AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Leo got homein time to meet Alexis and Lucy’s sister, Emma, heading out the door. They were heading to Emma’s house for a sleepover. Somehow, within a few hours of knowing each other, the two were inseparable. But Leo liked that his daughter was getting along with Lucy’s sister since they were soon to be family.
Lucy, he was told, was napping in their room. He liked the sound of “their room.” Once the two were on their way, he headed up to see her. It had only taken him a few days to get used to her being there, for her to be home when he got there, waiting.
In the morning, she still filled him in on what was happening with his day, which he liked because she usually did it from bed, her hair still mussed up from sleep. But even better was when he came home, and she told him about her day. Though very little happened, she usually had an in-depth story to tell him about her sister’s antics or a play-by-play of an epic battle between two or more of them.
He found her curled up on their bed with her dark hair spread over her pillow. Her body was covered in the silver blanket that was usually at the foot of the bed. He knew she was sleeping because her body was completely still. He decided not to wake her because she needed the sleep, so he quickly took off his suit and changed into jeans, then headed down to the kitchen to see what her sister had left in the fridge.
Every day, whichever sister came, they were loaded down with food. More food than they could possibly eat, even if all four of his kids were here. And all weekend they had just that, and the fridge was still full. Harper may not have been able to come over to help her sister, but she was helping in the only way she could.
“I can do that,” Lucy’s voice came from the doorway as he dumped a container of stew into a pot on the stove.
Ignoring her, he walked up to her and kissed her forehead. “How was your nap?”
“Good.” She shrugged and shuffled to the bar stools and sat down.
“Did Alexis and Emma spend any time with you?” He tried not to leer at her long bare legs under her shorts.
She shrugged. “Some, but today was my last full day on bed rest, so I was trying to do it alone. My sisters have to figure out what to do with their lives on their own. I can’t entertain them forever.”
Smiling at her answer he went back to the stove to check the pot. “Except, I think you can. You and your sisters are very close. Have you always been?”
“Yes, I don’t remember ever having many friends growing up, but I had Maby. And Harper is only a year older and then Agatha is …” She stopped, getting off the stool and looking into the fridge.
“Different?”
“No, not really. She likes to act different, but she isn’t. She is sensitive, always has been. She hides it differently than the rest of us, though,” Lucy mused, pulling another container from the fridge and opening it to reveal corn bread.
“How do you hide your sensitivity?”
“I am not sensitive,” she argued. “The kids are all coming over tomorrow, right?”
Leo let her evade the question. Or maybe she was answering it, because she already knew the answer.
As they ate the stew, they talked about his kids, his exes, and his work. It was something that he had started to notice: she was amazing at steering the conversation to him, and always back to him. She said very little about herself unless he asked outright.
The first day they had spent on the couch, he had learned more about her than she had let him see since then. He knew there was a part of herself that she wasn’t letting him see, a part she had closed off and wasn’t letting him in, a part he desperately wanted to see again.
“What are you doing tonight?” he asked.
“Netflix and chill, the usual.” She shrugged as she tried to gather up his empty bowl, hers was still half full. He wanted to corner one of her sisters to ask about her eating habits but hadn’t yet.
Grabbing their bowls before she could, he put them by the sink, then grabbed a bag of chips. He figured she would eat them because he had gone through more bags since she’d moved in than he ever had.
“If we can put that off until later, I have a surprise for you.”
“What is it?”
“A surprise, Lucy.” He handed her the chips and took her hand.
All she did was shrug and let him lead her through the house to their bedroom, which to him felt empty when she wasn’t in it.
Letting go of her hand, he pointed her to the bed and went into his closet. This morning when he had grabbed his suit, he had noticed his guitar in the back corner. Instantly, he had remembered her interest in learning it. Now he pulled it out and carried it to her.
Her eyes lit up for a second before she got her emotions under control. He wanted that second to last forever, to see that happiness all the time.
“I thought you could play the guitar.” He tried to hand her the instrument.
