With Crayons and Love (Romantic Suspense) [COMPLETED]

Chapter 23 - Fault

Coming back to work after the weekend spent in South Carolina was not fun. I was still gone with the mentality of a vacationer, hoping the next few moments would be spent back on the beach without any serious responsibilities to hinder my mood. And I had spent the day with looming exhaustion and various bouts of distraction. The cause of my distraction was one very charming man. And the cause for my exhaustion was one very charming man.

Yes, it was all his fault.

Yet I managed to get all of my work at the Tribune done in due time, and was out of the quarters before I expected to be. I drove to the Loop for a small bakery just a few minutes away and ordered two small boxes of various pastries in an assortment of flavors and colors and shapes.

I cheated, eating a strawberry streusel before getting in the car.

At my parents' front door I waited naught but a second after I knocked for the door to sweep open, as if by divine intervention, for nothing stood there to greet me but an empty space. The door also didn't open all the way back, meaning a very small person was likely hiding behind it in the hopes of trickery.

I walked inside with a single box in my hands, having left the other in the car to take home, and a smile formed over my lips. My mother leaned against the dining room wall with a look of amusement, waiting for Stella's scene to enfold.

"Hmm, I wonder who opened that door," I murmured, walking past the entrance and to my mother. "Well, I have a few sweets in this box, but I'm afraid Stella isn't here today, so..."

A few clumsy shuffles sounded behind us. "Okay, fine, I'm here." Stella announced exaggeratedly, walking out from behind the space between the door and the wall. "What sweets did you bring?"

I shook my head and pursed my lips, then with a note of sarcasm, I spoke, "Well, isn't she excited to see me?"

"Super," my mom teased.

At that, Stella smiled widely and ran the space to me, hugging me around my hips. "I am!"

"Right answer! I brought your favorites. Give me a kiss," I said and bent down for her reach. She kissed me with urgency.

"Give me, give me, give me," Stella sang, stretching out her hands.

I gave her the box but kept it shut. "No more than two."

"I know," she said, and danced away with the box. "Look uncle, sweets!"

I kissed my mother and placed my bag on the dining table, then turned for the living room where two people would surely be rummaging through a box of pastries. "Hey, Pop," I said, giving him a hug and kiss when I found him on his usual recliner seat, watching a Red Sox game with a sugar cookie already half-devoured in his hand. Stella sat on his lap and ate a blueberry muffin, taking bite by bite with care.

"I'm having another," I said, and reached for the box. Stella put her little fingers on the lid and spoke through a stuffed mouth. "Only two!"

"Hey, I'm the grown up here," I grinned, taking a brownie this time. It had marshmallow in the center, and my was it heavenly.

Grant would love one...

I stopped the thought of him before I could drift away.

"How's the game, Da?"

"Tied. Jesus! This is amazing. Give me another cookie, Stell. Chocolate chip this time, please."

I laughed at him and shook my head, taking two pastries I knew my mother would like and leaving the two sugar-monsters be as I went to the kitchen. My mother was there, I knew, because I could hear the water running by the sink.