Page 78 of Castings & Curses

With arm loads of chicks, I flexed and looked angry at the camera. Paisley seemed entertained. She smiled and bit her lower lip.

I caught a whiff of smoke. My head was on a swivel as I gathered up chicks and tossed them into the box.

“Fire! Shit, shit, shit, shit.” Paisley sounded panicked.

A split second later, I was doused with Mono-ammonium phosphate as one of the guys sprayed down the hay bales. White foam covered half of me and the entire setting. I joined the guys in kicking down the bales. A few buckets of water poured over everything ensured whatever little spark had caught was well and truly out.

“Please tell me you caught all of that?” Paisley stared intently at the photographer.

“I sure did. I think we got some good action shots with that one.”

CHAPTER7

Paisley

“Are we there yet?” Liv asked for the ten billionth time since we left the house all of fifteen minutes earlier.

“Almost, stop asking. The more you ask, the longer this is going to take.” The problem was I understood her excitement.

Anticipation was doing springboard, diving board tricks in my middle. Or was that the baby spinning like a dervish? I was antsy. And I knew why. Eric.

Of all the beef cake hunky men that had been walking around with their shirts off, or tantalizingly unbuttoned around me all day, he had been the only one that made thinking difficult. And we were meeting at the splash pad for an early lunch.

Date.

Only I couldn’t call it a date. Our kids were playing together, there was nothing else to it. A play date was not the same thing as a date. This wasn’t a date.

So then why the hell had I actually spent time curling my hair? Why was I wearing makeup? And why did I have a panic attack when he suggested I bring clothes I could get wet in. He was thinking about wearing his board shorts. “Why should the girls have all the fun? It’s hot out. I used to love playing in the hose as a kid”

As a grown up, I cared entirely too much about what other people thought of me. The weight of their judgmental stares had led me to some bad decisions. I didn’t want this to end up being another stupid move on my part.

I put on a sundress, and passed on wearing something I could get wet in. As far as anyone was concerned, I was a pregnant lady. I didn’t do things like that. Only I really wanted to.

“We’re here,” I announced as I pulled into the parking lot.

Liv cheered and began kicking her feet. “Do you see her? Are they here yet?”

I was too busy driving through a parking lot with a few too many unattended kids to be worried about anything other than going slow, and keeping my eye out for everyone. I found a spot and pulled in.

Liv began rocking hard in her car seat.

“Hey, Missy, what have I told you about that?”

“I want out,” she wailed.

“I know you do, but banging around like that isn’t going to make me move any faster. What it will do is break your car seat, now, settle down please.”

I got out of my side of the car, and opened the back door next to her. “I’m going to unbuckle you, but you need to stay put while I grab our things. Do you think you can do that?”

“Out!”

I sighed. “Liv, if you don’t think you can handle that, I need to leave you buckled.”

That seemed to work and she settled down. I got her out of the seat, she stood on the car floor and got in the way more than helped, but she was trying really hard to be helpful. She wanted this picnic so badly.

She needed a friend, and she and Sarina had clicked so well. It didn’t hurt that I thought her dad was hot. I needed to slow my roll and put my libido on ice. The man was a widower. That didn’t make him available or interested. Not that I would blame him.

Being pregnant really was not the ideal situation for me, but here I was. I was doing my best to keep on going. Far from living my best life, but at least I wasn’t curled in a ball, wallowing in my feelings over losing Dylan.

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