Sunny

Chapter 7

Rhea knew that Eli, Cassie, and Mason were out on the porch brainstorming song ideas, so she had a clear field to clean their rooms, but she was still hesitant to clean Eli's room. It seemed too be a bit too personal. She heard a door close behind her and jumped at the sound. When she turned to look over her shoulder her mother was watching her.

"Rhea dear, what are you doing?" she asked in her native French.

"I was about to go and clean Mr. Emory's room Mama," she smiled at her delicate mother, answering back in her own flawless French.

Collette Harris was still a beautiful woman and even in her early fifties she looked a lot like Phoebe with her blond ringlets and blue eyes, but she had always been a little fragile, and having Aion had taken a lot out of her. Some days she felt good and helped around the inn and others she was too tired to get out of bed. Today looked like it was a good day.

"Oh, I'll take half of your stuff and clean the Stevens' room if it would help?" she offered.

"That would be wonderful Mama, I still need to make lunch and Aion was able to make me promise to bake him a batch of those cookies he likes so much."

She joined Rhea at the base of the attic stairs and took half of the cleaning supplies. "I'll do a quick clean and then be down to help you with lunch."

"Thanks Mama, I'm glad you're feeling so well today."

She smiled at her daughter, tucking her hair behind her ear, "You should go shopping my dear and buy some new things, get a haircut, something fun."

"I'll make the time to do that." It was an empty promise but it seemed to appease her mother as she wandered down the hall towards the room where the Stevens were staying.

It was so hard to stay mad at both her parents. They weren't bad people and they loved her very much, but they were terribly irresponsible with money, and they wouldn't care if she was as well, but they had come to depend on her to hold it together, and every year that went by their dependence on her became greater and greater.

Rhea turned back to the stairs and started to climb them slowly, and as she pushed open the door she was hit with Eli's scent, his cologne and soap. It was a smell that she remembered well.

She moved to the bathroom and began cleaning there first. It didn't take her long, Eli was a fairly neat person so all she needed to do was a quick wipe down, then she vacuumed  before starting on the bed, and she was almost through when she heard the door to the room close. She spun around and saw Eli leaning against it, watching her.

She needed to keep busy so she wouldn't have to look at him, so she finished making the bed before reaching for a dust cloth and starting to wipe down the furniture.

"I'm sorry Sunny," he had moved to stand directly behind her and she could feel the heat as it radiated off of his body.

Rhea didn't need clarification as to what he was talking about. "You should be, how could you think that I would keep something like that from you?" She spun around and he was right up on her.

"I haven't been happy in a long time and I've become very jaded. The more time that passes the more I realize I have very few people I can trust. It's not an excuse but I hope it helps you understand that it was all me and none of it you." He put his hands on her shoulders, willing her to look up at him.

She was unable to do it and stared hard at the button on his shirt, nodding her understanding.

"How did you know I was here, I was doing my best to stay out of sight," she finally asked after a silence that seemed to stretch on forever.