“Please, call me Ellen now,” she said with a pat on my arm. “And who is this young lady?”
She flashed her warm smile at Shiloh, who beamed back.
“I’m Shiloh,” she said, sticking out her hand to shake. Ellen stifled a laugh from the formality of it all. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. McKenna. Is Arya home?”
“Yes, I think she is. Arya, you have visitors,” she called behind her in the house. “Mason said you were back for the summer and it’s so wonderful to see you. I wish I could visit with you more, but I have to run to the bakery. I’m already so late, as always. But you’ll come by again, yes?”
“Of course. It’s great to see you.”
She grabbed her keys and bag from the table and was off with another quick hug for me and Shiloh. She didn’t seem at all surprised that we were here. I wondered if she knew what was going on. Did that mean that Mason knew?
Arya suddenly appeared wearing a short, light blue sundress with her hair hanging in loose waves around her shoulders. Her feet were bare and her brown eyes sparkled.
“Well, hello, you two,” she said, eyeing the flowers and brownies. “This is a surprise.”
“We brought you flowers and brownies. I baked them with Gram. And I picked out the flowers with Daddy,” Shiloh said excitedly, grabbing them from me and giving them to Arya.
Arya chuckled and smelled the flowers deeply as she accepted them from Shiloh.
“These are gorgeous,” she said. “And I’m sure the brownies are delicious. Thank you. Both of you.”
She was mostly looking at Shiloh, but her eyes met mine briefly.
“Do you want to come in and have a brownie with me?” she asked Shiloh. I wondered if she meant to include me in that invitation as well.
“Unfortunately, Shiloh is due to spend the afternoon with my mom,” I said before Shiloh could answer. Shiloh looked disappointed when she remembered her plans. I’m sure she’d prefer spending the day with Arya instead of her grandmother who was always insisting she sit up straight, as if she were a grown woman and not a four-year-old little girl.
“Well, that’s a bummer that you two have a busy day ahead of you.”
“I wasn’t invited,” I said, flashing her a grin. “Ladies only today. So I’ll be spending the day hanging around. Would you like to join me?”
The sparkle in her eye brightened.
“I was going to spend time with my friend, Katie, but it turned out she had other plans today. So I guess it’s your lucky day.”
I tried to stop myself from grinning like an idiot.
“That sounds great. I have to bring Shiloh to my mom’s, but I’ll see you when I get back? It shouldn’t be more than thirty minutes or so.”
“I’ll be here,” Arya said brightly.
Shiloh grumbled a bit as we rushed down the walkway. I helped her into the car and drove faster than I ever had before. I couldn’t wait to get back to Arya’s door.
“That was fast,” she said when she answered the door.
“I couldn’t wait,” I said, closing the door and backing her against it.
I knew I was crowding her space, but she didn’t tell me to back off. The pretty dress she wore was low-cut enough that it showed off her truly fantastic cleavage. It skimmed her thighs and my fingers moved to the hem of her dress seemingly on their own. I softly touched the soft skin and her eyes closed as she melted into the door.
“We should talk about last night,” she whispered, even though we were alone in the house.
“You’re right, we should.” I backed up slightly, but didn’t stop touching her. I started softly stroking her hands. Every inch of her skin was impossibly soft. “Things felt a little awkward this morning.”
“I’m sorry, that was my fault,” she said. “I panicked a little.”
“Do you regret last night?” I asked, nervous about her answer. But I needed to know.
"No,” she said quickly, reassuring me. “It was amazing. The most fun I’ve had in a very, very long time and I’m so glad it happened. It’s just complicated. You have your whole…situation. I’m employed by your parents and work at your grandparents’ house. Plus, there’s Mason. He can be a little overprotective sometimes, ever since I had a bad ex-boyfriend. He just wants the best for me and I honestly have no idea how he’ll feel about this.”