Chapter 11 #2
Leo shrugs. “I’m not. I’m taking you to my place.”
“Wait. What?”
He cocks an eyebrow at me. “Did you think I still live with my parents, Ladybug?”
“No, not necessarily,” I answer warily. “But I’ve never heard of you having your own place.”
“Turns out some things actually do stay off the gossip website. I’ve got a house on the edge of the Everlasting property.
Got generators too. It’s nice and toasty in there, but if you’d like to cuddle, I can be amenable to that,” he says, winking at me.
My mouth drops open incredulously. Leo Santo just winked at me.
That’s at least the second time he’s winked at me.
Before I know it, he takes Violet out of my arms. “What about you, pretty girl? You ready to go on an adventure?”
My sweet niece, who hasn’t smiled once in the past five months, looks right at Leo, and grins.
As we pull up to a rustic looking log home, my mouth drops open in surprise.
A wraparound porch graces the front, and I see two rocking chairs on the sides of a bay window.
With the street lights out, and no lights from within Leo’s home, I can’t tell how large the home is.
“Are you sure you have a generator? Did you just bring us out here to murder us?”
“Dang, you’ve foiled my dastardly plan,” he says dryly. He pulls his truck next to a large garage. “I turned the generator off just in case I ended up staying in town. Since it’s off, I can’t open the garage. I’ll come around to help you out.”
“Leo, I’m not broken. I have a flashlight on my phone. I’m perfectly capable of getting out of a car,” I snap. Throwing open the door, I step onto the driveway right as Leo reaches me.
“You know, it could have meant that I wanted to get you out of the car myself, Ladybug. Just because you’re capable of doing something doesn’t mean you should be forced to do it all the time,” he says, clearly chagrined.
I give him a grin. “I’m a single, independent woman.”
He raises a brow as he opens the door where Violet is cuddled in her car seat. “You still deathly afraid of spiders?”
I still, my eyes widening. “Why? What did you see? It’s too cold, right? Are there cold weather spiders out there? I thought the whole point of frost was to kill off all the creepy-crawlies. Is something crawling on me? Leo!”
The grin Leo gives me is absolutely beautiful. So wide it shows his mostly hidden dimples, that I always secretly loved, but kids made fun of him for. Even in the dark, I can see his eyes twinkling. “Totally kidding, Ladybug. No spiders. I promise.”
Tilting my head back, I look up at the night sky. The wind has calmed for a moment, but I know it’s only a matter of time before it picks back up.
“How many nights do you think we stayed up to look at the stars?” I ask quietly. In my periphery, I see Leo tilt his head to look at the sky.
“Over the years? Hundreds probably. You were always fascinated with the stars and constellations.” I know he’s undoubtedly right. Especially in high school, when he’d drop me off at home after a date, and we’d count the stars because neither of us wanted to say goodnight.
“What was the wish you always made?” I ask. “Did it come true?”
Leo sighs, his gaze dropping to the concrete driveway. “No. It didn’t come true.”
We’d made a pact to only tell the other when our wishes came true. “I’m sorry. Mine didn’t either.”
I’d wished to marry Leo. If we’d decided to have a family, that was fine, but I’d just wanted him to be my husband.
I wonder what his wish was, but I know he won’t tell me.
I’d begged and pleaded all through high school for him to tell me, and he never would.
That man guards information like it’s a matter of national security.
While I get Oliver out of his car seat, Leo carefully carries Violet’s bucket seat into the house, setting it just inside the door. He sprints back outside to help me with Oliver, while I grab our bags from the trunk.
“Stay here. Let me turn the generator back on so we can have some lights,” he says, once we’re all inside.
He steps into what I’m assuming is the garage, and soon thereafter, I hear a hum of electricity.
As Leo returns, he flips a switch, lighting up the hallway we’re standing in.
As I take in my surroundings, I gasp in awe.
The log cabin Leo calls home is quite possibly the most beautiful home I’ve ever seen.
The great room is a massive A-frame, with a wall of windows facing the northwest, giving Leo perfect mountain views, and what I can only imagine as spectacular sunset pictures.
One wall is covered with a stone fireplace.
A spiral staircase sits in the corner, and I look up to find a lofted area above us.
“That’s the library,” Leo comments, watching me carefully. His gaze is loaded with attention as he waits for my response. “The main bedroom is behind the fireplace, and the three guest bedrooms are on the other side of the house. Then, on either side of the loft, there are two more bedrooms.”
My mind immediately goes to an inappropriate place, thinking about how loud I could be when I sneak into Leo’s room.
If. If I sneak into Leo’s room.
Leo sets Violet’s seat down, then unbuckles her. She squeals when he picks her up, settling her into the crook of his arm. God, he looks so unbelievably perfect with a baby. It’s unfair, really.
I kick off my shoes, then bend to remove Oliver’s. As I unzip my jacket, and then Oliver’s, I peek into the gourmet kitchen. A wall of cabinets on one side, then a bar on the other. I frown, looking for counter space. There’s hardly any. How does he cook?
Leo snorts. “There’s a butler’s pantry behind one of the cabinet panels.”
