Page 31 of Love In The Spotlight

She caught the smirk Janelle sent Jamie. It was obvious these two had a special bond too.

“I’m going to put these all on the table and I want you to pick out all your favorites and then we will do it again until we get to six.”

“Okay,” Penelope said, bouncing in her seat.

Jamie laid all the pictures on the table with Penelope squealing and calling out half of the animals. She didn’t know some of them but more than Laken thought she would.

“Horse, unicorn, dog, cat.” One by one Penelope was calling out the ones she liked as she pointed. “Frog, lamb, elephant, giraffe, ladybug.”

“Only one more,” Jamie said. He turned to her. “She’s going to pick them all if I don’t stop her.”

“Monkey,” Penelope said.

She laughed as Penelope was clapping her hands and Jamie shuffled them and placed them down again.

“You have to take four away,” he said. “Do you want to take away or pick what you like?”

Penelope tapped her chin. “What I like.”

When it was all done, they had the six and Laken pulled her phone out as if she was going to take a picture.

“What are you doing?” he asked sharply. “Don’t take her picture.”

“I’m not,” she said. “I was going to take a picture of the six you have there so I can email it to marketing. You’re in front of them, not Penelope. I wouldn’t do that.”

“Oh,” he said. “I didn’t mean to snap.”

“Don’t worry. I get it and understand why too,” she said quietly.

“Time to eat pancakes,” Janelle said, breaking the tension in the air.

Laken wanted to leave right then and was going to make excuses.

“Sit,” he said. “Sorry.”

She cleared her throat and sat next to Jamie at the table and helped herself. No reason not to and she was hungry.

She saw Penelope eying her as if she wasn’t sure if she should talk and the silence was killing her. “I see we both love to accessorize, Penelope. Do you like clothing as much as me?”

“I love clothes,” Penelope said. “And playing dress-up. I’ve got scarves and shoes and plastic jewelry. I want the real stuff.”

She turned to look at Jamie and saw him lift his eyebrow when he said, “Don’t gang up on me here.”

Penelope’s speech was more advanced for her age. Even though not everything was pronounced clearly, Laken understand exactly what the little girl was saying.

“You’re no fun,” she said. Laken had a silver cuff bracelet on and slid it off. It didn’t have much value but she found it pretty. “Here you go. Your first piece of real jewelry. Maybe we can work on your Daddy a bit more once he sees how well you take care of this.”

“Daddy, look!” Penelope squealed and then pushed the bracelet all the way up her arm past her elbow.

Laken hid her laugh and continued to eat while Jamie squinted at her.

When her plate was cleared, she had to get out of there. She wasn’t sure if she’d overstepped herself, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“I should leave,” she said. “I’ve got meetings to get to.”

“I’ll walk you out,” he said. When they got to the front of the house he pulled her into his office. “I’m sorry I overreacted.”

“Don’t ever apologize for protecting your loved ones, Jamie. Ever.”

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