Chapter 8
Vienna
Showers & Sprinkles
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I mutter to myself while standing on Rhonan’s front porch, holding my bag of necessities so I can shower.
I managed to soak up most of the water on the floor of the bathroom with the few towels I have in the house, dried myself off, slipped on some comfortable clothes, and then packed up my things to take Rhonan up on his offer.
But now I’m wondering if this is the smartest thing to do.
The front door opens before I can knock or run away, Rhonan revealing himself on the other side of the screen door still secured to the door jamb. “How long were you planning to stand there before you knocked?”
“Just a few more seconds, actually.”
He shakes his head. “Sure, whatever you say.” Opening the screen, he waves me inside and I cross the threshold nervously.
“Ms. Lewis!” Ellis comes running over to me in her Frozen-themed pajamas, bouncing up and down.
“Hi, Ellis.”
“Daddy said you were coming over, but you’re really here!”
“I am,” I say, smiling down at her because her excitement is impossible not to match.
“He said you needed to take a shower because yours broke.”
“It did,” I say with a laugh while mentally revisiting the ordeal—her father seeing me naked is just another catastrophe to add to the ever-growing list.
“Hi there, Vienna.” Joanne comes into the room from around the corner, drying her hands on a dish towel. “Heard you had a bit of an ordeal with your shower.” Her eyes drift over to Rhonan and then back to me, her lips curling into a knowing grin.
“Oh yes, it was quite the ordeal.”
“Well, it’s a good thing Rhonan was there to help you, isn’t it?”
I tuck my wet hair behind my ear. “Uh, yeah. I guess you could call that lucky…”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that man dart out the front door that fast,” she continues, her grin growing wider.
Meanwhile, Rhonan’s glaring at her.
“I was making sure she was all right. She screamed like there was an intruder,” he says, his tone clipped.
Ellis pulls on my hand. “My daddy would have protected you, Ms. Lewis. He knows how to catch bad guys.”
“I know, and I appreciate him making sure I was okay. Unfortunately, my shower isn’t working now and it’s going to be a few days until I can get it fixed.”
Rhonan crosses his arms over his chest, widening his stance. And God, the way his shoulders are highlighted under his white shirt reminds me of what they felt like under my hands the night we met and he picked me up from the floor. “Only if I can’t fix it once the stores open up tomorrow.”
“Well, you can use my shower,” Ellis interjects. “I even have blueberry bubble bath you can use if you want. Daddy says we should share, and I would share that with you.”
I smile down at this sweet child. “That’s so nice of you, Ellis, but I brought my own soap.”
Her eyes widen. “What does it smell like?”
“Cherry blossom and peaches,” I reply.
“Can I smell it?” Ellis pleads with her hands clasped together.
Unable to say no to that face, I pull my body wash from my bag and open the cap, bringing it to her nose. She inhales deeply and then hums in approval. “Oh my gosh, I want to eat that.”
I laugh. “I know. It’s amazing, right?”
She nods. “Yes.” Turning to Rhonan, who’s been standing there watching our interaction, she says, “You gotta smell it, Daddy. It smells so good.”
My eyes lock with his. “I’m okay, Ellis,” he says with a tick in his jaw.
She pulls on his shirt from below. “Please, Daddy.”
Relenting with a sigh, he reaches for the bottle.
I hand it over and then watch him inhale, closing his eyes as the scent hits his nostrils.
For a moment, he stands there with his eyes closed, inhaling again.
His eyes open, and I swear those blue orbs have grown darker.
He clears his throat before handing me the bottle back.
“You’re right, Ellis. It smells unforgettable. ”
A zing of adrenaline races through me, but I turn my attention back to Ellis before I let it take over. “Maybe you can get some of this when your blueberry bubble bath runs out.”
“I don’t know. This bottle doesn’t have Bluey on it, and mine does.” Shrugging, she takes me by the hand and begins swinging it back and forth. “Did you bring your puppy?”
“No, sweetie. Roscoe is at my house.”
She juts out her bottom lip. “Aw, I wanted to play with him. He’s funny and fluffy.”
“I know, but I won’t be here for very long, so I left him snuggled in his bed.”
Rhonan clears his throat, interrupting our conversation. “Ellis, let’s let Ms. Lewis take her shower, okay?”
She drops my hand. “Fine.”
I try to stifle my laugh, but it’s no use.
The one thing I’ve enjoyed most about being around my students, including Ellis, is discovering what things are important to them at the tender age of five.
Now, at twenty-eight, it’s hard for me to even remember a time when life was that simple and black and white.
I’ve been living under gray clouds for years, but these kids are helping the hues of a rainbow break through.
Always look for the rainbows, Vienna.
