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Telling Her the Truth
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Asking for a Friend Making Up
MARISSALayton loved me? What?The shock of the moment was cut short when his lips came crashing down onto mine. My own lips parted without conscious command, like they were welcoming home their best friend and long lost lover all at once.His arms circled my waist, holding me tightly to him as he devoured me. I could feel the emotion he was pouring into the kiss, including the longing and the silent plea for me not to leave.My mind and my heart were at war, the one shrieking that we had to get out of here while the other was quietly convincing me to stay. Before I even knew what I was doing, my hands were in his hair and I was obeying the quiet command.What he did when he went to see Brice was the most thoughtful thing anyone had ever done for me. I didn’t care that he did it because his father told him to, he was still the one who had confronted my worst nightmare, and lived to tell the tale.I was still stunned to learn Brice and Layton had been friends, but I couldn’t bring myse
Asking for a Friend Changing the Routine
LAYTONOn that Thursday morning, I was at Marissa’s door an hour before she was due to arrive at work. There was no way I wanted to miss her, it would ruin my whole plan.After we made up the night before, I went home determined to come up with a plan to start making it up to her and Annie. I thought I had the beginning of one, but it all depended on how strict Marissa was about school attendance.I knew I shouldn’t encourage Annie to skip, or ask Marissa to let her, but I didn’t want to wait before I started making it up to them. I wanted to start immediately, but it just so happened to be Thursday.Still, I was serious about making it up to Marissa and Annie and I couldn’t think of a better way of driving that point home than to start as early as I could with the amends. Literally early, since it was only just past six in the morning now.I knocked on the door, my breath misting as I waited for them to answer. It was freezing out at this hour and the sun was barely rising, but hopef
Asking for a Friend Giving Him a Shot
LAYTON“We’re going to walk the Freedom Trail.” I told her, glancing at Marissa when we stopped at a red light. “I figured if we were pulling her out of school for the day, we’d better do something where she would still learn.”“We’re learning?” Annie groaned. “That’s not fun.”“It will be,” I assured her. “The Freedom Trail is like learning history in action. It passes by sixteen locations that are all significant to the history of the United States.”Annie wriggled her nose. “I don’t like history.”“I promise you will today, honey.” Marissa said, turning in her seat to face her daughter. “The guides dress up in historical clothes and you get to see so many things you’ll hear about in school. Think about how exciting that will be when you start learning about all the places we’re going to go to today.”She considered it and finally agreed, albeit reluctantly. “Yeah, I guess that will be cool.”Once we got to the start of our tour and Annie met our guide, dressed in a soft pink billow
Asking for a Friend Meant To Be
MARISSA “Layton!” Annie called from a statue up ahead from where we were on the Freedom Trail. “There’s pigeon poop on this man’s head.”Layton threw his head back, well as much as a six foot something guy could, and laughed. He was more relaxed and carefree today than I’d ever seen him. Even more so than when we’d gone fishing.He and Annie were really bonding. While I would have thought it would make me nervous to see it, the opposite was actually true. It warmed my heart so much it felt like it was about to implode.All day he’d been so dedicated to her. When he told her this morning she didn’t have to forgive him, I nearly started crying. There were tears in my eyes, anyway.The whole scene was just so touching, so honest and sincere. I could practically feel his heart breaking when he saw how sad and hurt she still was about the weekend. But Annie was more resilient than anyone I knew.She bounced back in spectacular fashion and thrived under all the attention he was giving her.
Asking for a Friend Spunk
MARISSA“It’s the oldest standing church in Boston,” she told me excitedly. “The oldest church in the whole city, Mom. Out of all the churches! It was inspired by the same architect who rebuilt London after the great fire.”“Sir Christopher Wren,” Layton piped up helpfully, nudging my hip with his as he came to walk on my other side. “He’s a great British architect. He’s one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, in fact. He was given responsibility for rebuilding fifty-two churches in London after the fire.”“You would get caught up in the architectural history,” I retorted playfully. “Trying to turn her into an architectural buff at such a tender age already, are you?”“A guy can hope,” he said quietly, so quietly I didn’t know if I was meant to hear the words. But I had, and they made my heart soar. Louder this time, he said, “We have to make a right here. The theater is just around the next corner. Do you want to have lunch now, or a late lunch after?”“After,
Asking for a Friend The Long Haul
LAYTONThe morning after the day out at the Freedom Trail, I felt like I was walking on sunshine. Like a fucking rock star. Whenever I spent time with Marissa and Annie, they made me feel like this. Something clicked in me when I got to see them and it felt damn good. The memories of Annie’s excited chatter and happy laughter replayed in my head on a loop. Along with the ones of Marissa’s smiles and the contented look in her eyes. Even Denise got a few seconds of brain-time on the highlight reel.She was a good friend to Marissa, a great care taker for Annie, and I still suspected that she was a champion for me. And so, memories of her watching me watch Marissa with this indulgent smile also made it into the replays.If someone had told me six months ago that I was going to be so besotted with a six year old and her mother, I would have laughed in their face. Hard and repeatedly.But it was undeniable that I was besotted. The more time I spent with them, the worse it became. Marissa h
Asking for a Friend Not Over Yet
LAYTONMy eyebrows shot up. I’d promised Craig I would pay a visit to the site some time. We didn’t have any meetings scheduled here. “Did he say what it was about?”“No,” she replied, her eyes sliding to my open office door. “He just said he needed to talk to you.”Nodding, I smiled. I would find out soon enough what Craig was here for. “Thanks, Carrie. Do me a favor and hold my calls while I’m in there with him.”“Sure thing,” she said, and immediately started punching buttons on her landline. As promised, Craig was waiting for me in my office. He had made himself comfortable and was sitting on the white sofa with a cup of coffee in his hands.When he saw me coming, he set the coffee cup down while standing and reached out his hand to shake mine. “Sorry to show up unannounced, I know how much you hate that.”“That’s okay,” I shrugged, releasing his hand and rounding my desk to take my seat. “I’m getting better at it, actually. It doesn’t bother me so much anymore.”Craig’s brows lif
Asking for a Friend Deep Down
MARISSA“Are you ready for some awesome mom and daughter bonding time today?” I asked Annie as I helped her settle into the car.She clapped her hands and nodded, her head bouncing up and down so hard I wasn’t sure if she could stop nodding if she wanted to. “What are we going to do today?”Since Layton gave me the day off, I returned the favor with Denise—especially because she was already taking Annie again tomorrow—and decided to spend some quality time just with Annie. It wasn’t something we got to do often enough.Between work, school, my dresses, Annie’s activities and Denise’s schedule, we had precious little time to just relax and spend time together as mother and daughter. “Well, for starters I thought we could go to the aquarium. We’ve been meaning to go since we moved here, I thought it was time we finally did it,” I said, glancing at her in the rear view mirror as I slipped into the driver’s seat of our car.Annie’s reaction was even more priceless than I’d been expecting
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