Page 48 of Playing the Neutral Zone

I turned my head to see him and Mia standing beside me.

“Not a thing,” I said that, fully aware my cheeks were flushed.“How was the ride?”I asked Mia.

“It was AWESOME!!!!I want to do it again, but Dad says he is going to be sick,” she said, covering her mouth as she giggled.

I looked at Levi, who shrugged his shoulders at me.“It’s true, can’t take the spinning.”

“Please, Dad, just once more.”

Levi looked at me again, then shrugged his shoulders.

“We’ll be back.”He sighed, getting back in line and handing over another few dollars to the attendant to allow them back on the ride.

“Have fun!”I yelled, laughing as they climbed onto the ride, this time choosing a different colored teacup.

This time as I watched them, I couldn’t help but realize that Levi really was an amazing father.He gave Mia the world, and even though he wasn’t always around, when he was, there wasn’t a thing he wouldn’t do for her.I watched as he did up the belt to secure her in and then tickled her tummy, causing her to break out in a fit of laughter while she tried to push his hands away.Then he wrapped his arm around her, pulled her close and kissed the top of her head.

Levi and I took turns taking Mia on all the rides, finally ending with a stop at the cotton candy stand where he got her and me a large bag of blue and pink colored sugary treat.We then walked hand-in-hand down the boardwalk while Mia walked in front of us.

“Thank you for today,” he said, gripping my hand in his.

“You are welcome.I honestly couldn’t have thought of a better way to spend an afternoon.”I smiled.

“What was your favorite part?”he questioned, giving me that perfectly sexy grin of his.

I felt my cheeks heat at his question and could tell from the grin on his face that he already knew the answer.

“God, I love you,” he said, then looked over at me with a shocked expression.

Immediately, I stopped walking, as did he, allowing the words he’d just spoken to sink into my mind.

I’d waited forever to hear him say those words to me, even though I knew it had always been something that had gone unsaid between us.

“I love you too,” I replied, meeting his lips, sharing a tender kiss.Those words were the easiest words I’d ever spoken, rolling off my tongue like they were supposed to.

One week later

Mia saton the couch curled up between us as we watchedFinding Nemo.We had spent the morning at the furniture store, looking for a new living room set that we both liked, then we stopped for breakfast where we began talking about moving in together again.Of course, we hadn’t told Mia yet, but we were getting closer to finally settling on a date.

I had just put my phone down from reading an email when Mia told Levi and me to look at the TV because her favorite character was on the screen.Levi glanced up and then went right back to staring at his phone.He’d been catching up on his sports news since Mia had wanted to watch the movie instead of the Sports Channel.

I glanced over at him to see him shift uncomfortably in his seat, the color in his face draining.I knew something was wrong when his hand dropped away from the back of my neck where he’d kept it the entire evening while we’d been watching TV together.

“What is it?”I questioned, watching him with concern.

He looked over at me.Something was wrong, I could tell from the look in his eyes.

“Levi?What is it?”I asked.

I swore his eyes got darker as he looked at me, and then he glanced down at Mia, only to look back at me.

“We’ll discuss it later,” he gritted, looking back to his phone just as someone knocked on his door.Without another word, Levi left his phone on the couch, got up, and made his way to the kitchen.

My curiosity grew as I reached over and grabbed his phone, looking down at the article he’d been reading.There, in black and white, was the article header Carol had wanted me to use; Levi Anderson: Reliably Unreliable, written by Scarlett Green.

Panic filled me as I read through the article.It wasn’t the article I’d submitted.As I continued reading, my mind raced as I realized every word I’d submitted was gone.Carol had rewritten the entire article, or she had someone else do it for her just as she’d threatened, only she attached my name to the article.

My stomach turned as I stared at his phone, the words blurring.There was information and snippets from my notes from my conversation with Skylar in there.She must have gone into my computer and read the notes I’d made.

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