“Yes, honey. What’s up?”
“Don’t you like that lady?” she asks with all the innocence of a child.
“I like her well enough. Why?”
“You said you wanted to eat her heart. That doesn’t sound like you like her.”
Throwing my head back in laughter, I open the door for us to walk out into the hot August afternoon. “Not exactly, but you pick up quickly. Good girl.”
I barely getLily out of her booster seat before she’s tearing up the driveway to the house. Ava and Matthias are having one of their parties, and we’re a little late due to us stopping for ice cream.
“No running in the house!” I call after her, but she’s already through the kitchen door by the time I finish.
When I get inside, I find Ava with her daughter Elizabeth sitting at the kitchen table. Dressed in her bathing suit, she’s eager to get outside to swim.
“Come on, Mommy! Matty and Theo are already outside with Daddy,” she says as she tugs on Ava’s arm.
“I’m afraid we got impatient. Where were you? Everyone else is here,” Ava says.
I smile as the thought of Maia’s upset expression fills my mind. “I promised Lily we’d go for i-c-e-c-r-e-a-m, so that’s why we’re late.”
Both little girls stare up at us wondering what I spelled, but neither Ava nor I are going to tell them. We still have a little more time to enjoy being able to keep our daughters in the dark about what we’re talking about, and neither one of us is going to ruin that.
“Can we go, Mommy?” Lily asks me just as Marius walks into the room.
He opens his arms, and when she sees him, she runs to him and throws her arms around his neck. “Daddy!”
“How’s my Little Duck? Did you enjoy your time with Mommy?” he asks as he lifts her up into his arms.
“Daddy, why does Mommy want to eat people’s hearts?”
Confused, he shakes his head before glancing over at me. “I’m not sure.”
Like most five year olds, our daughter’s attention quickly shifts from one topic to the next. “I want to go swimming with Elizabeth. Can we go swimming? Mommy and Aunt Ava are talking, so can you take me and Elizabeth outside to the pool?”
Marius looks over her head toward me for an answer, so I say, “I want to talk to Daddy for a minute, so we have to wait.”
The two girls start complaining, so Ava says, “I’ll take them. You two talk.”
I see by the look on my husband’s face that he’s sure what I’m about to say isn’t good, so I quickly move to show him that he’s mistaken. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I kiss him sweetly on the lips and whisper, “I’ve got a story to tell you.”
His expression changes from unease to confusion. “Oh? Something happen at the ice cream shop? And what’s this about you wanting to eat people’s hearts?”
I stare into his dark eyes and smile. “We met up with someone from the past today when we were getting ready to leave the ice cream shop.”
“Really? Your past or my past?”
I answer with a single word, knowing that’s all that’s necessary. “Maia.”
He doesn’t say anything, but he still looks confused so I continue. “When she asked Lily her name, our daughter gave her full name. That piqued Maia’s curiosity, and she asked me if I had married one of you King boys. I loved telling her I married you.”
“I can’t believe she even remembers me.”
I roll my eyes at his fake modesty. “Baby, you were the best thing she ever had in her life. Trust me. She remembers. From how she asked about if you were still playing around with photography, I’d say she’s kept up with what you’ve been doing.”
“Imagine that.”
He tightens his hold on me and kisses me long and deep, but I’ve got a little more to tell him. Knowing how things happened between the two of them, this last part is really what I want to share with him.
