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“Something like that,” I laughed.
“I like to see you happy,” Minty commented, “it looks good on you.”
“I bet that Viking looks good on you,” Junie commented drily.
I shivered involuntarily and they both laughed.
“How are things going with Lenny?” I asked Junie.
“Changing the subject, all right, I’ll go with it for now,” Junie teased. “Things are good. Really good. Surprisingly good!”
“Yeah? Did you ask him to tie you up yet?” It was my turn to tease her back but, in typical Junie fashion, she wasn’t fazed.
“He said he’s going to the Love Shop this week!”
“To buy rope?” I asked, confused.
She looked at me slyly, then answered, “To buy whatever he wants to play with me.”
Minty laughed her soft laugh, confirming, “You gave him carte blanche?”
“No, we discussed various things while we were in various stages of undress on Tuesday night. I don’t remember much of what we said, honestly, but it was H.O.T.” she said, fanning herself. “We better change the subject or I’m going to need to go home and change my knickers.”
I barked out a laugh and Minty sighed, but she was smiling while she did it.
I headed to Mara’s around three o’clock to pick up Olivia like usual. When we got to my place, she settled in immediately with her iPad while I set up the art supplies. We liked to paint on the balcony in the summer. Once it hit midday, we had full shade. By this time of day, the shade stretched wide, and we were cool. Olivia played her music while we painted and when a thought she deemed worth sharing came into her head she shared it.
“Is Barrett coming over tonight?”
“Do you want him to come over?”
“I like it when he comes. You’re happy when he’s here.”
“I’m happy when you’re here.”
“I know, but you’re also happy when he’s here and I like to talk to him about animals.”
“He’s a really good person to be around,” I agreed.
She didn’t say anything else about him after that. I texted Barrett and invited him to visit for the evening if he wanted, feeling weird and clingy. I did it mostly for Olivia, at least, that’s what I told myself. He texted back instructions to warm up his meat pie, making me smile. I pulled it out of the freezer.
Olivia and I painted companionably until he got there, no overnight bag in hand this time. I made the rest of the dinner for him and me and Kraft dinner for Olivia, while Olivia grilled him about farm animals. After dinner she sat between us, delighted to discover Barrett had not yet seen any of the Harry Potter movies.
“Haven’t Amelie and Cole showed them to you?” she asked him incredulously.
“I don’t think they’ve seen them,” he answered, and Olivia beamed like a lighthouse at the news that she had even more people to introduce to Harry Potter.
It was determined that on the Fridays when Olivia came to my place, Barrett would also come over, and they would slowly work their way through the movies. She’d already watched the entire series with Bex. It was a happy girl who headed off to bed several hours later, leaving Barrett and me alone on the couch.
“I’m sorry you got wrapped into that,” I apologized.
He looked surprised. “I just locked up Friday nights with you for the foreseeable future. I’m not bothered by that at all,” his face looked a bit funny, and he admitted, “I watched the first Harry Potter a long, long time ago. Don’t tell her. It made her happy to be able to introduce me to the series. Watching with her is no hardship.”
“You just get better and better, don’t you?”
“I’ve been told I’ve aged well,” he teased, pulling me forward across his lap, “let me hold you for a minute and then I’ll head out.”
“Okay,” I tucked my face against his chest.
