Chasing Elliott - Published

chapter twenty three ... in the hot seat

Insouciant - (adj.)
free from worry, concern or anxiety.
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Elliott sat in the recliner with Kingsley sitting on her lap while Benjamin and I sat on the couch. Him and I had been planning out our questions all day since he wasn't happy with how things went last time. He really didn't like hearing that I believed Elliott and I knew each other better than they did.

"Okay, we have a lot of questions here so I hope you're ready," Benjamin said as he pulled out the notes app on his phone. "First one's for you, King. What sport did I play as a kid?"

"Soccer," Kingsley replied instantly with a shrug. Benjamin smiled and turned to me which caused me to roll my eyes. Scrolling through my phone, I picked out a question I knew she would have had to pay attention to know the answer.

"Alright, El," I started to say as I looked at her with a smile. "What is one of my bad habits?"

"You pick at the skin by your nails," she answered right away with a small smile. "You also pick at your scabs and that drives me insane."

I laughed as I nodded my head and turned to look back at Benjamin. He scowled lightly but neither of the girls noticed as he started looking for his next question.

"Okay, here's an easy one," Benjamin started to say. I looked up and saw Kingsley stiffen slightly but Elliott rubbed her back softly and she relaxed. "What's my favorite color?"

"Yellow," she said questioningly but Benjamin nodded which caused her to release a grateful sigh. "This is more intense than I anticipated. I don't like this at all."

Elliott laughed as she reached down on the floor to grab her bottle of water. Taking a sip, she made eye contact with me and winked which caused a smile to break out on my face.

"Baby, what is my middle name?" I implored. I knew I've never told her the answer to that question before but I wanted to see what she came up with.

"Paul," Elliott replied with a smile. My mouth fell open in surprise as I looked over at Benjamin in shock.

"What, had you never told her that?" Benjamin questioned after taking in my facial expression. I shook my head no as he turned his attention to Elliott. "How did you know that?"

"It's his fathers name and I remember him saying that the tradition in their family is the first son takes the fathers name as their middle name."

I jumped up off the couch and walked over to her and placed a kiss to her forehead. Kingsley quickly climbed off her lap and walked over to Benjamin and sat down next to him as she threw her legs over his lap.

Elliott smiled as I moved to sit on the armrest but she slid out of the chair and told me to sit before she fell into my lap. I rested one arm around her waist while the other rested on her thigh and one of her arms was wrapped around my neck.