Page 52 of Deking
She’s here. She’s really here.
When I woke up to her sitting on the edge of my bed looking like something straight out of a dream, I thought it was just that. A dream. It wasn’t, though.
This has to mean something, right?
“Does everything look okay?” she asks as she turns her plate so the bacon is off to the side.
“It looks great,” I tell her as I pull my eyes away from her.
“Not a morning person then?” she teases, making me chuckle.
“I am, but I’m still surprised to see you here,” I tell her as I pick up my fork.
“Good surprise?”
“The best.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, her shoulders relax and she smiles.
“Good. You have like an hour and a half before practice, right?”
“I do.”
She nods. “I started to second-guess if I got the time right before I left my house to come over here.”
“I don’t even want to know what time you woke up to accomplish all of this, do I?”
She winces as she shakes her head. “Probably not, but it was worth it.”
She gave up her own sleep to do something for me. Part of me feels guilty, but the other part is over the moon. This has to mean she is starting to fall for me, right?
“Seriously, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Do you have a busy day?” I ask as I take a bite of bacon.
She moves her head back and forth. “Depends on your version of busy. I have three classes, but I’ll be done by two.”
“Good, that means you can go home and take a nap.” I reach out to grab her hand, brushing my thumb across the back of it. She lets me before she softly pulls away to eat.
“Maybe, it depends on what kind of day dad is having,” she mumbles.
Before I can even formulate a response the sound of feet pounding down the stairs hits us.
“Hey,” Kellan mutters as he heads toward the counter.
“Morning,” Lyla and I say in unison.
Kellan pauses and turns to look at us. “Lyla’s here,” he points out, making us laugh.
“How nice of you to notice,” she teases.
He shakes his head. “Sorry, it just hit me. Did you stay over last night?”
“No, I came over early,” she tells him.
“What about you? Did you get home early or late? I thought you were staying at Cora’s.” I ask.
Kellan nods as he pulls out some protein powder. “Yeah, I planned to, but then she had to go back to work, so I just came home. There was an emergency placement, and they needed someone to be there with the kid while they did it.”
