? Would it be a problem if I had someone else?” I’m riling her. It’s easy to do, we have banter.
“Of course not.” She sounds unconvincing.
“Sure. Anyhow, should we head to the kitchen?”
“Bagels!” Lola shoots up, clearly having heard a trigger word that is apparently “kitchen.”
Elodie and I look at one another and just laugh.
After eating,Lola fell asleep on the opposite sofa, curled up under the knitted blanket Elodie brought and with her two stuffed bunnies tucked under her arms.Elodie and I sit on the other sofa, talking quietly and holding glasses of wine.
The blanket intrigues me, though I’m unsure why. “It’s a beautiful blanket. Did your mom knit it?”
She smiles shyly. “This is where you are going to discover that I am such a nerd who deals with numbers and has a hobby of knitting.” She buries her face in her hands as though she’s embarrassed yet finds it funny.
My eyes grow, and my grin hurts as I learn the fact. “I amtrying to imagine you just sitting there and stitching away. I wasn't expecting this to be your thing.”
“Well, you have swimming, and I have knitting. I haven't had time lately, but when I was pregnant, there were days when I didn't want to get out of bed, and I was bored. Figured I would make something for my dau—” She stops herself and smacks her lips together. “Our daughter, I mean,” she corrects herself. It's going to take a while for her to get it into her head that she now shares parenthood.
