Ten minutes later, I stood in the great room trying not to fidget with my hands. Apollo was standing up in the entryway listening to something Laures had to say but his eyes were on me.
The minute we got downstairs, we’d run into a maid and he’d called for the kids.
I was trying to keep it together but I feared if I had to wait one more second, I’d fail.
At that thought, luckily (kind of) I heard a commotion and saw Élan round the corner at a run, Christophe coming slower at her heels.
She stopped dead when she saw me.
I clenched my hands together and tried not to hyperventilate.
Her gaze shot to her dad.
“Is Miss Madeleine coming with us?” she called across the expanse to her father.
“Indeed, precious girl,” Apollo called back.
She instantly threw both her hands up in the air and cried, “Huzzah!” sticking out her booty and shaking it side-to-side.
Abruptly, she stopped doing this and turned to her brother, pointing at him, a triumphant look on her face.
She then announced, “Ha, Chris! Another girl is coming with us. That means when we stop to take lunch, we don’t have to shoot at things with arrows and have snowball fights. That means we can make snow castles and talk to the bunnies!” She stuck her booty back out and swung it around again, pumping her arms at her sides and crying, “Huzzah! Huzzah-huzzah-huzzah!”
I looked to Christophe.
He was watching his sister with a disgusted look on his face.
Shit.
He turned his eyes to me, that look dissolved and he grinned.
My heart thumped.
I grinned back then looked to Apollo.
He was smiling at his children.
Then he said, “Let us go.”
Élan dashed to me, grabbed my hand and started tugging me toward the stairs.
Feeling her little hand in mine made me catch my breath so hard, it hurt.
But I didn’t mind the pain.
I let her lead me up the steps, Christophe joined his father and they walked out first, Élan now skipping beside me as we followed and I tried to hold her hand in a casual way when I wanted to hold her so tight, I’d never be able to let go.
Apollo looked over his shoulder as he descended the front steps, his eyes dropping to his daughter then coming to mine.
And on his face, that tender look was way, way, way off the f**king charts.
Thus every inch of me warmed in a way I knew I could put on a bikini and the chill of Lunwyn wouldn’t touch me.
Élan was right.
Huzzah!
* * * * *