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Chapter Eighteen
Paige
Ijumpupandturn toward my house. “Headlights in my driveway. Bill must have brought Evie home.”
I head for the door, and Henry follows. Sure enough, Evie runs around the front of the pickup but veers toward us when I call her name from the porch.
“Hey, Mama!” She barrels into my waiting arms at the bottom of the steps like she does every time she sees me, whether it’s been an hour or a full workday.
“Hey, rainbow unicorn. How was the game?”
“Commanders lost,” Bill says, climbing from the truck.
Lisa comes around from the other side. “Evie was adamant that we come see her room. Hope that’s okay.”
“Of course.” I turn to smile at Henry. “Thanks for feeding me. I’m going to have to hibernate until Thursday now, but it was worth it.”
He’s still up on the porch and smiles. “My pleasure.”
It’s the kind of thing people say all the time. Fast food drive-thrus, for example. Bank tellers. Flight attendants. All the people. Everyone. And yet . . .
Something about the strange vibe of the night makes his words land differently, and they get me right in the lower belly where watching Bogart kiss Bacall inTo Have and Have Notalways gets me.
I wave goodbye, and Evie and I start across the yard, but we don’t make it even to his driveway before she stops.
“Come on, Mr. Henry,” she calls.
He stops halfway through his doorway and turns. “Pardon?”
“To see my rainbow room. I’m showing it to everyone.”
I give him a reassuring look. “Henry was just telling me he has some work to do.” Evie would invite the whole world to do everything because there isn’t a single introverted cell in her body.
He steps back out. “It can wait a few minutes.”
Uh, what?
But yep, he’s shut the door behind him and is coming down the stairs.
“Go take the Dubs inside,” I tell Evie. “We’ll be right there.”
She skips ahead and opens the door, chattering about all the things she’s already added to her room—a witch’s corner, a secret portal in her closet that’s invisible to grownups, and the list goes on as the door closes behind them.
“Should I have not said yes?” Henry asks.
“No, that’s fine, but I don’t want you to feel obligated. Evie and I are working on boundaries because she has none.”
“I don’t feel obligated. I want to see how the pink from my sweater looks on the wall. Maybe I’ll use it in my office.” His mouth curls at the corner, and without thinking about it, I give his chest a light shove.
He takes a step back, and I freeze. Why did I manhandle his pecs like that? “Oops. Sorry. We’re not really play-shoving neighbors.”
“Please don’t do that again.” His voice is polite and even, and I’m about to apologize again when he adds, “Not unless you warn me first, so I can brace, and you can see that I’m strong and manly and can’t be pushed around by a small female.”
“I’m going to push you again for using the words ‘manly’ and ‘small’ since I am not small but average, and I won’t be mischaracterized just because you decided to overachieve on height.”
“Very well.” He nods, his face still serious. He crosses his arms. “I’m ready.”
I snort and give him another play shove. He doesn’t move.
