Set in Stone

Chapter 36

Having Layla come over to stay the night was something that Grace genuinely looked forward to. Over the months that she had been in the relationship with Roman, she had formed something of a stepmotherly bond with Layla, who was undoubtedly a great kid. She was well-mannered, fun to be around, and clearly idolised her dad. It warmed Grace's heart every time she saw them together. What meant the most to her was that Layla enjoyed seeing her, too.

When she heard the front door open, Grace walked out of the living room, already smiling before she saw Roman or Layla, who had walked in first with her Pokémon rucksack on. "Grace!" she shouted in excitement, running down the hallway.

"Layla!" Grace cried, crouching down in time for the child to run into her arms at full speed, almost bowling her over. "Oof," Grace grunted with good humour as she took the impact.

"I missed you," Layla said.

That was probably the nicest thing Grace could have heard. Looking over Layla's shoulder, she saw Roman smiling as he closed the front door. "I missed you too, Lay. That's why I bought your favourite cookies."

"The white chocolate ones?" Layla asked as they parted.

"The white chocolate ones," Grace confirmed. "They're in the kitchen."

Nothing more needed to be said to send Layla hurrying back up the hallway.

"Lay, take your backpack and your coat off first," Roman said.

Layla did as she had been asked, handing both items to Roman. He hung her coat up in the closet, holding onto her bag for her to take upstairs when she'd had a cookie. To that end, Layla was already in the kitchen.

"Hey," Grace said, stepping up to Roman and giving him a kiss.

"Hey," he replied. The second kiss lingered, and his hand came to her cheek affectionately.

"It makes me so happy that Lay gets excited to see me," Grace said quietly, for his ears only.

"It's adorable," he replied at a similar volume.

Layla came out of the kitchen with a half eaten cookie in her hand. The other half was in her mouth, being chewed.

Roman held out the rucksack. "Take this up to your room, please."

"Okay," Layla said through her mouthful of cookie. She took the rucksack and scampered up the stairs.

Roman waited until she was out of earshot before speaking. "So, Lay told Andrea that she learned to snorkel with you, and she wants diving lessons."

Grace grimaced slightly. They had planned on that coming from Roman, not Layla. "I assume Andrea spoke to you about it?"

"Yeah. She wasn't exactly pleased that she heard it from Layla, not from me, but I was able to convince her that I had planned to talk to her about it today. I said I didn't know Lay was going to say anything to her."

Upstairs, they heard Layla's footsteps heading for the bathroom.

"What did Andrea say?" Grace asked. "I mean, is she okay with Layla learning to dive?"

"She wasn't sure at first. She didn't know if ten was old enough. I told her that you're a qualified instructor and you said ten was old enough. I said the experienced instructor we've hired for our business has also taught ten year olds in the past."

"How did that go over?"

"She accepted that Lay's old enough. What she was less sure about was having you teach her."

The toilet flushed upstairs, signalling that Layla would soon be coming back down. Grace delayed responding, not wanting Layla to hear what was being talked about. She signalled to Roman with her eyes to join her in the kitchen in a moment, and walked through there.