She looks up at Cal. “You too, Daddy?”
“Wouldn’t miss it.” He winks at me, like we’re making progress, but this is a tougher negotiation than the one I’m in with my agent over his percentage if I get the part in Frederica.
Junie shifts to face me, leaning her back against Cal, butshe doesn’t say anything. Just looks at me with those big blue eyes.
“Junie,” she lets me take her hand. “I didn’t leave because of you. I like you heaps. I couldn’t wait to see you again.”
“For a playdate?” she asks tentatively.
“Yeah, of course.”
Her face twists with thought before she breaks into a smile, then throws her arms around me. “I glad you’re back, Frankie,” she says.
I hug her tight, but I have to tell her the truth. So, when we break apart, I look her in the eye. “I'm not sure how long I’ll be here, Junie. But I’ll always come back.”
Her brow dips, and I look up to see the same look on Cal’s face, but he quickly wipes the worry there away.
“Are you hungry? You want something to eat?” he asks, stepping right back into his caretaker role.
I stand. “Yeah, I could eat.”
“Let’s do tea party!” Junie slips her tiny hand into mine, blanketing me in a soft warmth.
“With cucumber sandwiches and everything?” I ask as she takes Cal’s hand with her free one.
“Uh huh,” she nods. “But only the kind with peanut butter and jelly.”
“Those are the best kind.” My eyes dart to Cal who’s looking at me in a way that takes me from feeling warm and fuzzy to on fire.
I’m alive in a way I haven’t been before. Not on red carpets or at award shows. Not on TV or in movies. I’m alive in way only someone tucked away in this house with a man and his little girl, about to play tea party could be.
Junie holds our hands and skips between us all the way to the kitchen, then drops us like hot potatoes and rushes back down the hallway. “I’m getting mystuffies!”
Cal goes to the pantry while I lean against the counter, ignoring the temptation to follow him, close the door behind us, and pick up where we left off at Flamingo’s.
He comes back out holding a loaf of bread in one hand, a jar of peanut butter in the other, and a dangerous grin on his face. He leans close and says, “was hoping you might follow me in there.”
His breath sends a delicious, tingling sensation across my skin that grows sharper when, still holding the bread, he puts his hand on my hip and angles me toward him. He sets the peanut butter on the counter before cupping my cheek. I meet his kiss with all the eagerness I originally held back when I didn’t follow him into the pantry, sending my hands around his neck to pull him closer.
Too soon, the sound of Junie’s feet breaks us apart.
She casts a glance our way before dropping an armful of stuffed animals on the floor and running out again, calling, “I need my table, Daddy!”
He drops his chin and sighs, then draws his eyes back to mine. “I’d really like to get you alone.”
“I’d like that, too.” I brush a kiss across his lips, then step back, all business. “Let’s start this tea party. Then maybe Junie could have a bit ofBlueytime while we enjoy some alone time?”
His eyes wrinkle in the corners. “Excellent idea.”
While Cal makes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I help Junie lug a little table and chairs from her room and set up her plastic Disney princess tea set. He mixes up lemonade for Junie’s tea, but the real stuff—iced—for us because it’s ninety degrees outside.
Then we sit at her little table, drinking from tiny teacups and eating our sandwiches cut in triangles, talking in our best posh British accents. Junie’s is actually pretty good. Obviously,mine is better than Cal’s, but he makes a valiant effort, lifting his pinky finger every time he tips back the teacup and asking Lady Junebug if she’d like crumpets with her tea.
I’ve been to high tea before, at a posh hotel in London with Mum. I’ve been to parties with celebrities, champagne, and caviar. I’ve eaten at Michelin star restaurants more times than I can count.
But I’ve never been as happy anywhere as I am right here, sipping iced tea from a plastic teacup, eating cucumber sandwiches made of peanut butter and jelly with Junie and Cal. Putting aside the excitement Cal stirs in me every time he looks my way, what I feel right now is different from anything I’ve ever felt.
It feels like family.
