Page 43 of Axel

You are a seasoned actress, and I am certain your agent would have no difficulty finding something to your taste.” The silence following her sage advice had been profound.

“You are never on my side. Sometimes I wonder why on earth I call you. You left me to go to that one horse town and I have only heard from you once. And I am wagering that your father received more phone calls than I have.” Ellie had remained silent because she had not wanted to lie, that was not who she was.

Her mother had taken her silence as an affirmative and had told her a stiff goodbye. Ellie had been happy when she hung up.The usual guilt had not been there, and she realized that her mother’s influence was slowly diminishing.

Even though she was exhausted after getting only a couple of hours sleep last night, she was revved and raring to go. She spent three quarters of the day writing the article and making changes to some of the sentences and was satisfied that it was coming along nicely.

She had not heard from him all day, but she was still hoping he would call before the day was out. And she wanted to discuss the article with him, run it by him to see if he had an issue or she could run with it. There were things she needed to add, but she had two days left before she left.

Unless he wanted her to stay longer. The idea of that was making her breathless. She would stay of course. She could always send in the article via email and if there were any changes, she could make them.

She had just woken up from a nap when her phone rang. Rolling over and grabbing it before she missed the call, she squelched her disappointment when she realized it was not him.

“Caitlin, hi.”

“I hope I am not disturbing you.”

Ellie smiled as she recognized how apologetic the older woman always sounded.

“Of course not. How are you?”

“Thankful for the showers. My plants needed it. Are you free to have dinner with us?”

Ellie wanted to ask if the invitation was issued on behalf of her son but managed to refrain from doing so.

“Of course. What time?”

“Say around the same time. It’s a beautiful day and not too cold despite the rain. We could have supper outside in the gazebo.”

“Sounds lovely.”

“Good, see you then.”

Ellie hung up and felt the rush of excitement coursing through her veins. The family seemed to like her a lot and she liked them too. She also had no doubt that Axel would be there as well. A grin touched her lips as she recalled the last time she was there.

Caitlin and Cathy had engineered it so that they could be alone, and it had worked out wonderfully well. Taking a deep breath, she went into the kitchen to fix herself a snack.

*****

“She said yes?” Cathy came into the kitchen just as her mother was taking out the chicken to prepare. It had been seasoned from the night before and was just the way she liked it. She was also making the sauce from scratch and had everything laid out on the massive counter. But there was a troubled look on her face.

“She did.”

“She didn’t ask about Axel?”

“No.” Caitlin slipped on the disposable cooking gloves to start preparing the chicken. “Oh, I love my son to death and would do anything for him, but sometimes I want to take him over my knees and knock some sense into him. That poor girl.”

Axel had stopped by this morning to tell them he had been called away on business to Texas.

“When are you coming back?” Caitlin had asked him anxiously.

“I am not sure. It might not be for a while.”

“What about Ellie?”

“What about her?”

“Does she know you are leaving?”