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“Yeah.” I’m so pleased that he remembers her. “She’s sad. A lot.” I shake my head. “Kids can be jerks—at least that’s what Nikki’s mom says. But Nikki always smiles when she rides my bike.”
“Mer,” he says, snatching me by the wrist.
I turn to face him, and we stand three inches from one another. I have calculated the space. There are three inches—exactly. Three that I’d love to extinguish. I tilt my neck back, peering up at him, finding his honey-brown eyes.
“Can you afford that? You don’t have a job and—”
“Yes, silly. I canaffordit.” I chuckle, thinking about my savings account. Money I didn’t earn fills it up like Harry Potter’s vault in Gringotts.
“Silly?” His hand slips into mine and I’m not gonna lie, I don’t hate it. “That isn’t silly. It’s a fair question. You don’t have a job and—”
I entwine our fingers—yep, that’s more like it. “Silly, because of my inheritance.”
“Uh, inheritance? I know you never worry about money, but you’ve never mentioned—" he trails off, shaking his head.
“I haven’t?” I think back—but I can’t remember a conversation.
“No, you haven’t.”
“When I came to live with Bob, he told me he had an inheritance for me.” I shrug. “He and Cindy have been putting money away for me my whole life. And when I moved in with him, he gave me access to it.”
Levi’s forehead furrows. “Huh. You never stress, but—” He ponders, then his brows pop up. “Can you really afford to be buying other people bicycles though?”
“It’s just money, Levi. I can always get more money. But I may not be able to make Nikki smile every day.” I tug him downward, while reaching up on my toes and kissing his cheek. Then against every fiber of my desiring body, I let him go and start for the door. “That doesn’t count, by the way.”
His cheeks are a little pink—pink looks so good on Levi Bailey. “Doesn’t count?”
“As number five. That,” I say, tapping my cheek, “doesn’t count.”
I’m not sure when I became so brave. But I like brave Meredith. She is not afraid. Of anything.
I wait by the door, resisting the urge to just open it up. I have too much adrenaline swirling through my body. But I tell myself that waiting is the right thing to do—waiting means Levi is going to stand right next to me again. That, and Coco might not appreciate me just walking into her home.
He taps on the door, then turns the knob, letting us inside. “Coco?”
“In the bedroom,” she calls. “Be right out!”
There’s a baby blanket lying on the couch and a bouncy seat on the ground next to the recliner. There are pacifiers scattered about and a bottle on the coffee table. It isn’t a mess, but there’s no doubt that an infant lives here.
“Ah, sit down,” Levi says, his voice quiet. He moves the blanket and a pacifier, leaving me the whole of the couch to choose from.
“Hey,” Coco says, walking in from the hallway. She’s got little Lulabelle in the crook of her arm. Her bare feet, cotton shorts, and loose T-shirt make it look like she hasn’t been awake long. But I’m guessing her little one won’t let her sleep too much. That and she had to get Alice to school. “Meredith, it’s so good to see you. It’s been too long.”
I stand and scratch the side of my neck. “I didn’t want to be a bother.”
“No bother. We’re happy to have you. We may be sleepy and a mess. But always happy to see you.”
“That isn’t what you said to me last night,” Levi says, one brow raised above the other.
She holds her baby with one hand, bouncing in place. With her free hand, she pushes up the rim of her glasses. “You came over with Max! Right after I put Lulabelle down, dummy.” She looks at me as if to explain. “Max and Princess went crazy. They woke her up and it took me an hour to get her to go back to sleep.” She sighs, and I can see the exhaustion on her face.
Levi scrunches his nose. “I know. Again—sorry.”
Coco sets a hand on her brother’s arm. “It’s okay. Here, take her.” She hands off the baby and Levi takes her like a pro. How does he do that? Is that because he’s the oldest? Because he already has a niece?
I peek at the baby, sleeping in her uncle’s massive arms. Is that crazy—Levi holding a baby has me returning to number five. I think I have kissing on the brain. Little sparks go off inside of me, reminding me of how close we were.
“She’s grown,” I say, making sure I see the baby and not just Levi. I only saw her once, in the hospital the day after her birth. Her cheeks have doubled in size. “Are her eyes still blue?”
