Beyond Repair (22 page)

“Yeah, I decided not to accept any side jobs for a few months and focus on flipping the houses. It’s what brings in the most money. There are a few I have my eye on.” His face lit up. “On my next one, can you help me pick stuff out?”

“Huh?”

“Like faucets and lights and stuff. That’s always the biggest complaint people have when there are viewings. They say the fixtures are too masculine.”

“You are pretty masculine.”

“I’m serious. It would really help me out.”

He looked so cute asking for something so simple as if it was the biggest deal in the world. “Of course I’ll help,” I said, as the waiter came over.

I watched him pour water into our glasses and listened to his spiel about the specials. Chris ordered a bottle of Chardonnay, which we often had at my house when he came over.

“I’ll give you a few minutes with the menus. Is there anything else I can bring you right now?”

I opened my mouth to order a bottle of water, but then I closed it and shook my head. “No, thank you.”

I picked up the glass and took a sip. Chris grinned at me.

Chapter Twenty

C
HRIS SAT IN THE DRIVER’S
seat with one hand on the wheel and the other on my leg. I put my hand over his and swallowed as he started to move upwards. Higher … higher …

He pulled his hand off me. “I’m going to get in an accident if I keep going.”

I let out a breath of air that I didn’t know I was holding. “I had more orgasms last night than over the past five years, so I really can’t complain.”

He grinned at me. “I want to do that with you every night.” His expression instantly shifted to serious after he spoke. “Don’t get me wrong, I know that I can’t sleep over. It’s not a good message to send to Mia.”

I gazed out the passenger side window as we turned onto our street. “I’m not really sure how to handle this with her. I never really thought I would have to until … well, until I realized what was happening with you.” I looked over at him. “If you’re okay with it, I’d like you to start coming over more. She likes you. And she knows that we’re more than friends.”

“Of course I’m okay with it.” He pulled into his driveway and turned toward me after he shut the car off. “I’ll spend every second I can with you.”

“Good.” I traced his jawline with my fingers. “And from there, we can figure out how to handle the occasional sleepover.”

His fingers brushed my lips. “We can also have those lunch dates where we stay in sometimes. We’ll figure everything out. We have all the time in the world.”

I loved the sound of that. “We do, don’t we?”

Chris’s hand slid through my hair until he was pressing on the back of my neck, guiding me to him. Our lips met in another one of those slow kisses where I could just enjoy his warm mouth, the quiet sighs that he let out between breaths, the tingly feeling that ruled my body, and the extra beats of my heart.

“I love you,” I said as we broke away
.

“Nothing makes me happier than hearing you say that,” he muttered, rubbing the back of my head with his fingertips. “I love you, too.”

I let myself get lost in the eternal blue of his eyes for a moment, but then jolted back to reality. “Mia will be home soon.”

“Good. I get to hang out with both of you. And I can kick your ass at Candyland.”

I ran my fingers along his arms. “She’ll probably be tired since she was playing on the beach all day. We’ll probably just watch a movie before she goes to bed.”

“A princess movie? Even better. Let’s go wait for her on the porch.”

Chris and I sat down on the top of the steps, and he wrapped his arm around me. I leaned my head on his shoulder. “Remember that night I came home with Mia, and we all sat here talking?”

“I do.”

“I loved that. It felt …” I stopped talking. We did the love thing but talking about my family fantasies would probably freak him out.

His arm tightened around me. “Like what?”

“Nice.”

He let out a breath and kissed the top of my head. “I thought so, too.”

Zoey’s minivan came into view from down the street, and Chris and I both stood and walked toward the driveway. They pulled up and Zoey jumped out of the car, surveying Chris and me with our fingers laced together. She looked at me, and I nodded. Smirking, she said, “Told you.”

“You were right.”

She flipped her hair. “I’m always right. I’m the smart sister.”

“Yeah, sure you are.” I laughed. “But thanks.”

Chris squeezed my hand. “Yes, thanks. We needed this time.”

“Well, I’m really happy that you guys figured everything out,” Zoey said, as Kyle rolled down the driver’s side window and called Chris over to him.

I tried not to show my disappointment when Chris dropped my hand and walked over to Kyle, and I turned back to Zoey. “Did you guys have a good time? How was Mia?”

