Caroline handed her a book.
“Teddy’s New House,” she read. “You turn pages, Caroline.”
Halfway through the book, Ava stopped reading before the last word on the page. “Do you know that word?” she asked.
Caroline looked a long time at the word and nodded.
“Will you read it to me? I would like that so much,” Ava said quietly, holding her breath and wondering if she had alienated Caroline further.
There was a long silence and Ava waited, finally turning the page and reading the next one. Just before she reached the end, she paused and waited, finally reading the word. She did the same on the next pages. She was on the next to the last page when she paused again before reading the last word.
Caroline whispered, “Shoe.”
“Thank you, Caroline.” Ava’s heart skipped a beat when she heard Caroline’s faint voice. “Some things are just hard for us to do, but we can do them.”
As far as she was concerned, Ava saw the slight response as a tiny victory, one she didn’t care to push, so she didn’t ask Caroline to read anything else aloud.
The day passed with Ava learning a little about Caroline’s typical day and her responses. Ava suspected Caroline’s behavior wasn’t very different with Rosalyn or Will. Ava couldn’t feel much closer to the child because of the wall Caroline kept around herself. Will had been good to leave them alone—another surprise with him, because she had expected him to hang around and continue flirting. It was better he hadn’t, but she missed seeing him.
It wasn’t until almost dinner that he joined them in the pool. Ava didn’t see him coming until he was at the edge of the deep end. Her pulse jumped when she saw him. He was deeply tanned. His broad, sculpted chest tapered to a small waist, tight muscles on his flat stomach. He wore black-and-white patterned swim trunks. He made a flying leap and landed in the water with a loud splash, causing Caroline to smile.
He bobbed up by her, lifting her and then letting her splash down, but he held her the whole time.
“Want to do that again?” he asked her, holding her up again, and she smiled, nodding.
With a surprised expression he glanced over her head at Ava and then lifted Caroline higher to let her splash into the water again.
They played and he gave his full attention to Caroline, glancing once at Ava to say hello.
Later as Caroline splashed nearby, he swam close to Ava. When he bobbed up almost touching her, Ava’s heartbeat sped, a reaction she couldn’t control and one that happened too often with him. “Hi.”
She smiled at him. “Hi.”
“You know why I’ve been giving her all my attention.”
“Of course, and you should.”
“Caroline smiling at me like that—I think you brought that on. She hasn’t done that before with me. I was right about you. You are good with her.”
“Thank you. You may give me too much credit,” she said. “I did get her to read one word aloud today.”
Something flickered in the depths of his dark eyes. “I’m going to do some arm twisting and see if you’ll stay this coming week. We’ll talk about it later.”
“Will, the people I’m recommending will be better than I am in working with her.”
Smiling, he swam away to join Caroline, and she guessed she was in for a struggle with a man totally accustomed to getting his way.
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