When Lori toddled up, trying to clamber in after them with all the determination of a miniature tornado, Danny paused just long enough to offer her a hand before springing away again.
“I am big enough!” she yelled when Blake dodged past her. “I am! Don’t be a meany-weany!”
Blake snorted and flopped onto his back. “You can’t keep up, pipsqueak!”
“Can too!”
Danny didn’t care who was winning or what Lori could or couldn’t do. He was laughing too hard, his lungs aching with joy, the soft, rhythmic give of the castle under his feet making everything feel weightless.
Until he glanced toward where the Bigs sat.
His laughter stalled.
Easton stood with Kevin. The shy Little with the sandy blond curls and thumbprint dimples was standing a bit too close to Daddy for Danny’s liking. Danny’s heart did a little lurch. Kevinwas pressing something into Easton’s hands. It was that stuffed bunny he always carried and never shared.
Danny blinked.
Easton bent to listen, smiling gently as Kevin beamed up at him. Then, Easton reached out and stroked the boy’s hair.
The world tilted.
A crack opened inside Danny, wide and sharp and lined with purple. Ugly, stinging purple. His chest tightened. Something cold slid down the back of his spine.
He knew that smile.
He’d felt that hand in his hair.
And now someone else was getting it.
Chapter Sixteen
Beneath Danny’s feet the inflatable surface of the castle bounced, and Blake was grinning like a loon, but the fun had drained right out of him. Lori giggled beside him, trying to crawl up the inflated slope, but Danny couldn’t make himself laugh anymore.
“I’m done bouncing,” he announced abruptly.
Blake, sprawled dramatically on his belly, blinked at him. “But we just got good at synchronized jumping!”
Danny didn’t even crack a smile and tried to look anywhere but at Easton and Kevin. “Let’s go color.”
Lori perked up. “I wanna draw a unicorn! With sunglasses!”
“Perfect,” Danny said, already crawling to the exit. “Come on.”
Although Blake grumbled a protest, he did follow along.
Danny didn’t even glance at Kevin as they passed him. Not when the boy looked up hopefully, not when Easton gave him a parting pat on the shoulder. The sight of their closeness made Danny’s stomach churn.
Inside his chest an ugly beast reared his head.
Danny pulled out a chair for Lori, gave her a handful of markers, and sat close enough that their knees brushed.
Slouching onto the small plastic chair, Danny’s knees jutted up awkwardly as he dropped a fistful of crayons onto the table with a clatter. Lori didn’t notice. She was already deep in some pink-and-purple glitter masterpiece, tongue poking out as she leaned over the paper.
He pressed his elbows to the edge of the table and let his chin sink into his hands. The paper beneath him blurred for a second, and he blinked fast, refusing to sniffle.
The table smelled like old glue and crayon wax, and the faintest whiff of someone’s sugary snack still clung to the air. Normally, this was the kind of cozy that made his shoulders loosen. Right now, it felt suffocating.
He drew a lopsided heart, then angrily scribbled it out.
