Page 46 of All Too Well
“Good luck, sweetheart.”
“Thanks!” Rose says before she runsoff.
I stand here next to Ainsley as I watch my daughter give hugs to all the other girls. When I turn, I see Ainsley staring at me with a strange look on her face.
“What?”
“You’re a great dad, you know that?”
I don’t think of it like that. “I want her to be happy. If it means carting her to cheer competitions or if she wanted a pony, I’ll do what I can for her.”
“Keep saying things like that and all the women will be falling all over you.”
“I don’t care about other women.” I say the words and wonder whether she hears the double meaning. I don’t care about them because I care about you.
“Who do you care about, other than Rose?”
“You.”
She gasps slightly and leans back. Her lips are parted, and she stares at me with curious eyes. “You do?”
“You know I do.”
Before we can get any further into this conversation we probably shouldn’t be having anyway, Rose’s team’s name is announced over the loudspeaker, stating they should head to the ready room.
“Lachlan . . .”
“Come on, we need to find our seat. Rose will be competing soon.”
I place my hand on the small of her back and lead her to the stands, kicking myself once again for letting my feelings show.
“Hey, Lachlan!” one of the moms—I think her name is Debbie—says with a wave of her fingers.
“Subtle,” Ainsley says with a laugh.
“What?”
She raises her brows. “Don’t even tell me you don’t know when a woman is hitting on you.”
I glance over at Debbie, who is sitting with four other moms. “She’s being polite.”
“I bet she is.”
“Jealous?”
“Yes, I’m brimming with it.”
Oh, how I missed her sarcasm on a daily basis.
We find a seat up at the top of the stadium and Ainsley grabs the blanket, draping it over her legs. “What else do you have in that bag?” I ask.
“I have some snacks, wipes, another blanket, because I never know when I might get cold, my phone, a portable charger, and my book.”
“When the hell did you have time to pack all of that?”
Ainsley shifts. “I prepare. You know this. I changed quickly and then laid out all of my possible needs before deciding which would be the right things.”
Caspian used to joke that if Ainsley didn’t go to college or the military, she’d be a great doomsday prepper. We would ride bikes, then randomly have the idea to head down to the beach, but if Ainsley was with us, it required a detour. She’d have to go home, change, and pack a new bag that had all kinds of crap she never needed.
