Sunny

Chapter 10

Rhea was sitting behind the desk in the office at the restaurant doing her best to focus on the numbers swimming on the screen in front of her. Otto and Lola had kept her out late the night before and she was paying for it. They had gone out to one of the local bars after the movie, and one game of darts had turned into three and the drinks were flowing, she didn't get back to her father's house until after three and they had had to leave at six to get the island in time for her to make breakfast. She wasn't hungover, she was just exhausted.

A knock on the door made her raise her head but before she could erase the weary look from her face Eli entered, closing the door behind him. He had left the inn after breakfast so she hadn't seen him all day. It amazed her how, after only a week and a half of his presence, she had gotten used to him being around and the house had felt empty with him gone.

"Did you have too good of a time last night?" he asked, making himself at home in the guest chair next to the desk.

She shrugged, wary at his sudden appearance. He looked good, he was wearing dark blue jeans with a dress shirt and sports coat, he looked relaxed as he stretched his long legs out in front of him. She let her eyes wander to his hands where they impatiently drummed on the arm of the chair.

He caught her looking at the small tell and he smiled at her questioning look.

"You didn't come home until this morning?" He sounded merely curious at the development.

"I live on an island, it's not as if transportation home is easy to come by."

He nodded as he thought about it, his eyes not releasing hers.

"What!" She had finally had enough of his staring and the word burst from her.

"I really am sorry about the other morning. I know that if you were pregnant with my child you would never keep that from me. Do you forgive me? You never said if you did or not."

Rhea felt her heart stutter at the thought of having Eli's child. That would be wonderful and the thought was clear for anyone to read. She never had been very good at hiding her feelings.

"I feel the same way by the way." He interrupted her thought.

Her eyes flew open to find he was watching her closely, his eyes darker than usual with a feeling she didn't recognize. "How do you feel and about what?" she asked, playing dumb.

"The idea of you carrying my child, being the mother of my children, the thought of it makes me unbelievably happy." Rhea barely had time to absorb this overwhelming statement before he had returned to his previous question. "Do you forgive me Sunny?"

"Yes Eli, I forgive you." She nodded. "Sometimes I wish that I had gotten pregnant, then I would have had a reason to contact you, but..." she let the thought drift off wordlessly, wishing the floor would open up and swallow her. What was it about this man that made her so willing to share every thought she had?

"But?"

She shook her head. "I would have made you feel trapped, and you probably always would have wondered if I had done it on purpose."

"It still would have been better than having you walk out of my life," he argued, she noted that he didn't deny that he probably would have had the thought.

"No, it wouldn't have because now, at least, we don't hate each other Eli."

"We could never hate each other Sunny, I'm sure of that."

A silence descended as the stared at each other, both lost in their own thoughts of what they would and wouldn't be able to forgive of each other, and Rhea realized that she would forgive the man just about anything.