Page 35 of Ambrosia Kisses
"This is da best day eber!" she declares, squirming in my arms. "Daddy gots a bouncy castle!"
"I see that," I say, laughing quietly as I look around. Lucy and Oliver's backyard has been turned into a three-year-old's birthday paradise. Picnic tables are set up beneath canopies to the right, with buffet tables in the middle. A pile of gifts has grown to ridiculous sizes on a table to the left of it. Her bouncy castle dominates the center of the yard, with games set up all around it. Purple and pink balloons and streamers are hanging everywhere.
How the heck they managed to do all of this since yesterday, I don't even know. I feel guilty for skipping out on hanging with Lucy yesterday. She probably needed help, and I just ditched her for Ridley. I'm a terrible friend.
"Unca Widley!" Lyra squeals as if she just noticed him, launching herself from my arms directly into his. She flings her little arms around his neck, squeezing hard. "You camed!" Her gaze falls to the box wrapped in purple paper in his opposite hand. "For me?"
"Of course I came, Sprout. I promised I would, didn't I? And yes, of course it's for you."
"You neber comed a'fore," she says seriously.
"I know." Guilt flickers across his face. "But things are different now, Lyra. I plan to be here a lot more from now on."
"Pwomise?" She holds her pinky out for him.
"Promise," he says, hooking his through hers.
She beams up at him. "No bweaking it. It's da rules."
"I'll never break a promise," he says, his eyes locked on me even though he's talking to her. My heart flutters at the look on his face. He's so damn serious, like he's vowing with his entire soul to follow through.
It's hard not to believe him. He spent most of yesterday apologizing. This morning, too. Every chance he gets, he tells me how sorry he is that he wasn't here. He's trying so damn hard to make it up to me and prove that this time will be different.
He took me out to an early breakfast this morning. He rented out the whole damn pier at Pismo Beach just so we could enjoy the water together. While we were sitting there, he slipped a necklace around my neck. I don't even know when he had time to buy it, but it's so damn beautiful. The pendant is a tiny shark swimming through a heart covered in diamonds.
"The closest I ever plan to let you get to those sharks," he said with a wink as he clasped it around my neck.
I fell in love with it immediately. And I'm falling more in love with him by the minute. It's beautiful in a terrifying kind of way. I feel like he already holds every piece of my heart. How much more can he possibly claim when he already has it all? And yet, little by little, he's finding new pieces to make his own.
Somehow, he's putting them back together, too. It's been a long damn time since I felt this alive. But I can't help the little whisper of fear in the back of my mind telling me that this could all end at any minute, just like it did last time.
I want to ignore it…but it isn't wrong.
I'm supposed to leave at the end of the week. Crudup is waiting for my answer about the position they offered me. And despite all the interviews I've gone through, no one else has put out an offer yet. We're going to have to face reality soon—really soon—and reality looks a lot like it's ready to slap me in the face all over again.
I'm not ready to face it. I'm not ready for more hard conversations and heart-wrenching decisions. I just want to be wildly in love and in my little bubble for a little while longer. Is that too much to ask?
Not today, it isn't.
"Bounce wif me?" Lyra asks Ridley.
He glances over at the bouncy castle and then chuckles. "You should talk Uncle Bastian into bouncing with you, Sprout. I bet he'd love that."
I hide a smile behind my hand because Bastian would most definitely not love that. But he's also a sucker for Lyra. I don't think I've ever seen him tell her no. Even when what she wants is the absolute worst thing he can imagine, he never tells her no. It's really sweet, honestly. He acts like a big grump, but underneath, I think he's really a big teddy bear.
"Ohh!" Lyra squirms in Ridley's arms, demanding to be put down.
He stoops, lowering her to the ground. She immediately takes off across the grass like a rocket, shouting for her uncle Bastian to bounce with her.
His eyes immediately lock on Ridley before narrowing, as if he knows exactly who set him up.
Ridley sends him a little wave, smirking.
"You are diabolical," I say, giggling.
He loops an arm around my waist, a shit-eating grin stretched across his handsome face. "So I've been told. But it'll be good for him. Maybe it'll shake that monumental stick out of his ass."
"Ridley!" I bury my face in his shoulder, laughing loudly.
