Safe House

Chapter 23

"Auntie Erin?" She hears before she even gets the phone up to her ear. She's a little confused as to why she's calling from Jay's phone, since he was still at the precinct not even twenty minutes ago but she tells herself she'll ask later when she hears her say Auntie Erin once more as she unlocks and opens the door with one hand, and holds the bags of groceries with the other.

"Hi Kenz." She replies with a huff as she sets the bags on the kitchen counter.

"Auntie Erin can I-"

"Mackenzie did you ask Uncle-" Natalie starts to ask, and Erin doesn't know that Jay's standing next to his niece shaking his head at his sister in law.

"Go ahead Kenz." She hears him say

"Can I come over to Uncle Jay's so you can paint my nails for the parade tomorrow?"

"Mackenzie how do you ask nicely?" Erin hears Natalie scold her in the background

"Please?"

"Of course Kenz."

"Uncle Jay she said of course." She says excitedly and then it's quiet for a second before Jay gets on the phone.

"Hey she's been insisting that you do her nails ever since I got here." He says in a tone that tells her something's wrong, he's trying to hide it, and it makes her want to ask him to come home, but she knows she'll just have to wait until he's done there.

"Oh ok, well make sure she brings nail polish."

"Her and Natalie already left to come by you."

"Ok."

"I'll be home in a couple hours."

"See you then."

"Alright bye."

"Bye."

XXXXXX

About fifteen minutes later Natalie drops Kenzie off at the cabin, and then she leaves to run some errands.

"Ok Kenz, what colors did you bring?"

"Red, white and blue." She states matter-of-factly, and Erin giggles at that.

"Right, silly question." Erin says, and Kenzie shrugs before Erin leans down and picks her up.

"Do you want to try something knew with your nails?" Erin asks when they get to the guest bathroom, and she nods. Then she sets up a blanket for them to sit on in the guestroom, and she has cotton balls, and nail polish remover near by just in case. She fills the plastic cup she brought in earlier with warm water, while Kenz pulls out the nail polish she has in her little backpack.

"Ok Kenz which nails do you want red and blue?"

"This nail red and this one blue." She says, pointing to certain fingers on one hand with her other one. Erin gently takes her hand and paints the little nail on her index and pinkie fingers white first, and then paints the rest either red or blue. Then while they're drying, she delicately drops red and blue polish into the cup creating a faint red and blue layer on the surface of the water. Once there's several ripples of paint she moves the paint around a little with a toothpick before she dips one of Kenzie's white nails in face down, and when she pulls it back out the nail appears to be tie dyed. She repeats this process until all of her white nails are red, white and blue. Kenzie stays surprisingly calm and still during the time it takes for Erin to get done, but once her nails are dry she bounces up and down with joy. Natalie knocks on the door, and then lets herself in a few minutes after they've finished, and Kenzie runs to show her mother her nails. Erin cleans up the room a little before she too goes out to the living room.