Page 33 of Risky Game

It’d been a huge step for Amelia to invite me to do something instead of going along with whatever I suggested.

“Did you?”

“No. We were going to go after lunch and after we’d cleaned up from the garden.”

Understanding struck and he arched a brow. “Ah. Maybe you could join us tonight.”

And be around Logan while he wore nothing but swim trunks and laughed and splashed with his little girl?

My ovaries couldn’t handle it.

“I think I’ll—”

“Don’t avoid us,” he interrupted me, knowing exactly where that train of thought was going. “She has to get used to this.”

“I know.” And I did. “But that doesn’t mean she isn’t confused and doesn’t want time alone with you. You have been gone from her daily for months.”

He frowned, even if I’d tried to make that last part as gentle as possible. “You’re right. I’m just… the season starting. The stress on my shoulders. I thought this adjustment would be easy and worry-free and it’s—”

“DADDY! Swim with me!?”

Amelia barreled through the back door onto the patio in a soft yellow swimsuit with white stitching at the edges, towel looped over her arm. She didn’t so much as glance in my direction as she ran to her dad, climbed into his lap, and brought her hands to his cheeks.

“Please, Daddy! Swim with me?”

He looked down at his daughter and kissed her nose. “Hey, sweetie. Remember when Mommy and I have talked to you about interrupting people? If Daddy or Mommy are talking to an adult and you have something to say, you say excuse me, and wait your turn?”

“Yep.”

“Well, I was talking with Miss Ruby, and I’d absolutely love to swim with you, but we’re having a conversation, so I need you to wait, okay?”

Her nose scrunched. “But I want to swim.”

“I know.” He spun in his chair and set her on the patio. “But I’d like to finish eating and then I need to get changed, so if you want to swim with me, you have to wait until Miss Ruby and I are done talking, and then let me get ready.”

“It’s okay—”

“Don’t.” He cut me off, holding on to Amelia’s hand so she couldn’t run off quite yet. His dark look was enough to have me stuck to my chair. “Interrupting is never kind, and I apologize for just doing that to you now, but Amelia can learn. Can’t you, sweetie?”

He turned to her and smiled. She shrugged and brushed her bare toes over the cement patio. “I guess. Sorry for inneruping you, Daddy.”

“You’re forgiven. Want to go grab a popsicle and bring one out here so you can eat that while Miss Ruby and I finish up?”

“Popsicle before swimming? Yes!”

She ran back to the house almost as quickly as she’d arrived outside.

I nibbled the inside of my cheek. There really wasn’t anything left to say, anyway.

“Hang out with us. If you don’t want to swim, stay outside and read a book or play on your phone, but it does her no favors if she sees you hiding from us every night.”

“I’m not,” I sputtered.

I was, though, a terrible liar.

“No?” That brow arched and a flutter went off in my chest.

“Fine,” I agreed.

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