“Let me show you to the bathroom,” Rhonan says, nodding down the hall.
“Don’t leave without saying goodbye!” Ellis calls after me as I follow her dad down a long hallway.
“I promise I won’t.”
Ellis runs up to me and holds out her pinky. “Pinky promise?”
Glancing over at Rhonan, I ask for guidance with my eyes. “What do I do?”
“You’ve never heard of a pinky promise?”
“Uh, can’t say that I have.”
He gently grabs my hand and brings it to Ellis’s, intertwining our pinkies. “Lock them together like this and then shake your hands up and down.”
“Like this.” Ellis guides me as our hands remain connected, laughing. “Good. Now you can’t break the promise, or I get to break your pinky.”
Rhonan groans. “We talked about that, Ellis. You can’t break people’s pinkies.”
“But that’s what Johnny said you have to do if someone breaks a pinky promise.”
Ellis mentioning one of the other kids from her class makes me think. “Oh, Johnny said that, did he?”
“Yeah, Johnny likes to say all kinds of shit,” Rhonan replies.
“Daddy, you said a bad word.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, Ellis. Stuff—Johnny says all kinds of stuff.”
“You know better, Daddy,” Ellis says with an arch of her brow before running back to the living room.
A snort leaves me before I can stop it. “Oh my gosh, your daughter is something else.”
Rhonan shakes his head. “Trust me, I know.” We arrive at a door, and Rhonan twists the knob open, revealing a beautiful bathroom with pale blue walls and purple décor. “As you can tell, this is Ellis’s bathroom, but I promise you, the showerhead won’t fall off the wall.”
“Thank you, Rhonan. I really appreciate this.”
He shrugs. “Again, it’s the neighborly thing to do.” He moves to walk back down the hall but pauses just as he passes behind me. Lowering his voice, he leans toward me. “By the way, glad to know what body wash you use.”
“Why is that?” I ask almost breathlessly.
I can feel the heat of him as he moves closer, his lips just near the shell of my ear. “Because that night, I couldn’t pinpoint what the scent you had on was. Now I know. And I wasn’t lying, it is unforgettable.”
Before I can reply, he walks away. Now I’m even more confused because for a man who told me he wants us to keep our distance, he keeps finding ways to get closer to me, and I can’t deny that I don’t want him to stop.
***
After I’m finally clean and dressed, I gather my things and step out of the bathroom, only to find Ellis sitting on the couch, apparently waiting for me to reappear. As soon as our eyes meet, she jumps from the couch and races toward me.
“Ms. Lewis! Do you like ice cream?”
“I do,” I tell her, laughing at her urgency.
“Do you want some? Daddy said you can have some with us if you want.”
When I reach the living room and see Rhonan standing in the kitchen area with his arms crossed over his chest, his face is unreadable. Seems like that’s his signature look.
“Is that so?” I turn to look at Rhonan. “What kind of ice cream is it?”
“Vanilla. We keep things simple around here.”
“Any toppings?”
Rhonan arches a brow at me. “Chocolate syrup and sprinkles. Will those suffice?”
I turn back to Ellis. “Sprinkles are my favorite.”
Her eyes light up. “Mine too, especially rainbow ones! Come on!” She pulls me into the kitchen, but I break away just for a second to set my bag down by the couch before meeting her at the kitchen counter.
“Is Joanne joining us?” I ask as I climb onto a stool.
Rhonan pulls the tub of ice cream closer to him, digging into it with a metal scoop. “No. She’s turned in for the night.”
“Joanne doesn’t like ice cream,” Ellis says, shaking her head as she hops onto a stool next to me. Her little legs start swinging while she watches her father. “I loooove ice cream.”
“What kind of person doesn’t like ice cream?” I wince as I realize my words may have come off a bit rude. “Sorry…”
Rhonan chuckles. “No need to apologize. I thought the same thing, but it turns out when you’re lactose intolerant, it’s not so much about not liking it as not being able to have it.”
“She has to eat a special kind of ice cream,” Ellis adds solemnly. “It doesn’t taste good.”
I nod in understanding. “I don’t think I could live without ice cream.”
Rhonan slides two bowls across the counter to us. Ellis launches forward, reaching for the jar of sprinkles, but I steady her so she doesn’t fall. “Easy, kiddo. Do you need some help?”
“No, I’ve got it.” With the sprinkles in hand, she sits back down and shakes the container up and down until you can barely see the ice cream underneath.
“That’s enough, Ellis,” Rhonan declares, but Ellis keeps shaking the sprinkles out. “Ellis.”
Her eyes lift to find her dad glaring at her, so she slowly sets the container down. “There’s no such thing as too many sprinkles, Daddy. Auntie Laney said so.”