Page 49 of Drive Me Crazy
“Whoa! That’s such a cool name. Did you pick it out yourself?”
“No!” Millie giggles. “He was just a baby when he got it! He couldn’t name himself.”
Her pigtails bounce as she shakes her head. Finn steps out from behind Millie and places his small hand on my knee. He blinks at me with the same blue eyes as his sister.
“Is Ella short for Cinderella?” he asks sweetly.
Ella definitely isn’t short for Cinderella considering my glass slipper got tossed right out a window like a dirty Converse sneaker. “No. I wish it were, but it’s short for Eliana.”
Millie nods as if considering this. “That’s a pretty name.”
“Thankyou. I think your name’s pretty, too. I’ve never met another Millie before.”
“Really?” Her face lights up in excitement. “So in the whole wide world I’m the only Millie you know?”
“Yep.”
“Do you know anyone with my name?” Finn asks with wide eyes.
“Hmm.” I pretend to think. “I don’t think I do! You guys are the only Millie and Finn that I know.”
This seems to be the coolest thing they’ve ever heard. Kids are easy to impress.
“There you guys are! Your mum’s been going crazy trying to find you.”
I’d recognize that smoldering accent from a million miles away. I quickly stand and hold my hands up defensively. I don’t want him to think I was interviewing them or anything horrible like that.
“Uncle Blake!” Millie tugs at the end of his shirt. “Do you know Ella?”
He smiles in that reckless way of his. “Of course.”
Millie starts chattering away about a bug she saw earlier, and Blake listens intently, nodding and asking follow-up questions. Why does seeing him with kids make me feel like my IUD is going to eject itself? They look at him like he hung the moon and the stars in the sky. Ugh.
“Can Ella eat lunch with us?” Finn asks innocently.
Dear God. If you were ever planning on revealing the existence of superpowers, please feel free to do so by granting me the ability to become invisible. Thank you and amen.
Blake shrugs and looks at me to try to gauge how I feel about the situation. His eyes are apologetic.
“I can’t, but thank you!”
Millie’s eyebrows draw together in disappointment. “Why not?”
“Iforgot,” I mumble.
“Forgot what?”
All right, Miss Millie. What are you? The question police? I can’t think of anything. I forgot to take out my tampon? Forgot to pay the parking meter? Forgot I have a doctor’s appointment?
“An email,” I blurt out. “I forgot to answer an email. It’s, uh, very important.”
Nice.Totally believable. Blake knows I’m lying out of my ass but doesn’t say anything. It’s a Sunday, 6:00 a.m. in America, and George is here, so there’s not really anybody I’d be emailing.
“Why don’t you guys go wait for me at the door?” Blake suggests while ruffling Finn’s curls. “I’ll be there in a second.”
Millie and Finn wave goodbye, so it’s just me and Blake. Well, me, Blake, and the awkward tension surrounding us. Now I know what they mean by three’s a crowd.
“I want to make sure we’re cool,” he explains, a frown creasing his forehead. “We haven’t talked since Italy.”
