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A soft little sigh slipped past her lips and reached his ears through the speakers “You know, even though I’ to be a good girl and behave, even if I’ bad” She delivered that with a naughty s for dinner, just in case you’re hungry and you want to join me and have some friendly conversation”
She waited a handful of seconds, staring up at the ca for hiain “Hmm I’ll take it by your silence that’s a no,” she said, her tone light and teasing
She was so adorable she enuine chuckle that was rare for him The speaker wasn’t tay, so he couldn’t have answered anyway, but just the fact that she was carrying on this ridiculous and a one-way conversation with herself had him unable to turn off the
Leaving the living room, she sauntered into the kitchen, and as soon as she spied the carinned and waved at hih she couldn’t have been one hundred percent certain he atching her “So, let’s see what I have to ith for dinner”
She opened the refrigerator and peered inside “Since you’re not here to tell ame as far as I’m concerned”
She pulled out a carton of heavy whipping creaarlic, and butter Then she started searching through his cupboards, adding a can of chicken broth to those items, a container of flour, and some spices And then she proceeded to entertain him as she made fresh crea hilarious coarlic and stirred in all the ingredients
When the soup thickened and steam rose from the pot, she took a deep breath of the scent, closed her eyes, and“I know you’re probably ato be delicious with the garlic toast I’ out”
His sto Arabella’s sentiarlic toast fro the canot just for the food, but to enjoy her co to her joke and tease despite the less-than-ideal circurow exponentially
He wanted to spend tieneral—but he was s beside Arabella while they shared dinner was just as te her
But that didn’t stop her fro her one-sided conversation with hi
She lifted a spoonful of soup to her pursed lips and blew on the hot liquid before taking the bite, her gaze lifting back up to the camera “I don’t kno uy like you can find out anything on anyone at the snap of your fingers, and considering who I am, I’m sure you have a file full of information on me,” she said wryly
Yes, he did Right in the desk drawer next to where he was sitting But soet a ht to Arabella Cole, and all his attention was focused on her
“But from my personal account, and not froator’s perspective, , predictable andlonely” Her voice dropped to a more somber tone as she absently dipped her bread into her soup “My h I knew ible things that didn’t really matter to me Not when I wanted his attention the most But I suppose he didn’t really knohat to do with a little girl, and I’d like to think he did the best he could, given the circumstances”
Maddux refused to feel any kind of empathy toward Theodore, but he couldn’t deny the compassion he felt toward Arabella He knehat it was like to lose a parent, the void it left, and the pain that ht have dulled over time but still existed The fact that they’d shared that same experience, even if their parents’ deaths had been vastly different, softened so inside of him
“I think it was just easier for hi school so he didn’t have to worry aboutso sheltered and confined And I was scared a lot of the tio to the school library and find a quiet corner and read for hours after class and on the weekends” A small smile touched the corner of her mouth as she sed a spoonful of soup “I've always been an introvert, because it was much easier and safer to just stay in my own little bubble I always had my nose in a book, and I loved all the classics Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Nathaniel Hawthorne The characters in those books were like my best friends”