Sighing and seeing as they were on vacation, Helena ran her fingers through his long, blonde hair and reasoned with him, “If you go to bed now, I’ll let you keep the light on for half an hour to play quietly or read your comics, but when I come up to check on you, you must go to sleep, okay?” Seemingly happy with his mother’s proposal, Nicky hopped from his sister’s bed to grab a handful of the toys he had brought with him and dropped them down over his camp-bed before shuffling in beneath the covers. Leah climbed atop her own bed, doll and brush in hand, and Helena told them goodnight before leaving the room. 

It was already half nine and Helena was expecting Dylan’s arrival anytime soon. Helena took a seat on the sofa, curling her legs up beside her and drumming her fingers subconsciously against the arm of the settee. She sighed a little as the adverts came on the television. She hadn’t been watching the program showing, but it annoyed her anyway. Letting out a restless breath, the Brit sunk further into the plush sofa. She knew Dylan wouldn’t be long, but she already felt she had been waiting for years to see the Californian again. 

Sitting in the passenger’s seat of her car no more than fifty meters away from her friends’ house, Dylan Moreland released herself from her seatbelt and instantly whipped the sun-shield down to check her appearance in the little mirror fixed there. Bearing her teeth, she made sure no specks of food were lingering there and, when satisfied with her pearly whites’ appearance, tilted her head from angle to angle as she searched for any blemish that she would be able to correct. Her palms sweated against her steering wheel, and once she was finished checking her appearance she wiped them readily down the front of her jeans. Despite having been tremendously excited – and horrible nervous – at the prospect of meeting with Helena again, she never felt the need to make more of an effort with her clothing bar something casual yet nice. Her bootleg jeans hugged her ass and thighs as well as she could have hoped and the simple cream shirt complemented her naturally tanned complexion.