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"And now?"
"Now ..." She nodded slowly, realizing that going out, the three of them, was inevitable and unfair to Jay to keep putting it off. "I'm ready whenever you are."
He smiled broadly, showing his fangs not in a menacing way but in almost a jolly expression if vampires were capable of that. "How do you feel about us going for a family outing to the barrier in the woods tonight?"
"I'm sure Jay would like that."
"What about you?"
She smiled back at him. "Me too, of course. I meant to say that."
He gave her a skeptical expression. "If you're not ready yet, I can wait until you are. So can Jay."
"It's fine. I'm fine." She gave him a reassuring smile. "Really. Tonight sounds great."
Jay returned to the front room a moment later, carrying the blue book he always read to himself at night. He planted the small book in Dominick's hands, and Rosalie's eyes widened. He didn't even let Rosalie touch the book anymore.
"Here, I told you," Jay said brightly. "You promise to bring it back by tonight?"
"Of course I will, you have my word." Dominick's hands curled reverently around the book as if he knew just how important it was. "See you tonight, both of you."
He smiled and left, leaving Rosalie with a stunned sense of lightness in her chest. If Jay could trust Dominick with something so precious, could she trust him, too?
***
Dusk came, and so did Dominick to return Jay's prized book. Their son was just as surprised to find that the three of them would be going out into the woods together, and the sleepy boy shot up straight as a candlestick, no sign of exhaustion left in him.
He eagerly grabbed the picnic basket as Rosalie directed him to, and then they were on their way to the forest, Jay's eager chatting filling the air around her and Dominick. Whenever she looked at the man who confused her to no end, there was an anxious buzz in her stomach, and she wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.
Outside, the air had a far cooler bite than expected, and Rosalie shivered against the wind. She only had a light overcoat over her dress, so she wrapped her arms around herself, looking forward to the blanket once they got to their picnic spot.
"Here, take this." Dominick unhooked his coat from his arms and draped it over Rosalie's shoulders. "I don't feel the cold, after all."
She smiled at him, touched by his thoughtfulness. "Thank you."
"Can't have you freezing two minutes into our outing, can we?"
They laughed lightly together, and Rosalie found herself instinctively reaching for Dominick's hand. She gasped when she felt his fingers curl around hers, and her arm stiffened, her instincts telling her to pull away. But as she looked down at their intertwined fingers, she couldn't bring herself to.
The forest's tall trees loomed in the distance, and as they approached, it was as though the darkness parted to welcome them into the depths of the trees.
Jay bounded on ahead. "What are we going to play today?"
"What doyouwant to play tonight, huh, son?" Dominick said.
Jay disappeared behind a tree, then reappeared on the other side, clinging to the bark. "Welllll ... since I have both Mother and Father with me ... we should do something special!"
"Why do I feel you're about to get us all up to no trouble?" Rosalie said with a laugh.
"Let's build a TREEHOUSE!" Jay shouted, lifting a stick from the ground and pointing it toward the sky like a staff. "Just like the one at home! I need one here too!"
"A treehouse might be a little out of the scope of tonight, my dear. But I'm sure if you ask your father very nicely, he might be willing to help you build one in the future."
Jay bounded back through the fallen leaves and grass, bounding on his tippy toes in front of Dominick. "Can we? Canwecanwecanwe? Please?"
Dominick laughed and ruffled Jay's dark hair, turning it into a mess. "Of course, we can. I want you to feel right at home here, so it's only natural that you get your own treehouse. We'll have to gather materials, so how about we plan to start on that next week?"
"Yay!" Jay clapped his hands. "Then what will we do tonight? Can we still build something?"
