“Nope. Definitely wouldn’t call her shy.”
Paige shook her head, but smiled, the love and joy and worry of being a parent clear on her face. “I don’t know if the fact she has to wear her prosthesis all day is making her not want to go to kindergarten, or if not wanting to go to kindergarten is fueling her determination not to wear it. I shouldn’t have told her she’d have to wear it almost all day at school.”
“Was it the truth?”
“Yeah.”
He gave her a look like she made the obvious right choice.
“I know. And I was just trying to prepare her. I mean, she can take it off in the classroom or nap time, at least I don’t think that would be a problem, but there’s a lot of walking from activity to activity. There’s gym, and lunch, and the playground, and it’s not like she’s hampered by it, at least I don’t think so. She runs, she climbs at the park.”
They watched the ride go around again. “You know, there are tales that I didn’t want to go to school. I’ll have to ask my mom the whole story.”
“Did you scream? Get any fire trucks?”
He smiled at her teasing tone. “I don’t think so. Gotta give her points for creativity.” They were quiet a moment. “I could do more tests, scans, a new socket, new socks, but my gut is telling me it’s not physical.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
Her brow was furrowed again. “But you’ve got a few weeks, right? There’s still time for a turnaround. Time for her to be one with her prosthesis. And if it’s kindergarten in general, maybe there’s other things you can do. School supplies are always a good way to get pumped up for school. The power of new crayons and all.”
Paige smiled at him, nodding in agreement, but he could see her mind was somewhere else. He wanted it back here, with him. “So you think I’m hot, huh?”
That did it.
Paige sucked in a shocked breath that drew his eyes to her rising chest. She started to look at him, then changed her mind and stared straight ahead.
“I didn’t say that. Jenny said that.” She licked her lips.
“Oh. So you don’t think I’m hot?” He’d never had fun with a woman, not this kind of fun, and the blush staining her cheeks was sexy as hell. So was the obvious guilty expression.
“You know what you look like. Women would wallpaper their bedrooms with your face,” she muttered. “I bet you have plenty of women to tell you that.”
“Not in a while.” He grinned. Was she jealous?
He could stand here all day, staring down into Paige’s upturned face. Her expression guilty and embarrassed, a little exasperated, and if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a good bit of desire in those blue eyes as well. Her cheeks were pink and the sunlight hit her eyes at just the right angle to make them sparkle and he shook his head. He wanted to say that he couldn’t look at her without wanting to kiss her, without needing to. But the ride slowed and the swings descended. “I’ll go get Casey.”
Chapter 9
Paige stood there, heart pounding, eyes glued to the spot Jake no longer occupied. The way he’d looked at her just then caused a ripple straight through her heart and lower. It happened every time he looked at her too closely or brushed against her. The feeling that there was something rippling and building between them.
A minute later, he came toward her, smiling. The sight of Jake holding Casey on his muscled forearm, her daughter’s little arms wrapped around his neck, made her heart swell. But seeing Casey also reminded her she was in no position to lose her head dreaming up things she wasn’t even sure existed.
“Hey, sweetie. Did you have fun?”
“Yes. It was windy.”
Paige touched her sun-pinkened cheek. “I guess that’s a good thing for a ride to be.”
With Casey still in his arms, they moved on to a game, walking together in a little pod through a sea of people.
A tall man in a blue and white striped shirt and red suspenders drew players to his game. “Step right up, step right up. Ring the bottle and win a prize.”
Jake handed over the required tickets he’d purchased, insisting this day was his idea and his treat. Casey took the rings from the man. Jake held her way out over the railing to give her a better chance; flinging them without aim or precision, all three bounced off the glass bottles. She scored a plastic whistle just for playing, which was all she cared about.
The next game required them to hit moving-duck targets with baseballs. Paige missed the first three. Not even close. The crowd bumped her closer to Jake, which amped up her heart rate and didn’t help her game. “Aren’t there any games that don’t involve throwing?”