Learning to Live

Chapter 37

He sighed. "You don't want to talk about it, whatever it is. I understand."

The wheel's leather squeaked under my grip. I kept quiet on the subject, and Hunter didn't prod any further.

We stopped by a candle shop so I could buy a gift. It was my first time visiting them and I couldn't go empty-handed.

The Campbells' house was in the outskirts of the city, not as far out as Hunter's estate, but it was almost as big.

The barred gate opened before we even knocked. Someone must've been watching.

The car rolled smoothly inside, I stopped next to a dusty red pickup truck parked on the white gravel. A neatly trimmed garden surrounded the house, a sprawling two story painted a light blue with white window trim and a hatched roof. I never thought houses could be cute, but this one was.

Flower beds lined up the pathway leading to the front door. As I watched, it opened and a flurry of pink tutu and bouncing pigtails rushed towards us.

The little girl couldn't be older than five. Her wide grin revealed a missing front tooth. Hunter chuckled and opened the door, just in time to scoop up the girl.

"Uncle Hunter! I lost a tooth. I lost a tooth. See!" She proudly displayed her baby teeth, speaking in a lisp, and my heart melted. She was too adorable for words.

Hunter made appropriate responses as the child went on about the how's and the why's and the when's of her tooth loss. As she did, I let out Stevie and Brownie, who obviously knew the way because they immediately scurried around to the back of the house- even blind Stevie.

I made it around to Hunter and the little ball of energy in time for her to take a break. She looked so small in Hunter's arms, so vulnerable, yet I knew she was the safest she could ever be.

He would be a great father someday.

Ignoring the pang in my heart, I grinned when the little girl finally realized there was someone else.

"Are you Sapphire?" she asked with her adorable lisp. Pronouncing my name as Thapphire.

I raised my brows, glancing at Hunter. "Yes, I am. How do you know me?"

"Uncle Hunter speaks about you, like, all the time," she said, her tan cheeks flushed and her brown eyes bright.

I bit back a grin. "Does he really? And what's your name?"

"I'm Stella! And I'm six!" she said, holding out six fingers.

"When did you turn six?" Hunter asked.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm five and three quarters. That's almost six."

I chuckled.

"Where is Stevie and Brownie?" she asked, changing the subject with the attention span of a five year old.

"Must've gone to the back-"

She was already wiggling in his arms. Hunter put her down and she sprinted around the house in a blur of pink.

"Oh my God, she's adorable," I said.

"She's a little turnado," Hunter said as we walked up to the house. The blooming flower beds were a pleasant dash of color that complimented the lively house.

Hunter knocked on the open front door and stepped inside. "Benjamin? Thalia?" He called in.

The entire space was open, a living room with mustard colored armchairs and a deep green couch, a colorful Turkish rug, a fireplace with a red brick mantle. French doors lined the far wall, looking over the large backyard where Stevie, Brownie and a husky were running around, chased by a giggling Stella.