Page 21 of Too Close To Call

She pauses. “Well, it’s upstairs on the bed, but I don’t need it all the time.”

Case chuckles again then lowers his voice. I have to lean forward to catch what he says. “Don’t tell anyone, but I had a stuffed dog I used to carry around all the time. His name is Fido and I still have him in a box in my closet.”

“I have a real dog named Bella. She couldn’t come on vacay with us. Auntie Car is keeping her. Do you play with Fido?”

“Not anymore.”

“I bet he’s lonely. You should really play with him.”

“Um, I’ll keep that in mind.”

There’s a scrape of chair legs on the floor and Case asks, “What are you working on?”

He must have joined Daisy at her work table. I grin and swear my heart swells with love for not only my daughter, but also for the man who takes time to talk to a child.

“I’m designing a dress. A princess dress. See, it’s purple and the bottom is tulle with an overlay of ecru embroidered lace. It’s sleeveless with sparkly diamonds at the neckline.”

I can just picture Case trying to coax Daisy’s drawing into making sense to him. “Wow. You’re good. Do you want to be a dress designer when you grow up?”

“Yes. Just like Auntie Car.”

“Carina? That’s your aunt?”

“You know my Auntie Car?”

“Yes, I do. I remember she used to make her own clothes.”

“She still does, but now she makes them for anybody, not just in her Etsy store.”

“You know about Etsy, do you?”

“Don’t you?”

“Um, I don’t think I’ve ever visited.”

“My dad doesn’t either. Do you know my dad?”

I hold my breath, anxious to hear Case’s answer. “Yeah, I know him.”

Ryan and Case, at one time, were best friends. I know Ryan misses Case, but after what happened, he doesn’t hold out much hope for repairing their friendship.

“He races cars too. Why don’t you race anymore? Did you not like it?”

I wish I could see Case’s face. I hold so much guilt for the loss of his racing. I single-handedly caused that to happen. Who knows where he could be if he’d continued on with his career.

“I… um… I liked it just fine. I just wanted a change. Your daddy is a very good driver. He should have won the 500 last year.”

“Yeah, he would have if that moron Richards hadn’t spun out in front of him.”

My lips purse together in irritation at Ryan saying that in front of impressionable ears. We will definitely talk about that.

Chase chuckles. “Yeah, that was what I thought too. I hear you have two brothers.”

“Yes. They have the same birthday because they are twins. They don’t do much, but mommy says that will change soon.”

“How do you like living on Faire Island?” Chase continues to chat up my baby.

“It’s fine, I guess. Mommy says we’re going to play in the water and make sand castles and find Ariel’s bathing suit tops.”

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