“It definitely looks that way, doesn’t it?” Allie asked her, smiling gently. “How do you feel about it?”
“I want to go,” Maya said with a big smile.
Relief flowed through Ash’s veins at her confidence.
“Okay,” Allie told her. “But if you get tired or you just want to go get a hot chocolate, you just let me know.”
“Can we do the snowball fight, Daddy?” Maya asked, tugging on his sleeve.
“You might be too little for that,” he warned her, looking to Allie since he didn’t really have any clue how it all worked.
“They don’t technically have age requirements,” Allie said. “Butit’s every man for himself and there are a lot of teenagers and grownups playing. So, if you join in, they’ll probably get you out right away unless you’re super good at hiding.”
“I’mgreatat hiding,” Maya said with shining eyes.
She was right, back in the city she had managed to play hide and seek with Ash in the penthouse and squeeze herself into cupboards and under furniture.
“Then you’re going to have so much fun,” Allie told her.
“But I won’t win,” Maya said.
“Probably not,” Allie agreed. “But winning isn’t the fun part. Playing is the fun part, right?”
Maya nodded and Ash felt proud of her.
As much as he wanted to see himself as a balanced person, winning had always mattered a lot to him. Of course he wanted Maya to be driven to do her best when it came to important things, but he was glad that she didn’t seem to have inherited his overly competitive nature.
“Are you going to play too?” Allie asked him.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” he said as lightly as he could.
“Why not?” she asked.
“I’ve got a competitive streak a mile wide,” he said, trying to make it sound like a joke, but realizing too late that the truth was evident in his tone. “I’m better off cheering on the sidelines.”
She nodded slowly, a thoughtful expression on her face.
“Hey, little sis,” someone called out.
Ash turned to see that half the park was smiling as a very familiar figure in ripped jeans and a black leather jacket jogged across the street to join them.
“Is that…?” he murmured.
“That’s my brother,” Allie said lightly.
“Your brother isCash Law?” he asked, as the famous rockstar approached.
“Yes,” Allie said quietly. “But don’t make a thing out of it. He never knows what to do with that.”
Ash just blinked at her, stunned, as she turned to her brother.
“Charles Cash,” she said fondly, giving him a quick hug.
“Alice Lee,” the rockstar replied, earning himself a light smack on the shoulder. “And is this the fiancé I’ve heard so much about?”
Cash let go of his little sister and stuck out his hand.
“Ash Tailor,” Ash said, taking it and shaking.
