“Ruby, this is my girlfriend, Maggie, and you’ve met Banjo and Delilah.”
“Hi.” Maggie waved awkwardly.
Ruby popped her hip out and scanned Maggie from the ground up. “Girlfriend? Uh. Well when that ends, you know where to find me.” Then she stormed off in her platform wedges.
Chase blew out a breath. “Now you see why I needed a way to avoid that.”
“Now I understand,” Maggie nodded.
“Can we go play now?” Delilah whined.
“Yeah I wanna prize.” Banjo pouted.
Chase tickled their bellies. “Of course, ring toss and then petting zoo?”
“Yeah!” they screamed in sync.
As they made their way through all the carnival games, Chase couldn’t help noticing how naturally Maggie interacted with the kids. She patiently explained to Delilah how to throw the rings higher in the air, and she encouraged Banjo with high-fives after each try. She was so invested and seemed to be genuinely enjoying her time with them. The guard around his heart warned him,Don’t do it. Don’t fall for her.
Chase took a deep breath to sober himself. Then, he burst out laughing. Maggie and Delilah were doing a celebratory dance involving do-si-dos in response to Delilah bowling a strike.
As they approached the last row of activities, Banjo hit Chase’s leg.
“Look, a duck tank!”
“Oh yeah, that’s called adunktank buddy.”
“Yeah let’s do the duck tank!”
Chase smiled at Maggie, “Close enough.”
As they found their place in line, Chase glimpsed a man climbing out of the tank and let out a deep exhale.
“What’s that about?” Maggie inquired.
“Ah, nothing…”
Maggie followed his eyes to the man. “Do you know him?”
Chase lowered his voice, “That’s Lawson Porter, the husband of my ex-fiancée, Amber. I’m just glad he’s not in the dunk tank anymore. That would’ve been awkward.”
“Good timing then. Especially since we’re next. Who’s the guy going in now?”
“That’s Pastor Chris.”
“He’s the pastor? Wow, he’s brave to let his church members dunk him.”
“Looks like we’re up. Who’s going first?” Chase glanced at Delilah and Banjo.
Delilah stepped forward. “Me! I wanna go first!”
A young high school boy handed her a ball and said, “You can move up a little closer.”
Delilah took one step forward.
“You can go even closer if you want to,” he encouraged her.
“No, I can do it. Daddy showed me how to throw. We’ve been practicing,” Delilah stood tall.
