21. My Goal

21

MY GOAL

“ I ’m so sorry I got held up,” Phoenix said when he walked in at six on New Year’s Eve. “I swear it’s never ending.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I knew you were coming home at some point.”

“I need to shower and change. And chill out.”

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Yes. Just work. If it’s not one thing it’s another. I’m going to put it from my mind now though.”

“Elsie ate dinner already. You said to feed her and I ordered pizza. That is what she wanted.”

“That works,” he said. “Is that what you wanted tonight?”

“I got something else for us,” she said quietly.

He nodded his head and moved to his room.

Elsie was in her room playing so she went to let the little girl know Phoenix was home.

“Uncle Nix just got here,” she said. “He’s taking a shower now.”

“Yay,” Elsie said. “I can’t wait to show him what we did today.”

“I think he’ll like it,” she said.

They’d been drawing and playing all day. Made a bunch of slime too, but that was all picked up and put away. It was a mess but fun at the same time.

Elsie started to pick up her toys with Crystal helping. The little girl was very neat so there wasn’t a lot she felt she had to do when it came to the end of the night routine.

She wasn’t sure if Elsie was always this neat or she did it for another reason.

Maryn’s house was immaculate and organized. Could be Elsie was forced to be that way now. She did want the little girl to feel as if she could be a kid too.

When they were done cleaning up, Elsie ran out of her bedroom and toward the back of the house and saw Phoenix in the kitchen getting a bottle of water.

“Let me see your face,” he said, smiling. “Are you a butterfly?”

“I am,” Elsie said. “See my wings too. We made them today.”

She had on little cardboard wings that Crystal had attached to a string and tied under Elsie’s arms. “We flew around the house for thirty minutes earlier.”

“We?” he asked, looking at Crystal. “You too?”

She felt the heat fill her face. “I couldn’t let Elsie do it alone.”

“Do you have any pictures of this?” he asked. He picked Elsie up and kissed her on the nose.

“Crystal videotaped it,” Elsie said.

“Then I’ve got to see it,” he said. He put his hand out for her phone.

She pulled it out of her back pocket. “Don’t laugh. I took a lot of videos and pictures of us making and painting the wings, then painting Elsie’s face.”

“Was your face painted?” he asked.

“Crystal cleaned her face before the pizza was delivered. I told her it’d be funny to answer the door that way.”

“I didn’t agree with it,” she said, winking.

She unlocked her phone and handed over the video for him to watch with Elsie. There was music playing in the background and her phone had been leaning against the counter while she and the little girl danced around the room.

“This is nice,” he said. “It looks like a lot of fun. And no evidence of it around.”

He was looking around the island where they’d been painting. “Some people clean up well,” she said.

“Some are just beauties to begin with,” he said, smiling as he held her stare.

“Am I a beauty?” Elsie asked.

“You are my best beauty ever,” he said. He set her down. “Can you show me your dance in person?”

“We need music,” Elsie said. “And Crystal has to do it with me.”

“Yes,” he said. “Crystal needs to do it with you.”

She smirked at him and he laughed. “No more paint on my face though. It takes too long to get on and off, but we will put on our dance for you.”

She found the song and turned it on. Then Elsie and she started to dance around the room in the choreographed moves. She had more fun doing that with Elsie than painting and making their costumes.

Phoenix clapped his hands when they were done. “Not bad, huh?” she asked.

“I think it was perfect. A great way to come home and put a smile on my face too,” he said. “Really, it was. I could get used to his.”

“It’s a good workout,” she said. “Elsie is very particular about her dance moves.”

“I can’t wait to start dance lessons soon,” Elsie said.

“Not much longer,” she said. Something she could drop the little girl at after school and wait in the lobby area.

“How long is it going to take to get that paint off your face?” he asked Elsie.

Elsie looked at her and shrugged. “It wipes off pretty easily with soap and water,” Crystal said. “Elsie needs to take a bath and wash her hair tonight too. Why don’t we get that started since it will take time to dry it.”

“Will you put it in a braid tonight so it’s wavy in the morning?” Elsie asked.

“I will,” she said. “Let’s get your water running.”

“I’m going to take care of a few things while you do that,” he said.

She hoped he wasn’t working all night when they’d planned on their first “date” but if he had to, then she wouldn’t complain about it either.

Once the water was filled up enough in the tub, Elsie got undressed and in the bubbles. Crystal got a washcloth and cleaned off the paint from Elsie’s face, then they washed and rinsed her hair out and she put it on top of the little girl’s head while she played.

“Let me know when you’re ready to get out,” she said. She went to find Phoenix and saw him in his office. “She’ll play for about ten minutes and then I’ll dry her hair and get her in bed.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll get her story ready for her. I appreciate you doing the bath time routine with her.”

“I know you don’t feel comfortable going in to help bathe her. She’s good on her own but needs help with her hair unless she is taking a shower. We are getting good there too. I think soon she’ll be able to do that alone.”

“I know I’m rushing her to grow up and that is wrong of me.”

“I understand,” she said. “My father wouldn’t come in the bathroom with any of the girls when we were younger. I remember him doing it with my brothers but never us. Not once we were out of diapers. He told my mother it was on her.”

And her mother resented that, but her mother resented a lot of things.

“I think if she were my daughter.”

“No reason to explain,” she said. “I’m going to put our dinner in the oven to heat up. It’s just seafood casserole and dessert. I ate a small piece of pizza with Elsie so she didn’t question it.”

“Sorry about that,” he said.

“Don’t be, just letting you know in case I don’t eat much dinner.”

She returned to the bathroom five minutes later and got Elsie out of the tub, her hair dried and braided and then Elsie took off for Phoenix’s office.

Crystal went to the kitchen and let Phoenix get Elsie in bed when it was time.

When he came out twenty minutes later, she had the food on the counter with a glass of wine for them both. She hoped Elsie didn’t wake up, but if she did, it was just two adults having dinner.

“That smells good,” he said. “She’s sleeping already. Did you wear her out on purpose?”

“Absolutely,” she said. “That had been my goal all day. Does that make me a bad person?”

“No,” he said, smiling. “It makes you someone who knew what to give me today when I needed it. Not only that, she’s thriving after so much tragedy in her short life.”

“I said it before, the key is to keep her entertained and engaged. She’s got a curious mind and I love to watch it work.”

She’d never been this curious as a child. Not like Elsie was. Crystal was more about playing or watching TV, but not learning. Not being creative.

Maybe she missed out on it all as a child and that was why she enjoyed it so much now as an adult.

“She’s so much like her mother,” he said.

She moved over and hugged him. “And you get to watch Maryn’s daughter grow and thrive. That’s a wonderful gift, Phoenix.”

“It is,” he said softly and cleared his throat.

He started to eat and she took that as a sign that he didn’t want to talk about it.