Page 62 of Wishing for Love

“I’m glad. You get me the name of the person you think might be interested in watching Elsie. We’ll try for a date night. I promise.”

“Thank you,” she said. “And New Year’s Eve, we can have one here. I think we can watch TV or a movie or something else once Elsie is in bed.” She winked.

“That too,” he said. “We’ll figure it out.”

“Yes,” she said. “Thanks for being the one to bring this up. I hate having doubts.”

“Because you’ve had them enough in your life,” he said. “You’re not the only one.”

“I look at you and can’t believe you had them.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” he said.

21

MY GOAL

“I’m so sorry I got held up,” Phoenix said when he walked in at six on New Year’s Eve. “I swear it’s never ending.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I knew you were coming home at some point.”

“I need to shower and change. And chill out.”

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Yes. Just work. If it’s not one thing it’s another. I’m going to put it from my mind now though.”

“Elsie ate dinner already. You said to feed her and I ordered pizza. That is what she wanted.”

“That works,” he said. “Is that what you wanted tonight?”

“I got something else for us,” she said quietly.

He nodded his head and moved to his room.

Elsie was in her room playing so she went to let the little girl know Phoenix was home.

“Uncle Nix just got here,” she said. “He’s taking a shower now.”

“Yay,” Elsie said. “I can’t wait to show him what we did today.”

“I think he’ll like it,” she said.

They’d been drawing and playing all day. Made a bunch of slime too, but that was all picked up and put away. It was a mess but fun at the same time.

Elsie started to pick up her toys with Crystal helping. The little girl was very neat so there wasn’t a lot she felt she had to do when it came to the end of the night routine.

She wasn’t sure if Elsie was always this neat or she did it for another reason.

Maryn’s house was immaculate and organized. Could be Elsie was forced to be that way now. She did want the little girl to feel as if she could be a kid too.

When they were done cleaning up, Elsie ran out of her bedroom and toward the back of the house and saw Phoenix in the kitchen getting a bottle of water.

“Let me see your face,” he said, smiling. “Are you a butterfly?”

“I am,” Elsie said. “See my wings too. We made them today.”

She had on little cardboard wings that Crystal had attached to a string and tied under Elsie’s arms. “We flew around the house for thirty minutes earlier.”