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As if age was relevant here. “Which explains why he sucks at not getting his way.”
Harris stood behind the couch, hovering over her with his hands pushing down the cushions and messing up the nest she’d made. “Did you ask him to stop?”
She lifted her arm and stared at him. “No, Harris. I find the noise delightful and never want it to end.” She sent him a glare in case he didn’t pick up on the sarcasm. “Of course I told him.”
“My turn.” Harris stomped off, demonstrating without saying a word exactly where Nathan’s dislike of not getting his way came from.
Even if he couldn’t see her, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Remember we’re teaching him to get his emotions under control.”
He said something she couldn’t hear then something she did. “If so, we suck at teaching this lesson.”
“Speak for yourself,” she mumbled as she closed her eyes again.
Not three seconds later a sharp knock at the front door hadher jackknifing into a sitting position. She looked up in time to see Rachel and Josh walk in. They were dressed in work clothes and smiling. Holding hands.
Clearly not broken up.
“Hello!” Josh sounded overly excited. He practically bounced as he stood there.
As Elisa got up, he walked into the room. Kept going until he stood in front of her. Without warning, he gathered her into a suffocating hug.
Her stomach plummeted and she had to fight the urge to jerk back. Instead, she stood there and tolerated it. Even clapped him on the back in response. It seemed like the safest route since she had no idea what was behind the sudden show of affection.
The hug went on for what felt like an hour but probably lasted only a second or two. She pulled back once she thought a reasonable amount of familial touching time had passed. “I forgot you were coming tonight.”
Elisa was impressed with her ability to issue the greeting of sorts when what she wanted to do was shoutwhy are you always here?
Josh went back to Rachel. Back to holding hands.
Their matching smiles freaked Elisa out.
“Harris had something he wanted to ask me. I promised I’d stop by for a quick chat, so he’d stop calling me,” Josh said.
That explained Harris’s crummy mood. He’d come home from work after an early morning shift, given her a quick kiss then went for a run. That usually meant something wasbothering him; in this case that something likely had to do with Meredith and Josh’s lies about her. He’d been frustrated at not being able to talk the subject out with Josh last night.
Elisa tried to think of a good way to tell Josh bringing his current girlfriend along to talk about the woman he dated when he cheated on his last girlfriend was not a great move.
Harris picked that moment to come back in the house. “That kid is going to be the death of me.”
Rachel laughed. “Isn’t he only in second grade?”
“Don’t let his little size fool you. His anger is mighty,” Harris said as he looked back and forth between Rachel and Josh. “What’s going on?”
“You wanted to talk to me.” Josh shook his head. “I tried to reach you at work but you were in surgery.”
Thump. Thump.
“What’s that banging?” Rachel asked.
The swirl of conversation and noise ticked off something inside Elisa. She had to close her eyes as the dizziness ramped up.
“Nathan! Knock it off!” Harris’s voice boomed through the downstairs. “He is on fire out there.”
Josh whistled “Bad time to stop in?”
The brothers needed to have the conversation, and sooner rather than later made sense, but Elisa didn’t sugarcoat her frustration at the choice of visiting now. “Well, it’s not great.”
Rachel tugged on Josh’s hand, pulling him toward the front door. “We can come back when—”