I whip my eyes to him. “How did you — are you reading my mind?”
“I know the way your brain thinks, El. It may have been a few years since I’ve seen it in action, but you haven’t changed.
You’re analytical. You probably saw all of the cabinets, thinking how everything would be hidden nicely in its place, and then you realized there isn’t a lot of counter space.
Honestly, I don’t cook that often. My mom sends me home with food all the time.
But the butler’s pantry has a ton of counter space. ”
He motions for me to follow him to a doorway on the edge of the kitchen. When he slides the pocket door open, I see a long hallway, empty counters, a wine fridge, and boxes of coconut water. My face screws up in distaste. That stuff is so gross.
Leo snorts. “Good to know your opinion of the water I drink hasn’t changed at all either.”
“Honestly, I’d hoped you would have gotten sick of it by now. Like maybe you’d suddenly realize how bad it tastes.”
“Sorry, Ladybug. I’m still drinking it,” he replies cheerfully. “Let me show you where you’ll be staying.”
We follow Leo down a hallway, and he opens a door on the right. “This is the room my nephews stay in when they come to visit.”
Oliver squeals in delight. “This is the best!”
The room screams boy. Orange and blue paint covers the walls, along with a set of blue bunk beds and a loft bed.
The loft bed features a blue ladder and tent, giving an outdoorsy vibe.
A checkered rug covers the floor, along with shelves full of Legos, cars, and books.
Oliver yammers on about how neat the room is, how he’d love to sleep in the loft bed, and already asks when he can stay at Leo’s again.
Leo chuckles good-naturedly and replies, “We’ll see. Come on, let me show you the girls’ room.”
We exit the room, continuing down the hallway.
Leo stops at the next door. As he opens it, I’m expecting to be hit with an explosion of pink, but that isn’t the case.
The room has the same general setup, with bunk beds and a loft, but this room features all white furniture.
A mural on the main wall is of a pastel rainbow.
The bedding is all different colors of the rainbow.
A corner chair includes a canopy, and the shelves are full of dolls, stuffed animals, art materials, and books.
“I would have loved to have this room when I was younger,” I comment. When Violet claps her hands together, I look over to find her gaze latched on a string of pastel pom-poms, hung along the edge of the bunk bed. “She’s too young for this room. I forgot her travel crib thing.”
“I got one of those pack-and-play contraptions a couple of years ago. I keep it in the closet of the third room, since that’s where any parent stays anyway. Violet will be contained and comfortable.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. The thought of co-sleeping always freaked me out.
It’s probably why I struggled to bond with Violet initially, because she was used to co-sleeping with Ember.
Every study I read was vehemently opposed to it, and I was paranoid about all the bad things that could happen.
Maybe that’s why she refuses to smile at me.
She’s still pissed I essentially sleep-trained her at two months old.
“Leo? Can I have a snack?” Oliver asks, looking up hopefully at Leo.
“The power went out right as I was finishing dinner. He finished his, but I think with all the excitement, his body hasn’t calmed down,” I explain, looking at Violet, who is currently sticking four fingers into her mouth. “She needs something too.”
“Alright. Back to the kitchen, then.” I open my bag to remove my slippers, sighing in bliss as my feet sink into the plushness. I then pad down the hallway, into the kitchen, and find Leo pulling out a box of mac and cheese.
“Since when do you eat mac and cheese?” I ask incredulously. Leo was always acutely aware of healthy foods, how to appropriately fuel his body, and what ingredients were an absolute no-no in his diet.
He gives me a lopsided smile. “I allow more cheat days in my old age now.”
Not able to curb my interest, I open his fridge. Tons of vegetables, many fruits … and then the same coffee creamer I’ve used since high school. Shocked, I grab it, then turn to Leo. “What the heck?”
He stifles a laugh. “That may be the most lasting impact you had on my life. I drink coffee now.”
“You didn’t the last time we were toge—” I stop myself from finishing the sentence. His smile drops as he looks away.
“Yeah, well, lots of things have changed since then.”
I hate that he’s putting the shutters up again, but I know I’m the one to blame for it. I broke both of our hearts, but I know, at the time, I thought it was the best thing for us. What I wouldn’t give to pull him into my arms and soothe his pain away.
Thankful I grabbed some premade jars of baby food as we left the apartment, I pull Violet out of Leo’s arms, and walk to the table beside the kitchen.
Maybe I can get her to try seven bites of sweet potato with her evening bottle.
Looking down, I notice the table, with an ivy pattern along the edge. “Why is this familiar?”
“It was at my parents’ house,” Leo replies gruffly. My eyes widen as I remember. Stooping down, I look at the base of the table, and sure enough, I find our initials engraved there.
L + E
“Did they ever find out we did that?” I ask.
“They did.”
“God, I would have thought they’d get rid of it then,” I muse.
“I told them not to.”
What? I turn to Leo, watching as he pours the macaroni into the now boiling water. “Why did you tell them not to?”
“Because I wanted the table.”
“Why?”
His eyes find mine, his gaze intense. “Because I’m not done with you yet.”