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Elisa wished. If only she wasn’t so terrified of losing everything. “The situation isn’t as easy for me. They’re family.”
“I guess.”
Elisa didn’t know what that response meant, so she continued to step carefully. “But if you and Josh are serious then...”
Rachel put a hand behind her ear, as if pretending she couldn’t hear. “You faded a bit near the end.”
Yeah, on purpose. “Because I wasn’t sure what to say next.”
Rachel started shifting again on the ottoman. Her foot fell to the floor and she sat up a bit straighter. “We’re in the testing phase. Not serious.”
But that’s... Josh made it seem...Elisa didn’t say any of the hundred ideas bouncing around in her head. She went with a noncommittal response. “Oh.”
“That’s a surprise?” Rachel asked.
“A little. I mean, you’ve been together a year.” A little more digging, but Elisa thought she hid that try pretty well.
“The sex came later, but I understand what you’re saying.” Rachel sighed. “We’re dating, and for a lot of people that means thinking about the next steps.”
“You’ve been working with him to make me doubt myself.” That’s not how Elisa intended to broach the subject, but the words were out there now.
“That’s not what . . . I was trying to shore up his ego and get him to leave you alone. I thought I could be the bad guy and he’d ease up.” Rachel rolled her eyes. “It sounds ridiculous, I know.”
Elisa blamed the slight fever and dragging illness, but she struggled to keep up with whatever point Rachel was trying to make. The conversation turned everything she believed to be true about Josh and Rachel’s relationship upside down. “Are you thinking about a future with Josh?”
“No.”
Hours later Elisa’s health bounced back a bit. She sat on the couch with Harris after dinner while Nathan built and destroyed a block tower with an airplane over and over again.
She’d stretched her legs out across Harris’s lap. He wore his glasses and watched television as he absently rubbed his hand over her calf through the blanket. The night was quiet and comfortable and she didn’t intend to destroy it, but the curiosity was killing her.
She leaned her head against the couch cushion and watched to see his response. “If I told you that Rachel sees her relationship with Josh as informal and possibly temporary only, would that be a surprise?”
His eyes widened. “I think it would be to Josh. He told me he thinks she’s the one.”
“Well, to be fair she wouldn’t be the first ‘the one’ for Josh.”
Harris glanced at Nathan, who seemed oblivious to his parents’ boring conversation. “I’m ignoring that shot because I don’t want to fight when you’re sick.”
“Fine. We’ll reschedule the fight portion of the conversation for later.”
Harris smiled. “See, was that so hard?”
She slipped her hand over his.
“Did she really say they were only temporary?” he asked a few seconds later.
Elisa kept her voice low, almost at a whisper, to avoid the million questions Nathan would ask if he figured out they were talking about Rachel and Josh. “She said they were testing and not really serious.”
“What the hell?” Harris snorted. “He told me she basically lives at his house.”
“She’s staying at a motel because of some plumbing problem.” Rachel commented on it, so Elisa felt comfortable passing the information on.
“What? Why wouldn’t Josh have her stay with him?”
Elisa had no idea. “Maybe we’re too old and married to understand their relationship.”
“I’m ignoring the ‘old’reference,” Harris said in fake-serious voice. “But there is a bit of an age gap between them. Maybe the problem is they’re not on the same page yet.”
