Page 70 of Castings & Curses

Eric gulped and looked completely caught off guard. He looked at me with abject panic in his eyes. I was pretty certain I started blushing.

“Um, that’s not how it works, sweetie. But that’s so very kind of you,” I managed to say.

“Sarina is my twin. We’re sisters. She doesn’t have a mommy. See, we’re sisters,” Liv explained with heartfelt intensity.

I blinked a few times. Oh, this changed a few things.

“I don’t think they realize they are setting us up,” Eric chuckled.

“Of course not. Livy, baby, we should probably get dried off and head home.”

“But I wanna stay with my sister!” She wailed.

Sarina started sniffling too. Great, I was the bad guy.

“How about this, why don’t we agree to meet back here again next week?” Eric looked at me with raised brows.

“I think a play date at the park sounds like a very good idea.”

* * *

Eric

The last thing I wanted to do was scare this woman off. So far we had dodged the combined glares of Lana Higgins and her cronies. It was like she still hadn’t forgiven me for letting her dump me before she knew who my parents were. But the worst offender was my own daughter.

I closed my eyes and tried not to groan too loudly when Sarina, in all of her innocence, demanded that I now be her friend’s father.

I tried hard not to stammer when I invited Paisley and Liv for a picnic in a week. “Same place, same time, next week?”

My heart clenched from the fear and panic I saw on Paisley’s face. She was mortified, and there I was, my big bulky self. Not that I noticed, but I towered over her by almost two feet. And with my face the way it was, I knew I didn’t exactly have a friendly countenance. I hadn’t voluntarily smiled for a few years. Well, unless I was talking to or about my beautiful star, Sarina. So why did I feel like smiling when I found out Paisley was single?

Why did I want to run and play with Sarina in the water like a happy child when she agreed to meet us again next week?

I watched Paisley bundle her daughter, Liv, up and load her into a minivan. I let out a small laugh. We drove the same car. And then it hit. The gut punch was always unexpected. How could I smile at another woman?

Janelle’s smile was the definition of beauty. And the day we picked up the new van, she had been nothing but smiles. Her long braids swung over her shoulders. She wore a flaming orange dress, and was round with our child, she was my sun on a dreary late winter afternoon. She was the sun, and I was a rock troll, or maybe an orc.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have an Escalade?” I knew I would have rather had an SUV. I fit better in the bigger cars.

“Trust me, you are going to love the minivan. Especially when the kids are old enough to climb in on their own.”

She reached out her hand and took mine as we waited for the car dealer to finish getting the vehicle ready. I loved her so much at that moment. We had our whole lives ahead of us. Our family was on the verge of greatness with the anticipated birth of our first, our baby girl Sarina.

Janelle enjoyed driving her van. She only had a few weeks with it, but she had been so happy.

I tightened my jaw and clenched my teeth. I glowered at the back of Paisley’s van as it drove away. How dare I find a moment of joy at discovering I drove the same van. It wasn’t my van, it had been Janelle’s.

CHAPTER5

Paisley

“Paise!” Ash Weiss came crashing through the back door as if he were ten and just learned I was back from camp. I was so taken aback by the memory, I honestly expected his cousin Tyler to follow him in and bounce off his back.

I couldn’t help but laugh. It was such a sharp memory. Ash bursting in through the door, surprised, shocked, and expectant. I was back, it was time to play.

I found out years later, that was just how he walked into Grandma’s house, bursting in like a mini explosion shocked to see where he was. Gran never seemed to be bothered by it, she never once scolded him or reminded him of his manners to knock. She was glad he and Tyler felt as comfortable in her home as in his home.

“I guess some things never change,” I said through a giggle. Some things had. Ash had grown up quite well from the look of things.

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