Page 52 of Sweet Madness
I don’t tell her she’s brought life back to this ranch, nor do I tell her I’ve been going crazy day and night, haunted by thoughts of her.
“Come on in,” she whispers softly.
I hesitate for a second, staring at her blue eyes shining as bright as the stars above.
I should turn away. I really should, yet my feet don’t seem to move even when my mind tells them to.
Knowing everything will change the second I step inside her fort, I go ahead and join her in the magical haven she has so sweetly created just to thank me for the damn goat and for treating her with kindness.
“Welcome!” Ella exclaims with her hands spread out at the same time Poppy raises her head from the pillows. I don’t miss the big pink bow on top of the goat’s head. Both Ella and the goat look at me expectantly, and I realize they’re waiting for me to say something.
But what do I say? Thanking her doesn’t seem quite enough.
Instead, I do something that feels foreign to me, yet I know it means so much to the kindhearted and bubbly creature staring up expectantly at me.
My gaze softens as I look at her, and then I smile.
Misery has carved its mark on me, but the girl in front of me makes the dark shit feel like a distant memory, even if only temporarily. She does that for me.
To my surprise, the smile doesn’t come out forcefully but genuinely. After years of wearing a stoic mask, I find myself in a rare moment. I’m smiling, and it doesn’t hurt.
A gasp escapes Ella’s pink lips, forcing me to stare at her. Her eyes meet mine, and she blinks, as if waking from a dream. The wonder in her blue gaze is palpable, her eyes wide and sparkling with emotion.
“What?” I narrow my eyes, worried that something has happened to her.
But the little vixen places both palms over her mouth as if covering a smile of her own. Her eyes seem to twinkle more than before. “You smiled…” she whispers in wonder. Then she puts her hands down and turns to the goat. “It worked, Poppy. He smiled! I told you so!” Her excitement about a simple smile is almost comical.
She looks so happy and… grateful. How is this girl real? She couldn’t be.
When her blue eyes return to me, I feel a rush of affection for her.
A smile. That’s what she wanted from me. A fucking smile. That’s all.
How simple and how very sweet.
“You did all this for a smile?” I ask, confused. This girl confuses me, yet I don’t seem to mind it as much as I did when she first arrived.
Ella nods, then blushes slightly, a hint of bashfulness coloring her cheeks. “You should smile more, Shaw,” she replies, her voice soft yet filled with a quiet confidence. “It’s... almost cosmic.” She adds this time with a look in her eyes that makes it difficult for me to find my next breath.
Thud.
Thud.
Fucking thud.
My chest aches.
I avert my eyes, feeling too damn much, and look at the iPad settled between the sheets with a movie application open instead. Clearing my throat to conceal how much she affects me, I ask, “What are we watching?”
“A classic,” she answers as she pops a red candy into her mouth. One of those cherry gummies I bought just because I remember how much she liked candy when she was a child.
A classic? I wonder as I say nothing while waiting for her to specify.
Her blue eyes light up and a mischievous grin appears on her face as she looks up at me. “Tangled, of course.”
“Tangled?” I bite my lip to keep from laughing. The animated princess movie she loved as a little girl. The same one she made us watch two times a day. I asked once why she loved the movie so much and she shrugged, telling me with a small smile that she liked the scene where the king and queen, including the villagers, light the sky with lanterns so their missing daughter can find her way home.
Ella chuckles softly, her eyes sparkling with amusement. “Yes,” she says, reaching for a bag of popcorn and offering it to me. “Eat some,” she orders. “It’s good.” She mumbles with her mouth full.