Page 91 of At First Smile
“Greg’s team took a beating. It’s not been a good day for the Lawson Agency.” I straighten and scan the park.
Families stream towards the rows of chairs and open spots for wheelchairs surrounding the play structure. Below a balloon arch stands the small stage erected for today. It’s almost time for the ceremony. Music underscores the laughter and squeals dancing around the event.
Brow furrowed, I turn to Sasha. “Where’s Pen? Aren’t you all starting soon?”
“She went to the restroom. Thought she’d be back by now.” Sasha’s gaze drags to the orange brick building in the distance.
“Let me check on her.”
“Can I come?” Damon leans into me.
“Sure, buddy.” I scoop his giggling form back onto my shoulders.
“Careful with my child, he’s the only one I’ve got,” Sasha calls, her playful tone follows my retreat toward the bathrooms.
“Uncle Rowan, is Pen your girlfriend?” Damon asks, plucking my hat off my head.
I glance up and see him placing it, bill backward, over his own curls.
The oversize cap on his small head reminds me of the first time Pen wore my cap. A hat that she still has, along with a few of my T-shirts, and the jersey I gave her last night.
“Yes, she is.”
“Does that mean I can call her Aunt Pen?”
The corners of my lips lift. “Make sure it’s okay with her first.”
“Okay.”
Happiness drips through me at the idea of Damon calling her aunt. It drives Greg nuts that he calls me Uncle Rowan, but I suspect he’ll be less critical of Damon calling her Aunt Pen. Over the last four hours, when I wasn’t playing goalball or helping kids with some of the mini-sports clinic exhibits, I watched everyone fall for Pen. She and Sasha, thick as thieves already, their laugh-filled cheers drifting from the stands. When I wasn’t playing and the blindfold was off, my gaze found its way to her.
So much that Greg slapped me in the head and said in a horrible Irish brogue, “You’re well and truly fucked.”
Seeing her, head bent in conversation with Damon, I knew I was, indeed, fucked. I couldn’t help but imagine Pen in the stands at one of my games, her belly swollen with our baby.
Christ, I am fucked.
“I’m just filling in for VanBuren.” A sulky, masculine voice drifts around the corner as we approach the bathrooms.
“Yeah, I’m sure you called in a favor from the chief of staff, who, correct me if I’m wrong, was your former medical school advisor. You shouldn’t be here. I was clear in my DM.”
My footsteps falter at the hissed venom in Pen’s voice. My pulse begins to race, and I try to control my breathing.
“Connections that could help you if you weren’t so stubborn. All I want to do is help you. Take care of you, sweetheart. I love you.”
Jaw clenched, I place Damon down. “Buddy, go back to your mom.”
“Is that Pen?” Damon looks between the building and me, his face twisted with concern.
“It’s okay. Just tell your mom we’ll be right there.”
After a too-mature-for-his-age nod, he runs down the sidewalk. My gaze remains on him until I see him reach Sasha and Greg. The moment he does, I round the corner.
“We were so good together, sweetheart. Why are you being this way?”
“Alex, stop,” Pen orders, her back pressed up against the tree, while a tall man with close-cropped blond hair towers over her, his muscular frame caging her in.
“Sweetheart, you used to like when I touched you like this.” His fingers twirl a long tendril of her auburn hair.
