Present Day...
Her father picked that same day to show up unannounced at the house. As far as days went she didn't think it could get much worse. First Lola's assumptions and now this.
"Daddy, stop! You can't just barge in here unannounced!" She clutched at her father's arm trying to keep him from going up the stairs to her mother's room.
"Child, leave me, it's between me and your mother," he insisted, gently removing her hand from his arm. "I love all of my girls and my son, and it's past time that I fix this." He turned to start up the stairs once more.
"This is not the way to fix it Daddy!" she hissed, grabbing for him once more.
Her father was a gentle man and would never hurt any living thing. He lived in books, he was so far into them that he sometimes forgot the real world. It was how she had ended up having to take care of the businesses and her mother.
When her mother had gotten so ill, during her pregnancy with Aion, he had escaped into his books and he had never come out. Rhea hadn't worried at first because she thought having a new son would pull him back into the real world, but it hadn't. Her mother had remained ill for a long time after Aion's birth and her father had continued to escape that fact by staying buried in his books.
She almost wished he had a drinking or gambling problem because there were treatment programs to help with that, she had yet to hear of a program for obsessive readers.
Rhea felt Eli's presence as he entered through the screen door behind her. Both she and her father paused and turned to look at him.
"Am I interrupting?" Eli asked.
"No," Rhea said licking her lips nervously. "Daddy, this is Elias Emory, Eli this is my father Linus Harris."
Eli took stock of her father not saying a word, and when her father turned to head up the stairs to her mother she stopped him again. "Please Daddy, let me go and let mother know you're here at least. You know she won't want you to walk in on her if she's a mess. She always likes to look her best for you."
He stopped and looked at Rhea as he considered her words. "There is sense in what you say," he agreed. "Don't take to long about it." He stood aside, allowing Rhea to climb the stairs two at a time to get to her mother.
"He's here, isn't he?" her mother asked as Rhea entered her bedroom, watching as she flew around the room, cleaning and dressing at the same time. It was apparent that she had been expecting him.
"Yes," Rhea confirmed, holding back a weary sigh. They were harder to keep up with than Aion and Phoebe. "I can only hold him off for a few more minutes." She started to help her mother clean, giving in once more to the chaos that surrounded her.
She was suddenly very weary, why should she keep fighting to make sense of it. It was an impossible task and she was exhausted. Somehow her life had gone horribly wrong and the harder she fought to get it back on track the worse it derailed.
"Go, send up your father, I'm ready," her mother insisted.
Rhea headed down the stairs at a much slower pace and told her father that her mother would see him. He rushed up the stairs and Rhea sagged against the banister, too tired to move.
"Come on Sunny," Eli said, putting his arm around her shoulders as he led her into the living room. "Relax, I'll play you a song." He pushed her into the soft couch and she let herself fall into the plushness, curling up into a ball and resting her head against the arm of the couch.
"What would you like to hear? Ladies, choice."
She shrugged, not really caring, knowing anything would be wonderful.
He started playing an old Elvis Presley song, one of his romantic ballads and she closed her eyes, letting his voice and the words surround her.
Rhea sat up as the song continued and she started to shake her head but he didn't stop playing. "That's not fair," she cried when he was done. He knew what his singing did to her and now he was singing words of love to her. How was she supposed to resist?
"I never promised to play fair Sunny. Have you arranged everything for our date, or is it all up to me?"
She shook her head. "I thought after last night..."
"You promised me a date and I want my date." He let his hands glide over the keys, picking out a tune that she recognized but couldn't place. He watched her carefully as he played it.
"Why do you want to go out with me Eli, you say you want me and that you love me, but then you treat me like you did last night, believing the worst of me. It's too much, I'm tired of dealing with everyone else's problems, who is going to help me deal with mine."
He stood up and joined her on the couch, sitting on the opposite end, facing her. "I'll help you."
"That's just it, I don't want you to help me."
She hated the look of pain that crossed his face as she said the words and he was silent for a moment considering her words.
"Do you remember when you asked me how I managed to stay so calm when Victoria was at her worst?" He was watching and waiting for an answer.
"You said it was because you didn't care." Her voice came out low, almost a whisper.
"With you I care too much and it scares the shit out of me." He leaned forward lowering his voice as his intensity increased. "I have traveled the world, preformed for millions of people, run my own company, I write my own songs and put them out there for the whole world to judge and none of that scares me the way that you do. You came into my life, this petite little curly headed beauty, and you stole my heart with your sunny smile and your positive attitude about everything around you. I saw who I wanted too be in you. You were too good for me, and I was almost glad that I had Victoria as a reason to keep me from hurting you. All of my self-confidence deserts me when I realize how badly I want you."
Rhea stood up and moved to look out of the window on the other side of the room because it put her as far away from Eli as possible, it kept her from leaping into his arms.
"You're also my kryptonite, Sunny." He threw her own words back at her. "When you say you care, you show me that you care, and then you push me away, it makes me doubt myself, doubt you. I do believe you care-"
"I do care, so much it hurts," she choked out around the tears that had started falling.
"Then there must be a good reason that you keep pushing me away. If it's not a secret baby or another man, I'm at a loss as to what it could be, and I wish you would tell me."
"Don't you see, I don't want you to doubt me and you would in the end."
"No I don't see and we're talking in circles!" he said as he stood up and started to pace. "We'll start small, let me share some of your problems and be your friend, it's a good place to start."
Rhea heard the ferry as it came up the river.
"I take a walk every morning at sunrise on the beach, I leave at about six, if you like you can join me tomorrow." It was the best that she could do.
"I would like to very much," he agreed.
Rhea pushed away from the window to go and meet Aion. "What was that tune that you were playing earlier, I recognize it from..."
"From that night at the church," he finished for her.
She nodded wordlessly as he walked towards the piano and let his fingers pick out the tune.
"Sunny one so true I love you," he sang the words, so simple and it threw her back to five years earlier.
"I remember." She nodded her heart beat so loud he must hear it across the room. "Eli, will you kiss me?"
He didn't hesitate as he rose form the piano in one fluid movement and pulled her into his arms. He tilted her head back as his lips meet hers and a contented sigh escaped her lips. It was so much like coming home. She had waited five years for his kiss.
The horn from the ferry sounded and Rhea broke the kiss, looking at him with a shy smile. "Thank you."
"It was the friendly thing to do Sunny," he joked as he let her break away from him. He didn't try to follow her as she moved out into the hall.
As she walked out of the living room she noticed Mason coming down the stairs and Lola sitting in the chair in the hallway, looking at her as if she had never seen her before and Rhea paused, wondering how much she had heard.
"You're Sunny," she said in an awestruck voice that confused Rhea.
"It's a nickname Eli and Mason gave me," Rhea confirmed. She heard the ferry sound once more and with one last look at a dazed looking Lola she headed down to the dock with Lola about to follow her.
"You don't understand Sun-"
"Lola, can I talk to you a minute?" Mason asked, placing a hand on her arm, holding her back.
Lola looked at Mason's serious look and realized that she was about to say something she shouldn't so she shut her mouth and nodded.
Rhea missed her friend's look of wonder as she watched her walk away.