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.”
Just then Everett came into the room. I saw immediately from the expression on his face that something was bothering him, but as soon as he saw us, it seemed that he did his best to put on a big smile. I could see, however, the worry lurking behind his eyes. Still, it seemed that at this moment he didn't want to discuss it, so I didn't push it.
“Here's your medicine, sweet pea,” he said to Jane and knelt down next to her with a spoonful of medicine. “I don't know how it's gonna taste, but you have to have it, alright? You can have a piece of chocolate after you have it. So, open wide, and drink all of it, okay?”
Jane nodded, and he gave her the spoonful of medicine, which she swallowed without complaint.
“Good girl,” he said, and he handed her the chocolate, which she took with a smile and popped into her mouth.
“The medicine was a little yucky,” she remarked. “But this chocolate is very yummy!”
He ruffled her hair playfully. “Have we reached a consensus about what we're going to watch?” he asked.
“Well, both of us agree The Little Mermaid would be an ideal choice,” I commented.
He laughed. “Alright, alright, I'm sure we can find that on the smart TV.”
“Yay!” exclaimed Jane. “We're gonna watch The Little Mermaid!”