Page 53 of Falling for You

She looks up at her dad and he chuckles. “You’ve got ‘em. They just seem to be a little more advanced than most kids’.” He turns his attention to us and goes on, “She doesn’t like sugar much but loves spicy food and sushi and things most adults don’t even like.”

“I’m sophisticated,” her cute voice comes out almost haughty, and her mom rolls her eyes while her dad looks entirely pleased.

Mavis stands up and whispers something to her mom then without waiting for a reply comes over to where Chloe and I are sitting. Wedges herself between us, a hand on my leg as she leans over. Her parents protest, calling her back over but I lift a hand, waving her off. Mavis isn’t harming anything aside from preventing me from sitting next to Chloe.

“Why don’t you have kids wif you?”

Chloe sits up and turns so she’s facing Mavis. “We don’t have kids.”

“Why?”

“Well, Rex and I aren’t married,” Chloe explains like that will be enough to appease Mavis’s curiosity. I already know it won’t though.

“My friend Mason’s mommy and daddy aren’t married,” she says, scooching closer to me. I feel a little awkward, having this strange girl practically in my lap but her parents have a close eye on her and it appears this isn’t out of the ordinary for her. She doesn’t seem to have a shy bone in her body.

“Is Mason your best friend?”

“No. Autumn is my bestest friend.” That’s all she says. Like we should know who Autumn is. I laugh under my breath at her.

“Mavis,” her sister chides. “They don’t know who Autumn is.”

“Why not?”

Valeria’s eyes roll. “Because they don’t.”

Mavis shrugs her shoulders, satisfied with that answer.

Luckily she doesn’t ask us again why we don’t have kids. Instead, she points out everything she sees, even goes as far as to lift her small hand and turn my head in the direction she’s pointing when she catches me watching Chloe instead of the landscape.

Chloe’s lips press together tightly as she tries not to laugh.

The hayrack ride trip is short and soon we’re back at the pumpkin patch. Mavis reaches for my hand as she climbs down then doesn’t look back as she runs off in the direction of the corn box — which is like a sand box but filled with kernels of dried corn.

“I’m sorry for that,” her dad says, coming to stand next to me as his wife follows behind their daughters. “We have a yin and yang, one would rather keep her nose in a book and stay home and the other is our social butterfly.”

We smile at him and I shrug. “It was no problem. You have a beautiful family.”

“Thanks, man. Have a good day,” he says before walking away.

Chloe’s busy watching the girls play and turns to me, “I’ll be right back.”

I watch as she walks over to the girls’ mom and says something then moves to where Valeria is playing and crouches down in front of her, speaking softly. She nods her head as she listens to whatever Chloe is saying before jumping up and running over to her mom to share whatever Chloe just told her.

Chloe’s smile trembles but she’s still beautiful as she makes her way back to where I’m standing. Without hesitation, she wraps her arms around my waist.

“You okay?” I ask, my large hand making a trail up and down her spine while I hold her.

She nods against my chest. “Yeah. My mom was here today.”

“What?”

“My mom. Her name was Valeria.”

Shit. What are the odds?

“What are the odds, right?” she asks my thoughts. “And on her birthday of all days.”

I tread lightly, not sure which way this will go. But the look on her face isn’t filled with sadness. If I could name her expression, it would be something closer to awe. Eyes wide and shining, lips glossy from her tongue sneaking out to lick them, apples of her cheeks high and pink. She was melancholy earlier, while still maintaining some happiness. But now, she seems content, almost. As if meeting this girl with the same name as her mother with the same birthday as her mother, made sense in her world. “What did you say to her and her mom?”

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