She's avoiding me.

I bit back a smile. When I answered that call, I hadn't expected to hear what I did. For the umpteenth time, I wondered how she made herself come. Was it with her hand? An image of her on the bed with her legs spread and her hand down her panties, made me groan.

"Fucking hell," I muttered under my breath.

Pulling a towel from the cabinet, I made my way back into the bedroom. I quickly pulled off my dirty overall and change into some swim trunks. Going for a swim would help cool me down.

I was out the door and down the path a few minutes later. When I reached the beach, I dropped the towel on a rock and headed for the water.

The image of her masturbating kept circling in my head. My dick was staining painfully against the swim trunks. The cold water was supposed to cool me down, but it wouldn't work when I kept thinking about fucking her.

It has been two weeks since I'd seen her. Two fucking weeks! I kept hoping that I'd catch a glimpse of her at the stables or here at the beach. Even if I saw her from afar, I'd be okay with that. If she knew what I wanted to do to her, she'd ran for the hills anyway.

Movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned my head and watch the figure walk up the beach. My heartbeat increased.

Changing direction, I swam towards the beach. But it wasn't Sin that waited for me there. My shoulders sagged. Michel smirked at me as I made my way over to the towel. I dried myself before turning to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Expecting someone else?"

"Yes. What do you want?"

"I came here to personally deliver this." He held out the pink envelope. "But the one I'm supposed to deliver this to, isn't home."

I stared down at the pink envelope with Sin's name on it. It was clearly Bella's handwriting. Why was Bella writing to her?

"What is it?"

"Bella invited Sin to stay at ours for the weekend. A sleepover."

"Sleepover?" I blinked. "Am I hearing this right? Bella wants to have a sleepover."

"Sin asked her about you and Bella. She thinks Bella is cheating on me."

I nodded. I should've cleared things up for her when she accused me of that. The fact that she had watched us gave me a thrill. Have I finally found the woman to complete our little family?

"What did Bella tell her?" I asked, standing up and leading the way back to the house.

"She told her to go do a web search on Polyamory." Michel sighed. "She said Sin's been asking her about it. The sleepover is for Sin to learn more about it."

"Do you feel attracted to her?" I asked, glancing over at him. "To Sin."

"She is a very attractive girl." Michel paused and stroked his bottom lip with his finger. "Yes, I'm attracted to her, and so is Bella."

My head snapped up.

Bella was attracted to Sin. She has never given us even a little hint of being attracted to the opposite sex. I shook my head and opened two bottles of beer. Handing one to Michel, I took a seat at the table, and he followed suit.

"Bella feels conflicted. She feels disgusting at herself for being attracted to the opposite sex. On the other hand, she wants to experiment too."

"I didn't know Bella—" I trailed off. "What if Sin doesn't feel that way?"

He shrugged, taking a sip of his drink. Michel glanced down at his hands and then looked back up at me. "It'll be a punch to the gut for her. I don't know whether to discourage her or encourage her. Sin made a sketch of you. You and Bella and a few of only Bella."

"This sleepover is a ploy to figure out how Sin feels?" I asked.

Michel nodded. "I—"

The kitchen door flew open, and Sin stumbled inside. I was instantly on my feet. Her dress was dirty, covered in mud and grass stains. Leaves were stuck in her hair and her cheeks were tear stained.

"Y-you have to help him!" she cried. "H-he hurt."

"Who?" I gripped her arms and bend down slightly to search her eyes. "Who's hurt?"

"T-the bird!" Sin pulled back and then span around.

I ran after her with Michel on our heels. Sin disappeared between two trees. When I caught up with her, she was kneeling under an old fruit tree. She glanced up at me with fresh tears spilling down her cheeks. Crouching next to her, I glanced at the bird on the ground.

It must've fallen from the nest.

"He f-fell," Sin cried. "I heard h-him fall. Help him!"

I glanced at Michel who was studying the tree. His looked at Sin and then at me. The shake of his head told me exactly what I didn't want to hear. I glanced up at the tree and instantly spotted the nest. It was too high up to climb up and put the bird back in the nest.

I glanced at Sin.

Her sole focus was on the bird. I glanced down too. It barely had any feathers. Reaching out, I carefully picked it up. It wasn't moving.

"Sin. . ." I shook my head. "I'm sorry baby, we won't be able to help him."

"Why?"

I was at a loss for words. The last thing I wanted to do was to upset her more.

"It's too young to be taken away from its mother," Michel said softly. "And we don't have the right food or anything for him."

A sob fell from her lips.

Michel stepped forward and to my surprise, he hooked his hands under her armpits and picked her up. Sin instantly buried her face against his neck as she continued to sob. His eyes briefly caught mine as he turned.

The message was clear: take care of it and I'll take care of her.

I glanced down at the bird in my hand and pursed my lips.

It's part of life.

***

Sin was curled up on the couch with Bella's blue teddy bear clutched to her chest. Her eyes were focused on the TV where a Barbie DVD was playing.

"What do you want for lunch sweetheart?" I asked softly.

Her eyes darted over to me. They were red rimmed from all the crying. I moved closer and crouched in front of her. Reaching out, I pushed the strands of hair away from her cheek. Her eyes started to fill with tears again.

"It hurts," she whispered.

"I know," I muttered. "This is something we have no control over baby. Sometimes we can help them and other times we can't. It's part of life."

"I hate it."

"Me too." I held up the envelope for her to see. "Bella made you this."

Sin sat up and reached for it. I watched as she carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the card. It took her a lot longer to read the two simple sentences on it.

"What does it mean? A sleepover?" She looked at me.

"Well, you pack a bag of clothes and sometimes games or anything else you decided on. And then you go over to that friend's house where you'd stay for the weekend or however long you decided." I stood and took a seat next to her. "Sometimes you watch movies or play games. You eat a lot of junk food. Maybe even have pillow fights or you simply talk."

"Bella wants to do these things with me?"

I nodded. "You and Bella are friends, right?"

"I've never had a friend before," Sin whispered.

"Well now you do." I smiled down at her and nodded to the card. "What do you say? Are you going to accept Bella's invitation?"

She glanced down at the card again and then smiled up at me. The nod she gave me was enough to set off a spark of hope in my chest.