Ava giggled, breaking me out of my reverie. “Okay, where is this tiara?”
Elise shook her head, nudging her plate away. “I’m not telling you that.”
Ava ducked her chin, and her brow arched. “Then it’s on your ass.”
“Nope.” Elise shook her head, a coyness overtaking her smile. “I wanted to be able to see it.”
So, it was on the front of her body, but somewhere Flora would never spot it. My already stiff cock grew harder, and I was grateful for the cover of the dining table.
I swallowed audibly. Ava swung her arched brow at me.“Seriously?”she seemed to ask. I cleared my throat.
“Ready for dessert? We have brownies.”
“I’ll get them,” my sister droned. “I made them, after all.” She stood and reached across the table to take Elise’s plate before collecting mine.
“I love brownies,” Elise said sweetly.
“’I love you when you when you’re singin’ that song and…’”my sister sang as she carried the dishes back to the kitchen.“…I gotta lump in my throat ‘cause you’re gonna sing the words wrong.’”
I looked back at Elise, and sure enough, she was blushing again, but only a little. I lowered my brows and dipped my chin. “You want to tell me what that’s about?” I whispered.
She coughed a laugh and lifted her napkin to her lips. “Oh, hell, no,” she whispered back behind it.
“Elise brought coffee,” Ava announced. “I’ll brew a pot and cut the brownies. Why don’t y’all chill in the living room?”
It was a tradeoff. Moving to the living room would give us the littlest bit of privacy, but I doubted Elise would let me sit this close to her. But maybe…
“Want to?” I asked softly.
“Sure,” Elise said with a shrug.
I led her from the table and to the couch. Before I took a seat, I picked up the remote, turned on our Amazon Firestick, selected the Spotify channel, and opened my The Bright Light Social Hour playlist. The opening notes of “Harder Out Here” came through the sound system speakers. Not loud, but the music provided another soft layer of privacy I so desperately wanted.
And as I sat adjacent to Elise — not right next to her as I wished, but closer than we’d been before dinner — I heard Ava turn on the faucet. The sound of dishes settling in the sink soon followed. She was going to wash the dishes, and I understood as I looked over my shoulder at her that this was a gift. A gift of time and space to be with Elise.
I think she read thethank youin my eyes. Her self-satisfied smirk seemed to say“You’re welcome.”
I let my focus move to Elise. She glanced over at me before her gaze fell to her lap. I ached to reach for her hand, but I reminded myself to be patient.
“I don’t know if it’s any good,” she said softly.
I blinked. “What?”
As far as I was concerned, everything was good. She was next to me. And if she hadn’t exactly forgiven me for being an ass for eight years, then at least she was giving me the chance to make amends.
She glanced distractedly back toward the kitchen. “The coffee,” she muttered.
I bit down on my smile. She was nervous. That made two of us. “I’m sure it’s fine.”
Elise met my gaze with a fretful look. “I only picked it because I liked the label design,” she confessed. “I have a bad habit of doing that.”
The chuckle that caught me was warm and real. Just like her. She had changed, I knew, but she was also still the person I recognized. The one I’d missed.
“Give me an example,” I murmured, wanting more of her.
Her eyes went skyward. “Oh, let’s see…” She met my eyes again and wrinkled her nose. “I once spent fifteen dollars on this bottle of shampoo because I liked the label. The shampoo made my head itch.”
I shouldn’t have laughed, but I did. Her face was so animated, I couldn’t help it. “I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s not funny. So you threw it out?”
