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“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Don’t friends come over?”
“She came over for dinner,” I said.
“One time,” Lanie said.
“You want her to come over more often?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
It was like this little girl could read my mind. I had been thinking about Amanda all day and how her leg was doing. The dinner we had shared together had been pleasant. She got along well with Lanie despite the fact that I didn’t enjoy having company over, and she seemed to have embedded herself in my thoughts. Even though she was a stranger and I told myself I needed to be wary of her, my mind wouldn’t let her go.
“Amana come over soon?” Lanie asked.
“How about I think about it?” I asked.
“Please?”
“I said I’ll think about it, Lanie.”
The little girl sat down in her bath and began to pout. I was concerned that Lanie was already getting too attached. The last thing this little girl needed was to get attached to another woman before she left. She had already lost her mother. I was coaching her through those nights where she woke up crying and wanting her. She wasn’t at an age where she understood death, but she saw enough children going into town to notice they were with women. Women they called “mother” while she only called me “uncle.”
“All right,” I said as I unplugged the tub. “Bedtime.”
“Movie?” Lanie asked.
“No, bedtime.”
“Snack?”
“No, sweetheart. Bedtime,” I said.
“Snuggle?”
I chuckled as I wrapped a towel around her and picked her up from the tub.
“Maybe a little snuggling.”
I dried her off and dressed her in pajamas before I tucked her into bed. I climbed beside her and pulled out her favorite book while she cuddled into me. Lanie loved it when I read to her, especially this new book her nanny had brought over the other day. It was a book of Dr. Seuss stories, and Lanie giggled at the silliness of the rhymes.
I read through two entire stories before the little girl drifted off to sleep and I kissed her forehead. I turned on her nightlight that cast stars onto the ceiling, then I turned everything else off and closed her door. It had been a long day of business calls, and figuring out what the hell was wrong with my truck.
Needless to say, I was ready to fucking crash.
But then, a knock came at the door. It was faint, like the person on the other side knew someone was sleeping. The only person I figured it could be was Tanya, but she had a key so why would she knock?
I opened the door and despite myself, my heart hammered in my chest as I saw Amanda standing on my porch, holding a big pot in her hands.
“Hello,” she said, smiling. “I brought soup.”
She set the pot in my hands as my brow furrowed deeply.
“To return the favor of you cooking chili?” she said.
“Amana!”
I spun around and saw Lanie sprinting down the hallway. She launched herself into the air and right at Amanda, who was poised to catch her in her arms. Why the hell was Lanie up? I just left her damn room, and she was snoring, for crying out loud.
