Saving Rose

Chapter Six

"Is that your ex or something?" Luke asked me, watching as Jacob walked back to his table.

I bursted out laughing, "no, he's just Sydney's brother. I'm not a big fan of him."

The conversation went away from Jacob, thankfully. He told me that he was in pre medical school, training to be an EMT. His mom was killed in a car accident when he was younger and ever since then, he had wanted to be able to be there to help people like that.

"My sister and her husband were actually just recently killed in a car accident as well, a drunk driver." I felt the tears well up in my eyes and I looked down at the table.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. That must have been rough," Luke told me, reaching over and grabbing my hand, comforting me.

"It was. She even had a daughter, Rose, who is now in my hands."

"How old is she?"

"She's five." We had finished eating, and paid, so we made our way out the front door. Luke walked beside me, his hand on the small of my back.

"I would love to meet her sometime. I love kids." As he said this, he slipped his hand off my back and into my hand, intertwining our fingers.

"Would you like to meet her tonight? I know it's soon, but I feel like I haven't spent much time with her recently and I think she would love to meet you."

He squeezed my hand, "I would love that," he looked down at me, smiling. He was very handsome, and the smile just made me realize it even more.

"Hey Syd, is that alright?"

"Of course. Have fun!" She winked at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Let's go," I paused, stopping in my tracks, "I rode with Sydney here."

"It's alright, we can take my car." We made our way to his car, and he opened the door, closing it behind me.

On our way back to my apartment after picking up Rose, Luke was doing a great job making Rose giggle like crazy.

I looked back at Rose and she had the biggest grin on her face, her eyes bright with happiness. Luke was telling her jokes. We pulled into the parking lot, and I led Luke into our apartment. I was a bit nervous, I had never really invited a guy over after the first date. I shut the door after me and Luke bent down to look at Rose.

"Now, princess, what would you like to do?" A smile tugged at my lips as I saw them interact. There was something so attractive about guys who were good around children.

"Let's play," she paused, running over to our toy chest to look at board games, "candyland!" She grabbed the box, and brought it over to the coffee table, plopping down on the ground.

I glanced over at Luke who had a smirk on his face.

An hour later, we were still playing. We had all been close to winning at least once, but we would be sent backwards before we could win.

It was Rose's turn, but when I glanced over at her, her head was on the coffee table, she was sound asleep.

"I'm going to take her to bed. I'll be right back." I stood up, grabbing hold of Rose and carrying her to the bedroom.

After tucking her in, I made my way back to the living room to find the board game all cleaned up. I shook my head, but a small smile was on my lips. "Thank you."

"Of course, it was my idea to play a game." I put the box back in the chest and faced Luke.

Just as I was about to ask if he would like to watch a movie, he said, "I should probably be heading home. I don't want to overstay my visit."