"Yes," she said to Jane. "Welcome home! Are you happy?"
"Very, very, very, very happy!" exclaimed Jane, still gushing with joy. "I don't like the hospital. I don't want to go there. I want to stay home! I like home!"
Vivienne hugged her. "Don't worry, sweetheart," she said in a soft, reassuring tone. "You won't be going back there. You'll be staying at home."
"Will you stay here, too, Vivienne?" asked Jane.
Vivienne and I exchanged a glance, and we both smiled.
"I will tonight if it’s okay with your dad," she said.
"And tomorrow night?" asked Jane excitedly. "Can we have ice cream? And will you stay here again?"
Vivienne laughed warmly. "Well, maybe! We'll see. Now come on, let's go inside. You want to watch a movie, don't you?"
"Yeah! I wanna see a movie!"
Vivienne turned to me. "I'll take her in while you put your truck away."
"Thank you," I said, handing her the spare house keys.
She leaned across and gave me a quick peck on the lips, and then picked Jane up and took her to the side door.
Things felt like they were finally falling into place. I parked the truck and killed the motor. As I was about to grab Jane's bag and get out, my phone buzzed with an incoming text.
It was from an unknown number, so I opened the message and started to read.
"Hi, Ev. It was great to see you again yesterday. Ever since I saw you, I haven't been able to get you off my mind. I hope we can see each other again soon. Really, really soon, actually. XXX – Liza."
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Vivienne
“Have you ever seen The Little Mermaid, Jane?” I asked as I settled her on the couch with a blanket.
“What's a mermaid?” she asked, looking perplexed.
I chuckled. “I guess that's a 'no,' then. Well, sweetie, a mermaid is like a fish, but also like a girl. She lives in the ocean.”
“She likes swimming?”
“Yes, she does. She spends her whole life swimming under the sea.”
“Ooh! I like swimming, too! I wanna be a mermaid,” she announced.
I laughed and gave her a hug. “You'd make a lovely mermaid, Jane. Well, since I've told you what a mermaid is, would you like to watch a movie about one?”
“Is the mermaid pretty like you?”
I laughed. “You're such a lil' sweetie, aren't you? Thank you for the compliment. Yes, the mermaid in the movie is pretty, very pretty.”
“Yeah! I wanna watch it! Let's watch The Little Mermaid.”
“Just to be courteous, we'll see what your daddy says about it.”
“Daddy always lets me watch whatever movies I wanna watch. He'll say yes, I just know he will.”
“I think if you and I both ask him very nicely ... then yeah, he'll say yes.”