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“First off, you’ve already proven to me that you do.” Keir's eyes shine with blatant distrust and he gives me a knowing smirk. “Everyone wants me, sweetheart.”
A woman clears her throat. Keir and I both spin around, as if we have just been caught doing something naughty.An attractive brunette dressed in a simple white tee shirt and a pleated, tea-length olive skirt stands behind us, her expression unamused.
“Keir.” Her voice is light and lovely, her accent Scottish. “You said you would be here in the morning. I have to be back at uni soon.”
Keir shrugs. “Our connecting flight was delayed.”
She moves aside and a little girl wearing a dirt-splattered white shift dress comes flying toward Keir.
“Dadddddyyyyy!” the girls squeals.
He kneels and catches her around the waist, lifting her high into the air. She glances at me with blue eyes that are just the shade of Keir’s.
I know those eyes all too well.
My eyebrows raise. This can only be Keir's child.
“Hello, bumblebee,” he says, kissing her on the cheek. He smiles, a joyful expression I haven’t really seen on his face before. “Have you been good for Saffron?”
“Yes.” She pulls back, brushing her tumble of bright red curls from her face. “Saffron took me to the planetarium again.”
Keir jiggles her small body on his hip. “Again? That’s the third time this month!”
A smile splits her face and she bursts into giggles. “I know! Saffron said that maybe I’d be a—” She pauses, turning her head toward the woman. “How do you say it?”
“Astronomer.”
Keir nods. The little girl squirms and he puts her down as carefully as you would lay down a nuclear warhead. She doesn’t seem to notice at all, pushing her curls out of her face and turning to me.
“Who are you?” she demands.
“I’m Ella.” I stick out my hand to her.
Her eyes widen. “You’reAmerican.”
“I am,” I affirm.
She starts shouting. “I love America! Do you know Justin Bieber?”
Isla shakes my hand as vigorously as if she’s shaking hands with the Biebs himself.
I tense and pull back, a little shocked by her shift in tone. “Uh… no.”
Saffron laughs a little and pulls Isla away from me. Isla has immediately gone into a full sulk, sticking out her bottom lip and glaring at me.
“Then what good are you?” she challenges.
“America is a big place, darling. Not everyone can know Justin Bieber,” Saffron corrects Isla.
“Nor should you be asking every American you meet that question,” Keir adds.
“Hm.” Saffron strokes the little girl’s head and smirks at Keir. “You missed Isla’s class trip to the zoo.”
A flash of guilt flits across Keir's face. Then he rolls his neck, his fists bunching.
“I will make it up to her,” he says. “Right, Isla?”
She grows excited again, waving her hands in exclamation. “I want to throw a huge party. I want everyone from school to come, even Sean P. And I want there to be music and dancing and karaoke and Thai food. And—”