“We did, but she’s losing her voice. I took her temperature, but it was normal. And she’s acting fine.”

I nodded, making a mental note to put the vaporizer in her room. “I noticed that a couple of weeks ago. It went away that evening, though. She’s going to the doctor on Tuesday; I can ask about it then.”

“Yeah, it’s just laryngitis probably. It doesn’t seem to be bothering her.”

“Good.” I walked to the side of the minivan and slid the door open. Justin, Mike, Beth, and Mia all broke their stares away from the movie they were watching and looked at me. “Hey, guys. Did you have fun?”

Mia bounced out of the car. “Yay, Chris is here!” Even though her voice was low and scratchy, her excitement was evident.

Chris stopped talking to Kyle and smiled at her. “Hey, you. How was the beach?”

“So fun!”

He tilted his head at the sound of her voice. “Does your throat hurt?”

“Nope, I just sound silly.”

“You sound like you ate sand,” I told her.

Mia laughed. “No!”

I smiled back. “What do you say to Aunt Zoey and Uncle Kyle?”

“Thank you!”

I hugged Zoey. “Thanks so much. And just so you know, I haven’t used my hand sanitizer since I told him. And I drank a glass of water.”

A huge smile filled her face. “That’s great. I’m so proud of you,” she whispered to me. “You deserve to be happy, and you finally got your nice guy. Mission accomplished.”

“I owe you.”

“Nah, now we’re even for the time you didn’t tell Mom that I snuck out the window to hang out with Tommy Petrakowski.” She pulled away and waved. “Have a happy birthday tomorrow, Mia!”

“Bye!”

The three of us stood together and waved as the car drove out of sight. “Come in with us, Chris,” Mia said as she slipped one hand in his and the other in mine, heading toward our condo.

I stopped walking. “Let’s go to the backyard for a minute. There’s something there I think you’ll like.”

Mia dropped our hands and sprinted ahead of us toward the backyard, then stopped in her tracks. She turned around to look at us, a big smile lighting up her face. “A garden!” Her voice cracked on the words.

“That’s your garden, Mia,” Chris said. “Do you like it?”

“Yes!” she exclaimed, running across the yard and leaning down to smell the flowers.

I looked over at Chris watching Mia with a smile almost as big as hers. His arm hooked around me as I leaned against him. I said softly, “I never would have been capable of doing this for her. She’s this happy because of you.”

Chris turned red, and I walked over to Mia. “Chris made this for you.”

Mia ran over and hugged his leg. “Thank you! Can I water it?”

“Sure,” he said. He went over to the hose and helped Mia spray the flowers, her laughter filling the air the entire time. But after a few minutes, her eyes began to droop.

She had been outside playing all day, so I knew she must have been tired. “Let’s go inside, okay? You can water them more tomorrow.”

Mia nodded and held her arms up to Chris. He hesitated only for a second before he picked her up and carried her inside, then set her on the floor when we reached the living room. “Can we watch
Frozen
?” she asked.

“Sure.”

I turned the movie on and sat on the couch next to Chris. With a sudden burst of energy, Mia ran over, but instead of squeezing into the space between the two of us, as I’d expected, she jumped on Chris’s lap. I watched him look down at the top of her head in surprise, then shrug and put an arm around me, pulling me so I was nestled against him. He kissed the top of my head, and for the second time that day, I thought of how perfect everything was.

* * *

“Mom! This place is lots of fun!”

I laughed as Mia jumped into the ball pit and disappeared. In honor of her birthday, I took the day off from work and kept her home from school, and we spent the morning at the zoo and were now at an indoor play gym that had opened a few weeks ago.

I took a picture of her with my phone as she rose out of the sea of rainbow balls, her hair sticking up with static electricity. Glancing at the time as I closed out of my camera app, I was surprised at how quickly the last few hours had passed. It was already after five o’clock.

“Well, what do you say, Mia? It’s almost dinnertime. Should we head home and wait for Chris?”

She looked torn but then nodded. “Can I water my garden?”

“Of course.”

“Okay!”

I smiled. The word came out squeaky. The vaporizer seemed to help a little, but her voice still wasn’t normal. Luckily, it didn’t affect her behavior at all. “Let’s go take a drink from the water fountain over there.”

