Frankly, I wouldn’t even know where to start, but I moved slowly between the stalls anyway, scanning pieces without really seeing them. There were landscapes and abstract shapes along with a lot of portraits that felt a little too intense for a sunny afternoon. None of it really interested me at all, but it was nice to just stroll around.
Until something fast whipped by my leg.
A kid on a scooter was about to slam face first into the edge of a table. I lunged forward on instinct, my hands shooting out to catch her. She was small enough to lift her clean off the ground by the straps of her overalls. Her scooter banged against the table, shaking all the framed paintings on it.
For a second, we both just froze. She blinked at me. I blinked back.
“Well, that was a close one,” I said, giving her a quick onceover and finding no visible sign of injury. The kid glared at me defiantly, like I had just ruined her good time.
“Lu!” a voice called through the ambient noise in the park.
Instantly, my chest constricted but my heart soared.
I hadn’t even turned around yet, but I already knew who that voice belonged to. Drawing in a deep breath, I finally managed to convince my body to work with me, turning in a slow circle until I saw her racing through the crowd.
Her strawberry blonde hair caught the light even under the overcast sky, her expression so determined that it was like everything else in the park had ceased to exist. Her eyes locked onto the kid first. “Lauren Caroline Weatherby. What on earth…”
She trailed off when her eyes lifted and she saw me. I lowered the little girl carefully back down to her feet, but the second she hit the ground, she shoved my leg with surprising force.
“My scooter is new and now it’s ruined,” she snapped, pointing accusingly at the scratches that hadn’t been there thirty seconds ago. “Thanks to you.”
“Whoa,” I said mildly. “I’m not sure a scratch counts asruined.”
“It’s damaged,” she insisted with the kind of indignant rage that only a five—maybe six—year-old could muster. “What if it doesn’t work anymore?”
“Then I’ll buy you a new one. Relax.” I was trying to keep it cool, but with every passing second, I was more and more aware of Adeline approaching. The kid was Adeline’s?
The little girl huffed, but her mother had reached us. I shifted my weight uncomfortably on my feet as she checked the little girl over too. “Lu! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Lu—Lauren Caroline Weatherby, apparently—said. “He attacked me.”
Both of my eyebrows shot up. “Wait a second, that’s not how I would describe what happened at all. I just kept her from cracking her head open.”
Adeline didn’t react because she was too busy staring at me, those blue eyes still brighter than any I’d ever seen before or since her. Looking into them again, I felt like I’d been thrown back to high school.
Up close, there were differences about her that I hadn’t seen before. She was definitely softer in some ways, her gaze not as intent or assessing as it used to be. Maybe she was just tired, but her eyes themselves were still that same impossible blue.
For the longest time, she just stood there, staring at me like she was stuck in time. And me? For all my quick wit and wise-asscomments, I just stared right back, trying to remind myself that she wasn’t the one who’d gotten away.
She was the one who’dwalkedaway, willingly and with no notice at all. I couldn’t allow myself to get sucked in a second time.
If I did, I wasn’t sure I would survive the fallout.
CHAPTER 4
ADELINE
When I finally remembered how my lungs worked, I dragged in a breath and snapped right back to reality. A reality in which Lu was poking Zach repeatedly on his thigh, lighting into him like the little dictator she was.
When he didn’t react, she pulled her hand back and I reached for her wrist just before she could hit him properly. Immediately dropping to my knees, I scooped her into my arms, thankful she was okay and that neither she nor my ex had gotten hurt.
“You need to watch where you’re going on that thing, baby,” I said gently, holding her gaze for a beat before reaching up to tighten her helmet. “It’s a big responsibility to have a scooter. You always need to be aware of who and what is around you.”
If I’d been talking to Jennifer, she would have taken the gentle chiding to heart, promising me she wouldn’t go crashing into random strangers or tables from now on. Lu, on the other hand, was full of piss and vinegar. “He’sthe one who didn’t watch where he was going. You should tellhimto be careful. It wasn’t me.”
As she stuck her lower lip out, I caught sight of Zach still watching us in my periphery and I blew out a slow breath. “Go find Amber and Jennifer, Lu. Mommy will be there in a minute.”
She pursed her lips, displeased, then snatched up her scooter, stuck her tongue out at Zach, and zoomed away. People literally had to jump out of her way as she went. I watched her go for a minute, then pushed back up to my feet and ran my fingers through my hair.
