Page 80 of Castings & Curses

I set out the towels, and with everything ready, I pulled the plastic wrap off one of the cups of fruit and began eating as I sat back and let myself enjoy the show.

A tickle of guilt hit me and I ignored it. I should have been watching my child out there having the time of her life. Only I couldn’t take my eyes from Eric.

His skin was pale with a hint of pink in the shoulders. I hoped he had sunscreen on. He looked like he had the kind of skin that would burn before tanning, if he even tanned at all. As pale as he was, my thoughts leaned toward the doesn’t tan option. His wet hair hung in waves to his shoulders.

And then there were the muscles. All of those glorious muscles under waves of wet chest hair.

I was staring when he caught my eyes. With a smile and a wink, he turned his attention back to the girls. Next thing I knew, he had a child under each arm and was carrying them back toward me.

“I’m hungry,” he announced, setting them down.

“Towels are there, dry off before you get the sheet all wet. You brought plenty of food.”

Wrapped in towels, everyone sat down. I handed out sandwiches and fruit cups, and juice boxes. Eric ate and drank the same thing as the girls. Even though I had brought adult sized drinks of sweet tea and lemonade, he insisted on having a juice box, or three.

“I’m done, can we go back?” Liv announced.

“All done,” Sarina added. “Come on Daddy.” She pulled on Eric’s arm

“You two go play. You wore me out, and I’m still hungry.”

Sarina let out a very exaggerated sigh. “You eat too much. Come on Liv.”

I couldn’t stop the laugh from escaping. “Too much? I’m wondering how you get enough to eat with all this tiny food.”

“I get enough. And if not, I’ll grab a power bar later. At some point, Sarina refused to eat anything that was different from what I ate. So she will eat vegetables and try new things, but only if I'm eating the same thing. And that means the same way. I can’t bite into a full grape if she only gets sliced up ones.”

“I got ya, if they don’t look the same, how can they be the same thing,” I said.

“That’s it exactly. Sometimes my mother doesn’t understand. And when that happens, Sarina gets upset and doesn’t eat.”

“Your mom’s around?” I asked.

“Yeah, she takes care of Sarina when I volunteer down at the station. I don’t volunteer as much as I used to, being a single parent and all. It’s tough.”

I stared at him. Calculations zoomed through my head. “Wait, you volunteer? It’s not your job?”

He shook his head. The curls bounced behind his ears. If I thought I was done for earlier, I was definitely in trouble now.

He reached across me. I held my breath. He smelled cool and clean, with a hint of sunscreen. Good, he was protecting his skin. He sat back up and pulled the shirt he grabbed on. “I sort of work for my folks. Family business. But I always wanted to be a fireman as a little boy. Since that wasn’t exactly an option, this way I get to do both.”

I sighed, okay, he wasn’t living in his mom’s basement. Not that there was anything wrong with that. After all, I was living in my sister’s guest room. We all had to get through our problems the best we could.

“I’m in the unique position where I can do all the activities with Sarina so she gets to meet other kids and school won’t come as a shock, and do my work in the evenings when she’s having some downtime in front of the TV, or after she’s gone to bed.”

“You let her watch TV?” I asked in a mock shocked tone.

He leaned in close and whispered, “Don’t tell on me. Screen time is the devil around here.”

“I think anyone with small kids thinks it's the devil, until they don’t, you know?”

He rolled onto his back, propping his head on his hands. He looked up into the leaves of the tree and sighed. “This is nice.”

Damn, that turned a few of my hormonal knobs.

“Thank you for suggesting a picnic. Right about now, I would be scrambling to find a drive thru with some chicken nuggets. Instead, the kids get to keep playing.”

“It’s nice to have another adult around,” he said.

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