My arms circled her waist, and I gripped her against me, feeling both pain and euphoria in my chest. “I know. And you know you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”24EmersonWe sat together in the theater, Lizzie in between us.
She kept digging her hand into Derek’s popcorn and stealing handfuls before shoving them into her mouth.
Derek kept his eyes on the screen, his brown eyes lit up and reflecting the light from the screen. He didn’t care at all. He let her have as much as she wanted, absent-mindedly including her in his life without thinking about all the space and independence he had to give up because of her.
I was living in a dream, having a man like that who loved us both. He was so good to me and so good to my daughter. Sometimes I pinched myself because it didn’t feel real. How did I get this drop-dead gorgeous man to accept me with all my baggage, to love me unconditionally, to love someone as their own when she wasn’t his?
I still hadn’t gotten an answer.
When the movie was over, we walked out of the theater.
“Did you like it?” Lizzie asked.
“It was okay.” Derek threw the leftover popcorn in the trash. “Did you like it?”
“Yeah. I like those whodunit things. And I knew from a mile away it was the husband. It’s always the husband.” Lizzie spent more time talking to Derek than talking to me because I was old news, and he was the interesting and sophisticated one.
I would be jealous, but I was too happy to be jealous. “You guys want to get something to eat?”
Derek immediately cringed.
Lizzie rubbed her stomach and shook her head. “Yuck, no.”
I rolled my eyes. “I told you not to eat so much popcorn.”
“Well, it’s delicious, so what am I supposed to do?” Lizzie fired back.
“How about have some self-control?” I countered.
“Derek ate as much as I did.” She walked beside Derek as we headed to the sidewalk.
“Because he’s a grown-up who can do whatever he wants.” We hardly got to hold hands when we were together because she was between Derek and me, right smack in the middle because she loved to converse with both of us.
“Ugh.” She rolled her eyes. “I can’t wait until I’m a grown-up.”
Derek smirked slightly. “I used to say the same thing, and sometimes I wish I could go back.”
“Why?” Lizzie asked.
He shrugged. “Just a simpler time. I spent all my free time with my friends, not stressed about work and all the other stuff that comes with adulting.”
“What did you want to be when you were little?” she asked.
“An astronaut, actually.” Derek walked beside her, wearing his leather jacket with a gray V neck. Sometimes he looked so hot that I knew people probably couldn’t figure out how we were together. I knew I was attractive, but I wasn’t a lingerie model like his old lover Fleur.
“Why didn’t you do that?” Lizzie asked, looking up at him in interest.
He shrugged and kept his eyes ahead. “I was really good at the back-end stuff, so I thought my mind would be better utilized that way. Besides, I have no experience as a pilot and would probably get frustrated with all the training they have to go through. You really have to be at the top of your game to be an astronaut.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a lot.”
“And I don’t get along with people very well, so I wouldn’t be a good teammate. My time is better spent working on problems by myself and creating things to get astronauts where they need to go.”
“That makes sense.”
We walked down the block until we approached the outside of my apartment. His black Range Rover was parked there, where he’d left it on Friday night. We’d only come down to it once on Saturday morning to retrieve Lizzie’s gifts. He’d spent the weekend with us, still wearing the same clothes he wore on Friday even though it was Sunday now. He used my toothbrush to brush his teeth and didn’t style his hair like he usually did when he got out of the shower.
“I should get going…” Derek glanced at his car before he turned back to us.
“Yeah,” I said. “Lizzie and I need to clean the apartment and get caught up on laundry.”
“Ugh, that sounds terrible.” She wore the scarf Cleo got for her, the color bringing out her eyes. “Can we get a maid like Derek?”
“You are the maid.” She hated me for making her do all sorts of things around the house, but she’d thank me later.
“Well, I’m going to get fired because I’m terrible at it.” She moved into Derek and gave him a quick hug. “See you later.”
Derek hugged her back, smirking as he embraced her. “Bye, Liz.”
Lizzie went into the building and headed to the apartment.