“That’s a good idea. Maybe it will pop the bubble.”

“The bubble is back?”

“Yup.” She leaned down and started drinking. After a moment she stood up, water dripping down her chin. “It’s gone!”

I bit my lip, not sure what to make of the bubble. It was funny when she first mentioned it, but she was talking about it more now. Maybe it had something to do with the laryngitis. “Let’s get your shoes on so we can get home and have dinner, and then you can open your presents.”

“Yeah!” She plunked herself down on a bench, and I sat on the floor in front of her, helping her put her sneakers on.

“Is Chris coming tonight?”

“Yes, he’s going to start coming over more now.” I looked up from her shoe to see her reaction. There wasn’t one. “You like when Chris comes over, right?” We’d had this conversation a few days ago, but I needed the reassurance.

“Yup. And I like my garden he made me.” She pushed down the Velcro on her shoes. “Did you get me a big present or a little one?”

* * *

Chris was sitting on the steps again when we got home, but stood up when he saw my car. I waved and then opened the door for Mia, and she jumped out and ran over to him. Today, there was no hesitation as he picked her up and hugged her. “Happy Birthday.” He smiled at me and leaned down, giving me a quick kiss. “Hi.”

Mia grinned at him and looked over his shoulder, where there were two oddly shaped presents wrapped in purple paper sitting on the porch. “Two presents?” Chris put her on the ground, and she ran to check things out.

“I ran out of paper, so I couldn’t wrap the chairs,” Chris said to me sheepishly. “I’m not used to wrapping.”

“You didn’t need to wrap them. She wouldn’t have cared.”

“No, one of the best parts of being a kid is opening presents. I just need to practice more.”

“Wait until Christmas.” I laughed. “You can help me, and you’ll be an expert afterwards.”

Chris smiled at me. “I can’t remember the last time I looked forward to Christmas so much.”

Me either.

Mia picked up one of the presents. “Can I open it?” she asked as we headed inside.

“I have a different one for you to open first, and then you can open these.”

Turning on the oven to preheat as we walked through the kitchen, I directed Mia to the living room. “You ready?”

She grinned and nodded, and I walked over to the hallway closet and pulled out the rectangle shaped box I had wrapped the night before. “Here you go!”

Excitement covered Mia’s face as she tore the paper off the box. “My doll I wanted! You got my doll! And a pretty dress! Can you open it?”

The happiness she radiated was worth the ridiculously overpriced doll. I worked at undoing the eight million ties that held it in the box, and she hugged it as soon as I had removed the last one. “Thanks, Mom.”

“You’re welcome, my girl.” Every year I got crazy birthday emotions, mostly in awe of what an amazing little person my daughter was, and at that moment, they were starting to overtake me. I sniffed, trying to push them off.

“You okay?” Chris asked

“Yes. It’s stupid; I get like this every year on her birthday. I can’t believe how big she’s getting.”

Chris took my hand. “It’s not stupid. Not at all.”

We watched Mia with her doll for a few moments as Chris rubbed circles on the palm of my hand with his thumb. When I successfully blinked back my tears, he gave her the doll bed.

She was so excited when she opened the package that I’m surprised she didn’t scream. “It’s like the one I wanted, except it’s my favorite color purple! Now I can put her to sleep! Mom! Can I put this bed by my bed?”

“Of course.”

“Want to open the other one?” Chris asked.

“Yeah!”

He placed the second package in front of her and the wrapping paper went flying as Mia ripped the present open. “It’s a table! I have the doll and the bed and a table!”

“I have the chairs, too,” Chris said, leaving the room. I heard the front door open, and a moment later, he returned holding one in each hand. “I hid them in the bushes,” he told me as he put them next to the table. Mia beamed.

“Now I need another doll to sit at the table with this one,” she said.

* * *

“She’s asleep already,” I said, walking back into the room. “Out before I even finished reading to her.”

Chris was sitting on the couch, and he opened his arms. “Come here?”

Always.

I crossed the room and sat beside him, molding my body against his. Focusing on the rise and fall of his chest, my eyes sank shut as his arms wrapped tightly around me. “Can we do this every night?” I asked.