Stalking through the voluminous shelves that towered about him, Ewan found himself comforted by the musky smell of old wood and worn paper, weathered over the years by edacious eyes and fomented fingers. He continued his trek, absentmindedly trailing his long digits along the thin layer of dust that hugged the book jackets, until a familiar mop of brown curly hair caught his eye. "Hey buddy, where's your mum?"
"She just finished her yo…her yuh, uhm, her yogurt class," Cameron explained. "She went to go find a book."
"I had my yoga class this morning, silly," she teased causing the young boy to giggle. Elizabeth deposited the stack of books on the table. "Good morning, Ewan! What brings you here?"
"I would ask you the same thing, but Cameron did a pretty good job at explaining," Ewan smiled, failing to ignore the way her yoga pants clung to her like a second skin.
"They have free yoga classes here on Saturday mornings. I try to come when I can. It's a good way to relax, but it's a lot more physically demanding than it looks," Elizabeth explained.
"Hmm, perhaps I should give it a go sometime," Ewan hummed, all the while thinking of the various way he could peel the black fabric off of her silky skin while she bent into a matsyasana.
"You should! It'd be fun," she smiled.
"Where's Aiden?" Ewan asked, changing the subject.
"Aiden got to sleep in at Grandma's, but Cameron had to come to the library with me this morning because he has a project to work on for school."
"Momma said she doesn't know anything about Chicago," Cameron shrugged, flipping through a picture book of the big city. "And the li-berry is the best place to come look up information about things you don't know – even better than the computer!"
Ewan chuckled, wondering just how exactly Elizabeth managed to convince Cameron of that fact. "Well, you're in luck! I used to live in Chicago," he began. "Maybe I could give you a hand?"
"You used to live here?" Cameron exclaimed, fawning over the tall buildings in the picture.
"I did," Ewan concurred, smiling at Cameron's enthusiasm. "Over here is Michigan Avenue. And over there, where all the hot air balloons are, that's Navy Pier."
"Wow!" Cameron crooned, eyes wide. "Momma, can Ewan help me with my project? He knows everything about Chicago!"
"I'm sure Ewan is very busy, Cameron," Elizabeth began.
"Not at all," Ewan interrupted. "It would be my pleasure," he grinned.
"Please, momma?" Cameron frowned.
"I suppose so," Elizabeth relented. "If you need me, I'll be over by the classics."
"Thank you, momma," Cameron beamed.
"Behave," Elizabeth warned, kissing his chubby little cheek.
"Do all the people in Chicago talk funny like you do?" Elizabeth heard him ask Ewan as she turned to walk away.
"Not exactly…"
About a hundred pages deep into Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris, Elizabeth is suddenly interrupted by fifty pounds of dark hair and giggles being flung into her lap. "Oof!"
"Momma, momma!" Cameron exclaimed. "We finished my project!"
"I would have dissuaded him, but this one's hard to keep up with," Ewan smiled.
"Sweetie, you can't just jump all over mommy like that anymore. You're not as little as you used to be," Elizabeth chided.
"Sorry, momma. I am getting big!"
"So big," Elizabeth laughed. "And strong too!"
"Momma," Cameron began. "Will I be as big as Ewan someday?"
"Someday, sweetie," Elizabeth said, kissing his cheek. "But no matter how big you get, you'll always be my baby."
"I'm not a baby," Cameron huffed, wiping his face. "Aiden's a baby!"
"You ready to show your mum your poster?" Ewan chuckled, still laughing at the young boy's previous statement.
Cameron scrambled out of Elizabeth's lap and helped Ewan spread the poster open on the table in front of them.
"Wow!" Elizabeth exclaimed. "This looks awesome! You boys must've worked so hard!"
"I helped Ewan draw, even though he's a really good drawer. Just like you, momma!" Cameron rambled, "But Ewan helped me cut, because I'm not a good cutter."
Elizabeth grinned at the hand-drawn skyscrapers, hot air balloons, and the muddled captions underneath penned by none other than her messy seven-year-old. They even got Wrigley Field and the giant silver bean at Millennium Park in there.
"Your teacher is going to be so proud, buddy," Elizabeth cooed. "Did you say thank you to Dr. Keenan?"
"Thank you, Ewan!" Cameron cried, hugging him fiercely.
"You're welcome, Cameron," Ewan smiled, ruffling his hair.
"Alright Cam, make sure you get all your stuff together so we can go pick up your little brother," Elizabeth instructed.
"I suppose I'll see you at work, then?" Ewan inquired.
"Yeah," Elizabeth nodded, nervously fingering her ponytail. "And Ewan, before you leave, I'd like to say thank you. I can't remember the last time I've been able to curl up with a book that wasn't Thomas the Tank Engine or Bob the Builder in the middle of the day."
"It was nothing," Ewan shrugged.
"Please don't discredit yourself," Elizabeth said seriously. "You've been such a huge help to Cameron and I. Not just today, either. He's really opened up to you, and in turn, he's starting to open up to me again." She wipes away a tear. "God, I don't know why I'm being so emotional!"
"It's perfectly understandable," he assures.
"Having to explain to my six-year-old son that his little brother was dead was so heartbreaking. It was so sad to hear him wake up every morning asking for Jake. And then when Lucky left, God, he was just so angry," Elizabeth sighed. "I didn't know how to get through to him. You gave me my sweet boy back."
"I'm happy to have been able to be help you," Ewan nods.
"I'm so glad to have you in my life, Ewan. You're such a great friend," Elizabeth gushes, pulling him into a bone-crushing hug.
"Yes, friends," he mumbles into her fragrant hair. Feeling the contours of her body pressed up deliciously against his through the thin fabric of her tank top and yoga pants, he wishes he had never made such an asinine request.
"Did you have fun working on your project today, buddy?" Elizabeth asks, eyeing both Cameron and Aiden through the rearview mirror.
"Yeah!" Cameron shouts, briefly startling the younger boy strapped in beside him. "Ewan told me all about the tall buildings in Chicago, and how everyone talks funny in Australia, where he's from. He called it an 'ac-cent'."
Elizabeth chuckled at her son, knowing that he probably drove Ewan crazy with his inquisitiveness.
"He also told me about the tall buildings in Manhattan, and Miami, and Philadelphia, and San Francisco, and Seattle," Cameron rambled. "We should go to Manhattan momma. It's right here in New York. I don't want to go to Seattle though. He said it rains there all the time."
"Maybe we'll make a trip when Aiden gets a little bigger," Elizabeth suggested.
"Yay!" he exclaimed. "And then we can go to New Orleans!"
"New Orleans?" Elizabeth inquires incredulously."Why there?"
"Ewan said it was the favorite place that he lived at," Cameron said as they pulled into their driveway. "Can we have mac and cheese for lunch?" he asks, all thought of travelling already forgotten.
"Sure, sweetie," Elizabeth murmurs absently, carrying a sleeping Aiden into the house. Her mind is conjuring up so many questions at Cameron's previous statement.
"Make sure you eat your trees," Elizabeth said, referring to the broccoli that Cameron was pushing around on his plate.
"I will," Cameron drawled, rolling his eyes at the vegetable that wouldn't just disappear from his plate.
"Do you remember when you were telling me about all those cool places that Dr. Keenan was telling you about?" she asked.
"Mhmm," he nodded, stabbing a broccoli floret.
"He didn't happen to mention if he actually lived in all of those places, did he?"
"He did! Isn't that so cool?" Cameron exclaimed.
"The coolest," Elizabeth said blankly. She told Ewan she'd table her burning curiosity regarding the details of his life. But that was on the premise of him refusing to answer direct, personal questions. He never said that she couldn't do any digging herself.