Page 11 of The Payback Adventure
“When I’m five, I get to go to Disneyland.” Caitlin tilted her head slightly. “Have you ever been to Disneyland?”
“I have,” Henry said.
He bent over, bringing him closer to Caitlin’s level and closer to Elisabeth. Okay, he wasn’t like her ex-fiancé, who never acknowledged her siblings, let alone spoke to them. But Henry was still a charmer. His nearness disturbed her, making her feel warm and uncomfortable. She wanted to step back but wasn’t about to leave Caitlin’s side. Elisabeth bit the inside of her cheek.
“Disneyland is one of my favorite places in the world.”
Caitlin moved closer to him, surprising since she was usually shy around strangers. For the first ten minutes, that was. “Do you know Minnie Mouse? I want to see Minnie and Cinderella and Ariel and Jasmine and Tiana and Aurora…”
“What about Snow White?” Henry asked.
Caitlin nodded. “And the seven drawers.”
“Dwarfs,” Elisabeth corrected.
“Dwarfs,” Caitlin repeated. “Oh, and I want to see Belle. Anna and Elsa, too. I want to be five.”
“How old are you?” Henry asked.
She raised her fingers. “Four. How old are you?”
“Caitlin,” Elisabeth whispered. “It’s not polite to ask someone their age.”
“He asked me.”
“I did.” Henry’s eyes sparkled with laughter. “I’m thirty-four.”
Elisabeth did a double take. He looked younger. Not that thirty-four was old. She would be twenty-five in a few months. But she felt much older.
“Do you like ballerinas and princesses?” Caitlin asked.
“I do,” Henry admitted. “Do you think you could help me with something?”
Wide-eyed, Caitlin nodded. Elisabeth placed her hands on her sister’s thin shoulders.
“I have a goddaughter named Noelle.” Henry’s smile softened as he spoke the name. “Her birthday is coming up on Christmas Day, but I’m guessing she’ll like ballerinas and princesses when she’s your age. Could you show me the kind of toys and dress-up clothes she would like so I can be prepared?”
Caitlin grabbed his hand. “Let’s go to my room.”
“I don’t think so.” Elisabeth wasn’t about to let a stranger be alone with her baby sister or her siblings. “Henry needs to get settled in Sam’s room.”
“Where’s Sam going to sleep?” Caitlin asked.
“In your bed.”
Caitlin frowned. “Where will I sleep?”
“With me.”
“I’ll go move my babies and animals.” She skipped to the porch, bounced up the stairs, and jumped inside the house.
“Cute girl,” Henry said.
With blond ringlets and big sparkling blue eyes, Caitlinwas the definition of cute and knew it, too. Elisabeth nodded. “But she’ll talk your ear off. She talks from the time she wakes up until after she’s supposed to be asleep. I was so worried when she turned two and only said a few words, but those words turned into sentences and conversations in a couple of months. She’s quite the linguist now.”
Elisabeth babbled worse than her stylist while she cut hair. She was just tired and hungry after today’s shift at the café—make that bistro. That would explain why Elisabeth felt off-center and a little dizzy. She’d been up before the sun, and her day was far from over. It had nothing to do with Henry.
Sam, eleven and perpetually bored, stepped forward. “So, you want to work here?”
